World Handicap System Now Out (2020)

[Jrwatkins7]

On 5/21/2019 at 7:24 AM, DaveP043 said:

In following up on @iacas' post in another thread, I took a peek at the Golf Genius website.  The first thing I saw was a link to this:

WHS White Paper.pdf - Google Drive

It includes a reasonably good summary of the 6 handicap systems currently used around the world, as well as a discussion of the World Handicap System which will come into effect for most of us in a little over 7 months.  I didn't see anything really new, but its one of the better summaries I've come across.

thanks for posting this.  Info seems to have been coming slowly on this.

[gbogey]

So my takeaway is that the .96 goes away, it becomes your best 8 out of 20, and it updates immediately.  There are other things that can come into play but these are the main ones that will impact everyone in the U.S.  Did others read it differently?

[iacas]

3 minutes ago, gbogey said:

So my takeaway is that the .96 goes away, it becomes your best 8 out of 20, and it updates immediately.  There are other things that can come into play but these are the main ones that will impact everyone in the U.S.  Did others read it differently?

Pretty much it.

[bkuehn1952]

For my own information, I calculated my handicap index using the best 8 of 20 versus the index computed by GHIN as of June 15 (9.4).  The best 8 of 20 worked out to be 9.2  I did another member of our club and his was exactly the same both ways.  It appears the elimination of the ".96" Bonus for Excellence largely offsets the use of 8 rather than 10. 

Anecdotally, we short hitters seem to have struggled with the cool wet weather in the Soggy Mitten.  I wonder if the future adjustment for unusual weather will make a difference for similar conditions in the future?  It would be hard to quantify but I suspect a couple of tenths might be knocked off my index if weather were taken into consideration.

p.s. If the WHS turns out to be a disaster you can partially blame me.  I took part in a USGA run "Focus Group" a couple months ago.  When they say "XX%" approved" or "only X% disapproved", that process included me.  😉

 

 

Edited June 17, 2019 by bkuehn1952

[Toledo]

This system isn't going to make any difference in the long run.  I have never been at a club where all the low handicaps played in a net competition with the general population of the club.  At my current club the majority of low handicappers don't play in any of the monthly competitions at all.

The problem is not about averages, it is about standard deviation.  The higher your handicap gets, the more your propensity to deviate from your "Average" score, low or high.  What this means, is that a high handicapper has the potential to shoot a score that the lower that the low handicapper is capable of achieving.  In match-play, this isn't too big a deal, although it is irritating when you get a high-handicapper who beats your personal best by 5 shots, on average you will win as many as you lose.   

The problem comes in stroke-play competitions, when the chances of a low handicap winning are next to nothing.  The chances of one or more of the high handicappers deviating below their handicap by more than the higher handicappers is 100%.  This is basic maths.   This is a huge problem at clubs like my own, with only a few low handicappers, which means that our A flight goes all the way up to 12.

Taking the average of the 10 best scores or 8 best scores helps, but as soon as you start into stableford or best ball type competitions, you stack the odds against low handicappers even more. Last year, our monthly medal was always won by a (different) high handicapper, who beat my lifetime best score on any course, often by several shots.  Yes, there were equal numbers of high handicappers shooting a far higher net than I ever shot, but no one wins anything shooting over their handicap anyway.

This problem is highlighted by the fact that we have several par 3s on our course with a low HCP.  Every week we have at least one net hole in one.  Either a natural birdie with a shot, or sometimes a par with 2 shots.  Even on individual holes the standard deviation of the high handicapper is many times more than that of a low handicapper.

So in summary, equalizing the average scores for golfers is OK for match-play competitions, but to make a fair system for stroke-play systems, they need to equalize player's average scores, and deviation.

Perhaps a stableford system where points are awarded for both net scores and gross scores? So:

Double Bogey 0

Bogey 1 pt

Par 2 pts

Birdie 3 pts (+1 if it was a gross birdie)

Eagle 4 pts (+2 if it was a gross eagle)

[p1n9183]

43 minutes ago, Toledo said:

The problem comes in stroke-play competitions, when the chances of a low handicap winning are next to nothing.

At least in my club it doesn´t apply. As a 1 handicap my fligth is 0-15 handicap. On the last 2 years i was the one who wons more net tournaments than every other member in my club. Around 1/4 winning ratio (win/play). Maybe it´s because the other players at my fligth have a social handicap (only post scordcards for handicap when they play well) and just can´t break par very often. I post every scorecard so my handicap is legit.   

