JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) Cameron Smith missed out on his chance at a 59 and figured he at least would keep close to the lead Saturday in The Northern Trust. Thanks to a few surprising blunders by Jon Rahm, they wound up in a tie.

And now they get a day off because of Hurricane Henri.

Smith missed a 12-foot birdie putt on the final hole and had to settle for an 11-under 60 to set the course record at Liberty National. Rahm finally got going with a string of birdies, only to twice hit into the water that briefly cost him the lead and certainly slowed his momentum.

The U.S. Open champion had two birdies, one bogey, a double bogey and a terrific par save over the final five holes to scratch out a 67.

They were at 16-under 197, one shot ahead of Erik van Rooyen of South Africa. He made 10 birdies for a 62, one of four rounds at 62 or lower.

Justin Thomas (67) and Tony Finau (68) were three shots behind. Shane Lowry and Corey Conners each shot 62 and remained in the mix. Conners scored his lowest career round on Saturday flying up the scoreboard with an eagle and 9 birdies.

The average score in the third round was 68.3

Rahm was still 30 minutes from starting his third round when the PGA Tour looked at the path of Henri and determined there was enough rain and dangerous wind on the edges of the hurricane that it was best to wait until Monday for the final round.

Workers began taking down loose structures, such as the poles to which cameras are attached for its ShotLink data. The final round Monday won’t start until the course is ready, and it likely will be played in threesomes off both tees.

That’s what made the finish important. There’s enough uncertainty about the storm and any lingering weather that a 54-hole event was not out of the question.

Smith teed off some three hours before the leaders and opened with five birdies in six holes, one of several good starts. The Australian, however, kept it going. He picked up his eighth birdie on the 13th, came within a foot of a hole-in-one on the 14th and started thinking 59.

Smith narrowly missed an eagle putt on the reachable par-4 16th, hit a wedge stiff on the 17th to reach 11 under for the round and was one birdie away from the 13th sub-60 round on the PGA Tour. His approach to the 18th settled 12 feet to the right of the flag.

“Just didn’t do it,” Smith said.

Even with Smith posting his 60, Rahm regained the lead with his fifth birdie of the round on the 11th hole, and he had good scoring chance ahead of him.

They just didn’t work out very well for him.

From the fairway on the par-5 13th, he found the water in front of the green. After a penalty drop, he hit it well to the left into deep rough on a bank, barely got that on the green and took two putts for a double bogey.

Then, he went long on the par-3 14th along the Hudson River into rough so thick he could barely see his ball. Opening up the face of his lob wedge and playing it like a bunker shot, he chopped out superbly to 5 feet for par.

He regained a share of the lead with a short birdie on the 15th, and then drove just left of the green on the 16th. But his flop shot came out way too hot, rolled across the green and into the water, leading to bogey. He answered that with a 2-foot birdie on the 17th and narrowly missed a birdie chance on the 18th.

Thomas was among several players making a move that got stopped in their tracks. He started the back nine with three birdies in four holes, only to go long of the par-3 14th into a hazard and made double bogey. Even so, he’s very much in the mix.

Harold Varner III made his blunder at the worst time. A poor drive on the 18th was followed by a blocked approach over the wall and into the hazard. He made triple bogey, had to settle for a 68 and went form one shot off the lead to a tie for ninth, four shots behind.

Varner is still in good shape to be among the top 70 in the FedEx Cup who advance to next week. More pressure is on Tom Hoge (No. 108) and Keith Mitchell (No. 101), who have to finish somewhere around the top 10 to keep their seasons going.

Hoge shot 67 and was tied for sixth with Lowry and Viktor Hovland (65), three shots behind. Mitchell took triple bogey with a bad drive on the 10th. He was tied for 11th, five behind.

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland (AP) Anna Nordqvist and Nanna Koerstz Madsen, Scandinavians with contrasting resumes in golf, share the lead heading into the final round of the Women’s British Open.

