Topic summary
GA Handicap System
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Handicap (golf).
USGA Handicap System
The first handicap system to be introduced by the USGA was largely the work of Leighton Calkins, who based it on the British "three-score average" system where the handicap was calculated as the average of the best three scores to par in the last year. The key difference was the introduction of a par rating (later known as course rating), which was based on the ability of leading amateur Jerome Travers, to account for variances in the playing difficulty of different courses. After initially allowing clubs to determine their own ratings, at the behest of Calkins the USGA quickly began assigning ratings centrally. Course ratings were rounded to the nearest whole number until 1967, when they started being given to one decimal place.