Handicap systems for leagues, explained plainly

Course handicap, index, league handicap: what each one is for, and which one your weekly night actually needs.

A handicap exists to make an uneven field competitive. In a league, it also exists to keep people coming back after a bad night.

Your handicap index travels with you. Your course handicap is that index adjusted for the tees you play. A league handicap is often something simpler — a rolling average of recent league scores, which reacts faster and feels fairer to weekly players.

For most weekly leagues, a rolling nine-round average with a cap on weekly movement is the sweet spot: responsive enough to be fair, stable enough to avoid sandbagging arguments.