A bunched-up chasing pack, containing Nelly Korda and Lexi Thompson, promises to make it a Sunday to remember at Carnoustie.

In the toughest conditions of the week on the storied Scottish links, the 34-year-old Nordqvist a two-time major champion from Sweden shot her lowest round in one of women’s golf’s five elite events with a bogey-free, 7-under 65 on Saturday.

Koerstz Madsen, a 26-year-old Dane with just one top-10 finish in a major, joined Nordqvist on 9 under overall by rolling in a 15-foot eagle putt at No. 12 and parring her way home down Carnoustie’s tough closing stretch to shoot 68.

They were a stroke ahead of Lizette Salas of the United States, whose up-and-down at the last completed a round of 70 that didn’t include a bogey from the fifth hole.

Yealimi Noh wasn’t so lucky. The 20-year-old American held at least a share of the lead for much of a third round that lived up to the “Moving Day” tag, only to drop shots on her final three holes and finish at 6 under with a 71.

That left Noh tied for eighth place with a star-studded group containing Korda (70), the recently crowned Olympic champion and new superstar of women’s golf, and two players who have won the Women’s Open in the last five years 2018 champion Georgia Hall (73) and 2016 winner Ariya Jutanugarn (68).

The top 14 were separated by just three shots going into the final round. Thompson, whose only major win was in 2014, was in a four-way tie for fourth place after a 70.

Perhaps the most unlikely player alongside Thompson on 7 under was Louise Duncan, a 21-year-old Scottish amateur who goes to Stirling University in her home country.

She gave a fist pump after making birdie at No. 8 for a 68 to stay in contention for much more than the Smyth Salver that is awarded to the leading amateur.

“The crowd was absolutely loving it and so was I,” Duncan said, “and to hole that putt tops it off as well.”

Duncan won’t be the only player counting on local support on Sunday.

Brooke Henderson heated up in the third round, with 3 birdies in a row. Completing the round with 6 birdies and shooting her way 3 back from the lead. Henderson sits tied for the 8th spot moving into the final round.

Nordqvist, who won the LPGA Championship in 2009 and the Evian Championship in 2017 for her two majors, said her husband was from a place 20 minutes away from Carnoustie and that many of his friends and family had been at the course.

“I am definitely feeling their support,” she said.

She is also mindful of the 2011 Women’s Open at Carnoustie, when she tied for seventh for her joint-best finish at the tournament, and she climbed 22 places Saturday.

A 25-foot putt for birdie at No. 8 was her highlight, along with the 230-yard approach at the 17th that set up her seventh and final birdie of the round.

At one stage, Nordqvist was in a five-way tie for the lead at 7 under, with Hall who shared the overnight lead Noh, Madelene Sagstrom and 2019 champion Hinako Shibuno.

Noh was the last one of those players to fall away, although Sagstrom another Swede bounced back from a double-bogey 6 at No. 9 with two straight birdies and then seven pars to finish for a 69. She was with Thompson, Duncan and Sanna Nuutinen (68) on 7 under.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) Jon Rahm is young enough at 26 that the FedEx Cup has been a big part of the PGA Tour as long as he has been chasing his dreams, and winning the trophy would mean a lot to him.

He just doesn’t like the way it works, and building a one-shot lead Friday in The Northern Trust was only a reminder that great golf doesn’t really mean much without a great finish.

“I don’t like it. I don’t think it’s fair,” Rahm said Friday after another bogey-free round at Liberty National, this one a 4-under 67 for a one-shot lead over Tony Finau.

What never made sense to him was someone who could win the all the postseason tournaments and then finish with a dud at the Tour Championship and “you can end up with a really bad finish.”

The PGA Tour was trying to create drama among more than a few players at the final event. This is the postseason, and the example often cited was the New England Patriots going undefeated until losing the Super Bowl.

Rahm had an answer for that, too.

For now, Rahm can only worry about the tournament at hand, and while he has produced a mixture of great shots and great saves to reach 12-under 130, he still has his hands full.

