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The current USGA stroke allocation method calls for using the same hole handicaps for stroke and match play. As a result, odd numbered hole handicaps are assigned to the front nine and even numbers to the back nine for both stroke and match play.
Only one set of hole handicaps were provided for all men's tees by the rating team. These were provided by the GSGA when the last course rating was conducted. These are what are used if one posts hole by hole scores rather than total scores to the handicap system.
In SMGA events, use of this single set of hole handicaps would produce some undesirable results. Instead, separate sets of hole handicaps are used for the various tees played. These values are based on an analysis of historical hole scores. The values included in the first page of the document below are used for Pink Ball, Net Best Ball, Stableford and Modified Stableford formats.
In some formats, such as the Tailgate Tournament, match play is employed and often involves competition from different tees. In these cases, hole handicaps are based on the relative difficulty from the various tees. They are assigned based on the differences in average scores versus par for the different tees. The 2nd and 3rd pages of the document below show the 9 hole handicaps calculated for the Tailgate Tournament.
The hole handicaps depend on which tees are played by the player with the lower handicap who would give strokes to the other player. For example, the largest difference in average scores on the front nine between the White and Green tees is on Hole No. 3, with the Green tee score being the lower of the two. If the White tees player is giving strokes, this would be the 9 handicap hole on the front nine. It would be the 1 handicap hole if the Green tees player is giving strokes .
Using the GSGA hole handicaps, this would be the 5 handicap hole no matter which player gave strokes to the other.
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