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How’s your sport?
We don’t imply ‘How do you suppose you may have been taking part in.’ We’re asking the way you’ve really been performing. There’s typically a distinction between really feel and actual.
The excellent news is, your reply doesn’t have to come back right down to guesswork. Efficiency, in any case, will be measured. The simplest approach to take action is by retaining a handicap index.
Posting your scores doesn’t simply give you a snapshot in time. It helps paint a broader image. It exhibits how you’re progressing, or regressing (hey, it could possibly occur to one of the best of us). It additionally lets you place your sport in context. Dig deeper into the information, and you may see the way you evaluate to different golfers.
Are you higher than common? This, too, will be, measured. The typical handicap index for male golfers on this nation is 14.2. For feminine golfers, the typical is 28.7.
In the USA immediately, greater than 3.2 million golfers maintain a handicap index, up from 2.6 million in 2020. Simply as participation within the sport is rising, so is participation in GHIN, the handicapping system overseen by the USGA, which retains including to GHIN’s capabilities whereas making GHIN itself simpler to make use of.
Take, as an example, a brand new 30-day free trial for the GHIN app. Now you can obtain the app for free of charge (beforehand, you could possibly solely use the app if you happen to had been already signed up for a handicap index) and begin posting scores. The clock doesn’t begin ticking in your 30-day free trial till you’ve posted 54 holes, at which level GHIN provides you with your estimated handicap vary (inside 5 strokes). You may maintain posting scores all through your 30-day free trial. When your trial expires, you possibly can then join a handicap index on GHIN (the price is normally about $50-$60 contingent upon your membership or native golf affiliation’s pricing), which is nice for a yr.
Within the final three months, greater than 86,000 golfers have taken benefit of the 30-day free trial, and a greater than 27,000 have gone on to enroll in a handicap index on GHIN, having fun with options which are extra expansive than ever, comparable to enhanced shot-tracking, on-course GPS, and color-coded maps of greens that present which approach putts break. Extra bells and whistles are coming later this yr and subsequent, together with gamification options that may enable golfers to check their internet scores with others, based mostly on their handicap on the course they’re taking part in.
As a lot as golfers play by really feel, surveys present that almost all additionally contemplate themselves data-driven.
“So we’re additionally improved stats and evaluation of your sport and the way you evaluate to golfers in your handicap vary or golfers in a focused handicap vary,” says Tom Padula, the USGA’s director of product administration, GHIN apps. “The emphasis is, how can we provide help to perceive your sport higher based mostly on the data you give to us?”
How’s your sport? No must reply proper this minute. We’ll examine again after you’ve posted a number of extra scores.