“Believe it or not, hit my fair share of bad shots today,” Rahm said. “Much like yesterday, I was able to save a couple of good ones. Coming into the weekend, I’m definitely going to have to clean a couple of those mistakes up.”

Finau had a 64 with a bogey on the final hole as he tries to secure another spot among the 30 who make it to the season-ending Tour Championship, along with boosting his bid to play his way onto another Ryder Cup team.

Olympic gold medalist Xander Schauffele tied his personal best on the PGA Tour and the course record at Liberty National with a 62 and was in the group at 10-under 132 along with Justin Thomas (69) and Keith Mitchell (64).

Thomas, who shared the 18-hole lead with Rahm, couldn’t figure out which way the ball was going in making four bogeys in eight holes, only to play his last five holes in 5 under that included an eagle at the par-5 eighth to stay in the mix.

Mitchell did his work at the start of his round by running off six straight birdies, a streak that ended on the 18th hole as he made the turn. He took two shots to get out of a longer bunker and made double bogey on No. 7, only to close with two birdies.

More is it stake for Mitchell, who is No. 101 in the FedEx Cup and needs a high finish to be among the top 70 who advance to next week at the BMW Championship.

Jordan Spieth got back in the game with a consecutive eagles he holed out from the fairway on the par-4 fifth and holed a chip from the edge of the water on the par-5 sixth and tied the course record himself at 62. That left him four behind, along with Brooks Koepka (64).

Spieth started the day worried about making the cut, especially after a bogey on the opening hole. He ended it in a tie for 10th, and figures he led the field in luck with those eagles.

“When things starting well, you go on a run, right? You get momentum and the ball finds the cup and when it’s not going well it bounces the wrong way,” he said. “I feel like I’m on the right side of some momentum right now and I just have to keep it going.”

Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes remained inside the top 20 after the second round, completing the day with a 69 tied for 17th.

For others, their season is over.

Adam Scott, who missed a 4-foot putt in a playoff that would have won the Wyndham Championship last week, followed an opening 67 with a 75 to miss the cut by one shot. He was among 28 players outside the top 70 in the FedEx Cup who missed the cut.

Rahm isn’t the only player who doesn’t like the postseason model.

The new system that began in 2019 awards a two-shot lead to the No. 1 seed at the Tour Championship who starts at 10-under par.

“At the end of the day you could win 15 events, including both playoff events, and you have a two-shot lead,” Rahm said. “I understand it’s for TV purposes and excitement and just making it more a winner-take-all and they gave you a two-shot advantage. But over four days, that can be gone in two holes, right?”

He doesn’t have a solution of his own. And he does like the idea that with a staggered start of 10 under for the top seed down to even par for the final five players in the 30-man field, at least players know what they have to do.

He just knows the FedEx Cup is a trophy he’d like to have.

For now, Rahm can only do so much, and the world’s No. 1 player is doing it well.

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland – Nelly Korda could barely raise a smile after tapping in for the first birdie of her second round at the Women’s British Open.

On a day her putter turned cold, it had taken 14 holes for the world’s top-ranked player to pick up a shot at Carnoustie.

Some of her big rivals had no such problems Friday.

Georgia Hall, the 2018 champion, overcame a double-bogey at the 15th hole the start of a brutal finish at the storied Scottish links course to shoot 3-under 69 and take a share of the 36-hole lead with Mina Harigae of the United States (67) on 7 under overall.

One stroke back was No. 4 Sei Young Kim (71), a major champion from last year, and Lizette Salas (69), who finished second to Korda at the PGA Championship in June.

Lexi Thompson, looking to add to her sole major win in 2014, shot 70 and was part of a big group on 5 under.

Then came Korda in another large group on 4 under that included Canada’s Brooke Henderson. The native of Smiths Falls, Ont., moved into contention with a second round of 3-under 69. Henderson now sits tied for the 12th spot moving into Saturday’s round.

