bet handicap

In 1850, when Charles Loes painted "The Golfers," handicapping was a relatively simple proposition, with few alternatives available for equalizing the disparities in golfers' skills.
Is there an avid golfer today who doesn't have a USGA Handicap Index-or a guesstimate of one? Not likely. But how many golfers could guess at where and when the theory and practice of handicapping originated? In this two-part series by Dean Knuth, USGA Director of Handicapping, we'll explore the fascinating origins of that oh-so-important number.
The Scots invented many tools that revolutionized society, including the steam engine, the telephone, penicillin, and television-but it was their invention of golf that revolutionized the art of recreation. Few people know that the Scots also invented handicapping, that almost unique apparatus that allows players of any skill level to compete fairly against one another on the identical field of play.
The term handicapping originated in horse racing; a jockey was handed his odds for the race in a cap (hand-in-cap). But the concept far preceded the word. Early on, the act of allowing strokes in golf was called "assigning the odds," and was done by the precursor of the modern Handicap Committee Chairman, who was called "adjustor of the odds."
At the early golf clubs, betting was a prelude to bacchanalia. Betting on matches naturally led to creating odds; these bets and odds were carefully entered in each club's bet books.
Thomas Kincaid, a medical student at the University of Edinburgh in the 1680s, kept a diary. In it, on January 21, 1687, he wrote the first known reference to handicapping, discussing options of betting. "At golf, " he wrote, "whether it is better to give a man two holes of three, laying equal strokes, or to lay three strokes to his one and play equal for so much every hole." Kincaid was comparing types of betting; was it better, he asked, to give a player a two-hole start every three holes and play with no strokes, or play even, paying three-to-one odds per hole? Captain Elphinston challenges Mr. Allan next Saturday best of three rounds, half a crown (currency) a hole, that he beats Mr. Allan with the Club against his throwing and gives him half one. No running at the throw! That match was halved.
Mid-19th Century professional golfers like Allan Robertson often derived a significant portion of their incomes through wagering on golf. The concept of giving strokes allowed Robertson to set up matches with golfers who weren't at his level.
Odds and Half One
Odds at golf, according to H. B. Farnies' Golfer's Manual (Great Britain; 1857), were