ABSTRACT
Golfers come in many shapes and sizes, the sizes of their scores and shapes of their score profiles, which suggests that to be accurate handicaps ought to reflect both these features. Fictitious players can easily be imagined for whom any current handicapping system is inefficient. (One who shoots only birdies and double bogeys might fit this description.) But using shape as well as size means a “two-dimensional” system, a normal model being the principal contender. The idea is stimulating but would involve a quantum leap in system complexity. Would the gain be worth it? The following sections describe a first effort to answer the question and, more generally, to search (futilely) for the perfect handicap.
