GUIDANCE nOTE: Know your Hard Cap from Soft Cap?

GUIDANCE nOTE: Know your Hard Cap from Soft Cap?

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Den Reed

A “Soft Cap” is triggered when a player has 20 scores in place and is a way of preventing their handicap from increasing too quickly, to ensure that a temporary loss of form does not cause a player’s Handicap Index® to move too far from a level consistent with their demonstrated ability.
A cap also serves as an anti-abuse mechanism and will aid in minimising the potential for handicap manipulation.

Key points to remember:

  • This favour’s the consistent player. The volatile player will be impacted more often, which is a good feature for a handicap system to have.
  • A temporary loss of form should not cause a player’s H.I.™ to move too far from a level which is consistent with their underlying potential.
  • A Low Handicap Index™ (or anchor) is the part of the system used to set the Soft Cap value. 

The soft cap is applied if the change in the players Handicap Index is greater than 3 from the Low Handicap Index™. It will suppress any rise above 3 by 50%. 

Example

If player A has a Low Handicap Index™ of 14.8, and the average of their best 8 scores is 19.71, the difference is 4.91. The following calculation is used when updating their Handicap Index®:

Low Handicap Index Calculation
Average of last 8 is 19.71  
Low Handicap Index (over last 365 days)14.8
Difference between Low Handicap Index and avg Score Differential™ is 4.91: (19.71 – 14.8 = 4.91) 
Accepted Increase (3)3.0
Soft Cap (50% Reduction)
4.91 – 3 = 1.91 – then reduced by 50%		0.96
Handicap Index18.8

A “Hard Cap” is triggered when a player has 20 scores in place and is a way of preventing their Handicap Index® from increasing too quickly, to ensure that a temporary loss of form does not cause a player’s Handicap Index to move too far from a level consistent with their demonstrated ability.

The hard cap triggers to restrict the amount by which a player’s Handicap Index can increase, after application of the soft cap, to no more than 5.0 strokes above their Low Handicap Index™.

The soft cap and hard cap procedures start to take effect only after the Low Handicap Index has been established.

Find out more at USGA by viewing their Video on this important and misunderstood topic… Soft Cap and Hard Cap

This article is provided courtesy of England Golf