Korda, the new superstar of women’s golf and the recently crowned Olympic champion shot 1-over 73 and was one of only two players in the current top 16 on the leaderboard to shoot over par on another benign day when the wind held off and it felt almost balmy at times near the east coast of Scotland.

Hall was hoping that wouldn’t last.

“I think it’s about time it got windy,” Hall said, looking ahead to conditions at the weekend which are forecast to turn much more challenging. “It’s proper links golf and that’s what people want to see and I think it makes golf much more interesting when there’s a lot of wind. So I’m quite excited to play in it.”

Hall, who won her favorite event three years ago at Royal Lytham, rolled in six birdies in her first 14 holes to move into a one-stroke lead on 9 under.

The double-bogey 6 at No. 15 dropped her into what would shortly be a four-way tie for the lead and she parred her way home to join Harigae, who rolled in a long, winding birdie putt at the last to complete a round of 67 that contained seven birdies in all.

In the last five years at the Women’s Open, no player has more rounds in the 60s than Hall’s nine and that is filling the 25-year-old English golfer with confidence heading into the weekend.

“It is just so nice to play in front of the crowds. We missed that last year and to hear them cheering my name is great. I’m having a lot of fun.”

That’s something Korda didn’t seem to have.

Even making a big right-to-left putt for birdie at 17 failed to cheer up the world’s best player, who parred her first eight holes that were characterized by a series of missed putts from mid-range, even if her tee-to-green play was typically strong.

“I don’t think I hit it that bad,” Korda said. “The only thing I struggled on was making those putts and getting it close.”

Frustration got the better of Korda as she bogeyed No. 9, missing a putt from 8 feet, and No. 11 and further missed chances at Nos. 12 and 13 didn’t improve her mood.

The first of her two birdies came at the par-5 14th after she reached the green in two.

And at least she made it to the weekend.

Sophia Popov, last year’s unlikely champion at Royal Troon when ranked No. 304, double-bogeyed the last hole after three-putting to shoot 75 for a 3-over total.

Also missing the cut were No. 5-ranked Danielle Kang, who shot 76-75 and two British favorites in Charley Hull despite a second-round 71 and European Ryder Cup captain Catriona Matthew (75), the 2009 champion.

Laura Davies, who has played every Women’s Open since 1980, is sticking around, though. The enduring Englishwoman, 57, shot 70 and was even par for the tournament.

Volunteers. Golf in Canada can’t do without them and for many who try it, it becomes a life-long passion.

Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Canadians volunteer every year at all levels of golf – from local junior events up to and including the RBC Canadian Open and CP Women’s Open.

“The volunteers at our recent Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship at Ambassador Golf Club in Windsor absolutely loved what they were doing,” said Golf Canada president Liz Hoffman, who enjoys attending tournaments and getting to hang out with volunteers.

“Whether they were walking scorers, spotters or bringing out water and fruit for the players they loved every minute of what they were doing, and it was contagious.”

Hoffman says if you consider all the roles and responsibilities volunteers have as part of Golf Canada’s board, councils and committees, helping at championships and qualifiers, or who serve as referees or work on handicapping and course rating and then factor everything that happens at the provincial level there is no doubt golf in Canada couldn’t function without them.

“They (volunteers) are integral, right across the country,” she says. “They’re the machine.”

Jim Clark, an Aurora, Ont., resident, first volunteered to work the Canadian Open in 1984 after hearing about it when he was curling.

“I was on the caddy committee,” he explains. “I just loved it. Standing in the parking lot at Glen Abbey and meeting the players as they got out of their cars.

“I enjoyed it so much I did it the next year, and the next year and the next year. And I’ve never missed one since.”

In time, Clark became a governor of the Royal Canadian Golf Association (now Golf Canada) and he has worked every significant tournament Golf Canada has been involved in.

But why?

“It can be long hours and exhausting, but it gave me an energy,” he says. “It was the highlight of my year many times. That’s why I kept going back.”

