2021 IGA Yearbook

sun down would be cutting their hours short! If you haven't already, please take a moment to thank the employees and volunteers at your home club for everything they've sacrificed during these unique times. To paint a clearer picture of the season, I thought it would be interesting to look at the 2021 season by the numbers. 81 million scores: This year the USGA Central Computation Service processed over 81 million scores. Nationally, we saw an 8.4% growth from 2020. 698,606 rounds: IGA individual members, tracked through GHIN, posted almost seven hundred thousand rounds in 2021. Over 60% of those scores were entered using the GHIN mobile app. 6,093 scores: On Wednesday, May 26, 2021, over six thousand scores were posted by members of the IGA. This held the record for the most rounds posted in a single day this season! With more golf being played and posted, peer review and an active club Handicap Committee become even more important. The two work hand- in-hand to maintain the integrity of the system. In fact, if a club does not have a committee or Handicap Chair they are out of compliance with the USGA and cannot issue Handicap Indexes to the membership. Stepping beyond membership numbers and rounds entered, our staff also monitored various safeguards built into the World Handicap System. The first ones we’ll look at are Caps and their relationship to a Low Handicap Index. 4,093: The number of times a Soft Cap was applied in 2021. A Soft Cap occurs when a golfer’s current Handicap Index is 3.0 strokes higher than their Low Handicap Index. The Soft Cap slows additional upward movement by 50%. -0.25 strokes: The average impact of a Soft Cap on a golfer’s Handicap Index. 71: The number of times a Hard Cap was applied in 2021. A Hard Cap takes place when a golfer’s current Handicap Index is 5.0 strokes higher than their Low Handicap Index. It prevents any additional upward movement from taking place beyond 5.0. -0.83 strokes: The average impact of a Hard Cap on a golfer’s Handicap Index. As you can see, although there is an adjustment taking place to these individuals’ Handicap Indexes, the impact is often very minimal. In many cases, the effect of a Soft Cap is only a few tenths of a stroke and may not result in a change in a golfer's Course Handicap. For these players, it only takes one or two good scores to “play out of it”. These safeguards are intended to ensure equity and without them, it would be more likely for this golfer to score at or below their Handicap Index. The second safeguard I want to highlight is the Playing Conditions Calculation. This occurs when abnormal weather or course conditions cause scores to be unusually high or low on a given day. Here’s Brooks Golf, Okoboji Hole 5, White Course Rated in November 2021