[iacas]

5 hours ago, Toledo said:

This system isn't going to make any difference in the long run.

Maybe not to those of us in the U.S., but to those in the rest of the world… I dare say it will be VERY different.

5 hours ago, Toledo said:

So in summary, equalizing the average scores for golfers is OK for match-play competitions, but to make a fair system for stroke-play systems, they need to equalize player's average scores, and deviation.

Deviation is why they have flights, usually, for stroke play.

Handicaps are really ideally built for matches - match play. And in match play, the lower handicapper still wins about 54% of the time. That number hasn't changed and by the math the USGA/R&A have done, won't really change under the new system.

But yes, we all know that when you put 20 low handicappers in a net event with 20 high handicappers, the odds favor ONE of the high handicappers winning… even though the low handicappers will have a higher average finish position than the low handicappers.

[FLOG4]

If you want a venture in futility go to congu.com and read how a handicap is calculated outside of the US....It is mind numbing. A worldwide handicap system will be a godsend for players outside the US.

 

[Zeph]

Possibly answered before, but does system have a time limit? Must you have played 20 rounds in the last # years?

[DaveP043]

3 hours ago, Zeph said:

Possibly answered before, but does system have a time limit? Must you have played 20 rounds in the last # years?

I haven't read that there's any such requirement.  I know that in the current USGA system there's no time limit, your scoring history remains in effect, and the last 20 are used, no matter how old they are.  That doesn't mean the WHS will decide the same thing, though.

[bkuehn1952]

21 hours ago, Zeph said:

Possibly answered before, but does system have a time limit? Must you have played 20 rounds in the last # years?

Decision 2-7 indicates a golf club should drop a player from the handicap roster if the player has not played at least 3 times within the past three years with fellow members.  The reality is that as long as a player pays his/her annual handicap service fee, there will be a handicap index in the GHIN system. It falls to the handicap committee to determine whether the index is acceptable.

[bkuehn1952]

10 hours ago, bkuehn1952 said:

Decision 2-7 indicates a golf club should drop a player from the handicap roster if the player has not played at least 3 times within the past three years with fellow members.  The reality is that as long as a player pays his/her annual handicap service fee, there will be a handicap index in the GHIN system. It falls to the handicap committee to determine whether the index is acceptable.

Should have said within the past YEAR...not three years.

[MacDutch]

Just read that most European countries will not adopt the WHS per 1-1-20, they will start using it per 1-1-21.

[iacas]

Got a source URL or anything?

[MacDutch]

I read it in the Golfers magazine june 2019 (Dutch version). Page 144. Wil try to find more on it.

 

Got something. EGA meeting that stated they will adopt the WHS, but give some extra time to implement after 1-1-20

EGA Members Agree to Adopt the World Handicap System | European Golf Association

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An Extraordinary General Meeting of the European Golf Association (EGA) took place on Wednesday 19 June...

 

Edited July 13, 2019 by MacDutch

[phillyk]

It’s Coming…… The World Handicap System is set to launch in January 2020

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The vision to unify the six different handicap systems in use around the world into a single World Handicap System required the commitment of, and collaboration between, many organizations.

At least according to this, everyone plans to start it in 2020.

[DaveP043]

1 hour ago, phillyk said:

It’s Coming…… The World Handicap System is set to launch in January 2020

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The vision to unify the six different handicap systems in use around the world into a single World Handicap System required the commitment of, and collaboration between, many organizations.

At least according to this, everyone plans to start it in 2020.

This one suggests that in Great Britain and Ireland the launch will be delayed somewhat.  

World Handicap System: Why we'll have to wait until late 2020 - National Club Golfer

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The R&A hope many countries will move to the new World Handicap System early next year. Steve Carroll explains why GB&I won't be among them

It wouldn't surprise me if southern hemisphere countries would delay implementation until their "off-season" during our summer.  Eventually we'll all be almost on the same page.  

[Missouri Swede]

3 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

This one suggests that in Great Britain and Ireland the launch will be delayed somewhat.  

World Handicap System: Why we'll have to wait until late 2020 - National Club Golfer

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The R&A hope many countries will move to the new World Handicap System early next year. Steve Carroll explains why GB&I won't be among them

It wouldn't surprise me if southern hemisphere countries would delay implementation until their "off-season" during our summer.  Eventually we'll all be almost on the same page.  

Quote

That is because moving to a handicap system that relies on USGA-style course ratings and slope requires completely new handicap computation software that is being built from scratch.

US software has cooties or something?