Clark said volunteering in golf gave him a feeling of being part of a team and he loves to talk about the friendships he’s made through working golf tournaments and how volunteers come from all walks of life.

“We had a doctor who ran a parking lot at the Canadian Open,” he said. “He took a week off from his practice to direct cars in the parking lot.”

Hoffman’s introduction to volunteering in golf was not unlike Clark’s.

It happened in 2006 because the University of Toronto, where she was director of athletics and high-performance sport, was hosting the Canadian University/College Championship at Thornhill G&CC, where she’s a member.

After that experience she volunteered at the club level, then with Golf Ontario. And now, 15 years later, she is president of Golf Canada.

Both Hoffman and Clark agree that it’s not hard to get volunteers back for a second or third time because they see they’re making a difference and are having fun doing it.

“Once people do it they love it and they’ll go back,” said Clark. “The hard part is getting them out for the first time because some people can be intimidated by it.”

That’s one of the reasons Hoffman is on a crusade to broaden golf’s volunteer base in Canada.

“I’ve had so many parents come up to me and say, “if you ever need volunteers let me know because I’ll help in any way I can,’” says Hoffman who points out the reason they ask is because they simply don’t know how to get involved.

For starters, you don’t have to be a great golfer or even a golfer, period.

“We welcome applications from all individuals who share our values and may contribute to increasing equity diversity and inclusion in our sport,” says Hoffman. “We want to look inside and outside our sport.

“We want to broaden our volunteer base and underrepresented groups are key. We need to make sure we reach out to them and let them know who we are and how to get involved.”

Golf Canada has made it simple to sign up as a volunteer. For starters, you can simply go to www.golfcanada.ca/volunteer-opportunities to get more information on how to volunteer with Golf Canada.

Or if you prefer, you can call Golf Canada or your provincial golf association and ask, “how do I volunteer?”

You can reach Golf Canada at 905-849-9700 or toll-free at 1-800-263-0009.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) Jon Rahm returned from a month off and played like he was never gone. Justin Thomas took the advice of a 15-year-old and had his lowest score of the year.

Both opened with an 8-under 63 on Thursday at The Northern Trust as the PGA Tour’s postseason began with no shortage of bizarre developments.

Rahm, who missed his chance at the Olympics because of what amounts to a false positive test result for COVID-19, expected a little rust in his game. It just didn’t show on his card. He chipped in for birdie, saved par on the next two holes and was on his way.

Thomas had benched his putter for bad behavior after he spent too much of the year not seeing putts go in the hole. But during his junior event last week, a teenager asked why he wasn’t using his old putter.

He didn’t hole all of them, but enough to record nine birdies for his lowest round since a 62 last November in Mexico.

Bryson DeChambeau also made nine birdies. He was eight shots behind. His round of 71 was noteworthy because of the pars he made on No. 4 and No. 10. Those were the only pars he made all day. The nine birdies were offset by five bogeys and two double bogeys.

It was the first time in 10 years someone shot par or better with two pars or fewer.

Not to be overlooked was Dustin Johnson, one of the most stress-free players in golf at least he looks that way who uttered words rarely heard: “Threw me for a loop.”

He was hitting drivers on the range, and hitting them well, right before teeing off when a few of them came off the club funny and another one sounded funny. His driver cracked, and Johnson headed to the first tee with 13 clubs and one head cover for his 5-wood.

He had a spare 3-wood in the car but no driver and got that on the third hole. If that wasn’t enough, he decided on a putter switch at the last minute. He still managed a 70.

Otherwise, there was a range of good golf in surprisingly strong wind off the Hudson River across from the Manhattan skyline.

Harold Varner III had a 66 in the morning, boosting his postseason chances. He is No. 72 in the FedEx Cup standings, and only the top 70 after this week advance to the next tournament. With the points at quadruple value, some big movements are expected.

The six players at 67 included Adam Scott (No. 82), Robert Streb (No. 68) and Mackenzie Hughes (No. 67). Hughes sits tied for the fourth spot with Scott and Streb, putting him one off the lead heading into the second round.

