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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, suppose a Green Tee Player is giving strokes to a Silver Tee player on the front nine. Based on historical scores, the Silver Tee players average better scores relative to par than the Green Tee players on Holes 2 and 7. These are the 2 holes on the front nine where a Silver Tee player least needs strokes against a Green Tee player and should be the 8th and 9th stroke holes.
These are also the 2 holes where a Green Tee player would most need strokes against a Silver Tee player.
Using the GSGA hole handicaps, these would be the 1st and 2nd handicap holes no matter which player gave strokes to the other.
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