How far can my handicap go up after a run of bad scores?

Q: How far can my handicap go up after a run of bad scores?

Once you have 20 acceptable scores, you have a Low Handicap Index: the lowest Handicap Index you've had over the 365 days before your most recent round. Two caps limit how far you can rise above it: Soft cap: if your newly calculated index is more than 3.0 strokes above your Low Handicap Index, only 50% of the increase above 3.0 counts. Hard cap: after the soft cap, your index can never be more than 5.0 strokes above your Low Handicap Index. There is no limit on how fast your index can come down. The caps don't apply until you have 20 scores. Example: Low Handicap Index 10.0, new calculation 15.0. The first 3.0 counts in full (13.0) and half of the remaining 2.0 counts (14.0), so your index is 14.0. Source: Rules of Handicapping (2024), Rules 5.7 and 5.8.

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Accepted Answer

Once you have 20 acceptable scores, you have a Low Handicap Index: the lowest Handicap Index you've had over the 365 days before your most recent round. Two caps limit how far you can rise above it:

Soft cap: if your newly calculated index is more than 3.0 strokes above your Low Handicap Index, only 50% of the increase above 3.0 counts.
Hard cap: after the soft cap, your index can never be more than 5.0 strokes above your Low Handicap Index.

There is no limit on how fast your index can come down. The caps don't apply until you have 20 scores.

Example: Low Handicap Index 10.0, new calculation 15.0. The first 3.0 counts in full (13.0) and half of the remaining 2.0 counts (14.0), so your index is 14.0.

Source: Rules of Handicapping (2024), Rules 5.7 and 5.8.