British Open champion Collin Morikawa, the No. 1 seed, struggled to keep the ball in play and opened with a 74. Jordan Spieth at No. 2 opened with a 72.

Rahm has endured the strangest of times with COVID-19. He tested positive on the day he built a six-shot lead through 54 holes at the Memorial and had to withdraw, and then returned to win the U.S. Open for his first major.

And then after more negative test results than he can remember for the British Open he tied for third at Royal St. George’s he had two more negative tests prior to his departure for the Olympics before a positive result showed up. The next day, he took two more tests (both negative), but by then it was too late.

He returned from his bout with COVID-19 by winning a major. This is different. He never had a chance to win a gold medal because he never made it to Tokyo. But he wouldn’t mind the same result, which in this case would be a FedEx Cup title worth $15 million.

Thomas knows putts that don’t fall is not the fault of the equipment, but something had to change, so he benched his putter at he U.S. Open. Ultimately, it’s about getting the speed to match with the line of the putt, and he did that well for so much of the day.

He holed a 35-foot birdie putt for his first lead on the par-3 14th, gave it back with a poor chip, and then drove the 283-yard 16th green to set up a closing stretch of three straight birdies.

The day started with another development: Patrick Reed withdrew with a sore ankle, the second straight week he has had to withdraw.

Reed is No. 22 in the FedEx Cup, and there are only two tournaments left to qualify for the Ryder Cup. He is No. 9 in the standings, and only the top six automatically qualify. The idea was to give it another week of rest and being ready for the next one.

The Golf Canada Foundation has opened applications for bursaries to provide Canadian professional golfers with financial assistance for upcoming Q-school tournaments in support their journeys to the LPGA and PGA TOUR.

These bursaries are being made available this year in recognition of the increased travel expenses that many players have incurred due to the impact of COVID-19. For example, host family housing has not been available at many events, thus creating increased expenses for players. 

Canadian professional golfers who anticipate expenses attempting to qualify for the 2021-2022 season on any tour that is affiliated with the PGA TOUR, European Tour, or LPGA tour are welcomed to apply through this link.

The application will be open until Monday, September 20 at 5pm ET. Bursaries will be awarded by mid-October in amounts ranging from $2,000 to $7,000, depending on a player’s competitive results and projected expenses.

For more information, please contact Emily Phoenix (ephoenix@golfcanada.ca).

On Sunday, Canadians Taylor Pendrith and Adam Svensson achieved a dream – reaching the PGA TOUR.

With the conclusion of the season-ending Pinnacle Bank Championship in Nebraska – the Korn Ferry Tour’s top 25 on the point list were finalized.

Pendrith, a native of Richmond Hill, Ont., finished at No. 5 and 27-year-old Svensson of Surrey, B.C., at No. 11, earning their PGA TOUR cards for the 2021-22 season.

For Svensson, it’s the conclusion of a two-year battle to find his way back to the PGA TOUR, after finishing outside of the playoff cut in 2019, sending him back down to the Korn Ferry loop.

But for Pendrith, it’s been a longer journey to make it to the top. After initially qualifying for the Korn Ferry Tour for the 2016 season, Pendrith lost his card the following year due to injury and was sent back down to the Mackenzie Tour – where he’d have to restart the climb to the top.

Since then, Pendrith has been on the prowl – finishing second on the Mackenzie Tour in 2019 and continuing that momentum into the 2020-2021 Korn Ferry Tour season.

And although he’s receiving the coveted PGA TOUR card for the first time, Pendrith is not new to the top-level tour. In fact, he played in six events on the PGA TOUR over the course of the 2021 season, including both the U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club in 2020 and at Torrey Pines Golf Club in 2021.

In those six starts, he only missed the cut once, and finished inside the top 25 on three separate occasions, including a career-high finish tie for 11th at the Barbasol Championship. At the 2020 U.S. Open, in a field that included famously long-hitters Bryson DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy and Bubba Watson, Pendrith finished third in overall driving distance, behind just Matthew Wolff and Dustin Johnson.

