ORLGA
Caspian vs Tigress Tees
Handicap Adjustment

 

From the USGA Handicap System, Section 3-5. Players competing from different tees or men/women from the same tee.

 

If players are playing from different tees during a competition or league play, an adjustment must be made to account for the difference in the course rating because the course length is shorter from the Tigress tees. Three strokes must be subtracted from the player’s Tigress or red tee handicap.

 

To arrive at the three (3) strokes, you subtract the red (Tigress) tee course rating from the gold (Caspian) tee course rating.  Caspian rating is 69.0 and Tigress is 66.3. The difference is 2.7 which rounds to 3 strokes.

Subtracting the 3 strokes from the player’s red handicap now levels the playing field as the red tees are forward of the gold tees. If all the players are playing from the same tees, there is no need to factor in the difference between the tees.

 

Examples:

 

  1. Player A has a red (Tigress) tee handicap of 22 with the 3-stroke adjustment, her strokes change to 19 from the red (Tigress) tees. As a point of information, even though this player’s index is 22.9, the strokes received for playing the red (Tigress) tees are less than the USGA index.

 

  1. Player B has an index of 30.6. Tigress tees 29 strokes and Caspian tees 33. This player should further receive a 3-stroke adjustment for the Tigress tees to 26.

          (Note: ORLGA adopted a verbal policy when Tiger’s Eye opened that the league

          would play from the Caspian tees but anyone with a handicap of 40+ should play

          from the Tigress tees. The ORLGA bylaws specify 40.4 as the maximum index

          allowed during league play, which translates to the maximum strokes from the

          Tigress tees as 38 and from the Caspian tees as 44.)

 

Below is a visual display of the application of this rule using two fictitious players, Gary playing from the Gold tees and Bob playing from the Blue (farther back) tees.

Below that is a ‘Question and Answer’ addendum regarding the application of this rule.

 

Submitted by Ann Turner (ORLGA Member of the Handicap Committee)