For Svensson, it’s been nearly two years since he last played an event on the PGA TOUR, which resulted in a missed cut at the Sanderson Farms Championship in September of 2019. But Svensson was a dominate force this season on the Korn Ferry Tour, with 17 top 25 finishes, including a win at the Club Car Championship in March.

While Pendrith is still looking for his maiden Korn Ferry Tour win, his four runner-up finishes this past season were more than enough to place him safely into a position to secure his card.

Pendrith will join his former Kent State University teammates Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., and Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., who both re-earned their PGA TOUR cards for the following season.

Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C. and Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., both also re-earned their cards, and Svensson will bring the B.C. contingent on tour up to three, and the Canadian total up to six.

As a result of winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in 2020, Nick Taylor of Abbotsford will also be on the PGA TOUR for the upcoming season.  

Michael Gligic of Burlington, Ont., and David Hearn of Brampton, Ont., both finished between 126-200 on the PGA TOUR this season, so they will get a second chance to re-earn their PGA TOUR cards at the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.

While Pendrith and Svensson have already secured their cards, they will have the chance to gain a higher ranking on the priority list by taking part in the three-event finals.

The first of said events will be the Albertsons Boise Open at Hillcrest Country Club in Idaho from Aug 19 – 22.

Why is my Handicap Index not changing?

There are many reasons why your Handicap Index may not be moving; most often the reason is that your recently posted score differential is not among the lowest eight of your most recent 20 scores.  If that isn’t the case, it could be due to a soft/hard cap being applied in your Handicap Index calculation.

The cap procedures were introduced with the World Handicap System (WHS) to limit the extreme upward movement of a Handicap Index and ensure that a run of bad scores do not severely impact your Index.  This is outlined in the Rules of Handicapping (Rule 5.8).

What is a “soft cap” and a “hard cap”?

To understand the soft & hard cap, first we must explain the Low Handicap Index.  Your Low Index is the “memory” of your demonstrated ability over the last 365 days.  Simply put, your Low Index is the lowest Handicap Index that you have held over the last 365-days.  The Low Index is used as the comparison point to determine if a soft or hard cap should be applied.

Each time you post a score, the Golf Canada Score Centre compares your newly calculated Handicap Index to your Low Index.

Soft Cap – When your newly calculated Handicap Index is more than 3.0 strokes above your Low Handicap Index, the soft cap is applied and the value above 3.0 strokes is restricted to 50% of the increase.

For Example:

You are a golfer with a Low Index of 12.0.  You post a new score which results in a calculated Handicap Index of 16.0.  The difference is 4.0, and since this more than 3.0, the soft cap would apply.

To calculate your new Handicap Index, we start with your Low Index, add 3.0 and add 50% of the difference above the 3.0 increase:

Handicap Index = 12.0 + 3.0 + ((4.0 – 3.0) x 50%)

                        = 12.0 + 3.0 + (1.0 x 50%)

                        = 12.0 + 3.0 + 0.5

                        = 15.5

Your Handicap Index would be 15.5

Hard Cap – The hard cap limits the upward movement of your handicap index to a maximum of 5.0 strokes above your Low Handicap Index.

For Example:

You are a golfer with a Low Index of 12.0.  You post a new score which results in a calculated Handicap Index of 20.0.  The difference is 8.0, and since your Handicap Index cannot be more than 5.0 higher than your Low Index, your Handicap Index would be hard capped at 17.0.

Both cap procedures are automatically applied to your handicap index. No need for you to do anything!

To learn more please watch the following the video below; or read more here.

If you have any questions regarding the Rules of Handicapping, please feel free to Ask an Expert or complete our Rules of Handicapping Certification seminar and quiz.

Golf Canada saw over 1.7M scores posted in the month of July 2021—marking a record for the most ever in the organization’s history.

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