World Handicap System Now Out (2020)

[Shindig]

Okay, one round into 2020.  I gave 9 strokes to a friend, whereas under the old system I'd have given him 10.  Played with him and another friend who has about my HI, skins game.  On the #10 handicap hole, the friend whose strokes weren't affected by the calculation and I pushed, so it didn't matter for the day.  I'm probably going to be in the "why is par part of the calculation?" camp for a while (at some point I'll see an explanation that stays with me, but that still hasn't happened for two rule changes from 2019 so), but it doesn't bother me. 

[cutchemist42]

So I checked in on the Golf Canada app for the first time since they updated it. My HI went from 19.6 to 20.

I think the app might need work as they arent showing the different pars of the teeboxs yet but is automatically giving CH.

[DeadMan]

11 hours ago, Shindig said:

Okay, one round into 2020.  I gave 9 strokes to a friend, whereas under the old system I'd have given him 10.  Played with him and another friend who has about my HI, skins game.  On the #10 handicap hole, the friend whose strokes weren't affected by the calculation and I pushed, so it didn't matter for the day.  I'm probably going to be in the "why is par part of the calculation?" camp for a while (at some point I'll see an explanation that stays with me, but that still hasn't happened for two rule changes from 2019 so), but it doesn't bother me. 

Par basically replaced course rating as the starting point for course handicap for the new system. Under the old system, handicap strokes were wheeled off of a what a scratch golfer would shoot at a course (i.e., the course rating). Under the new system, handicap strokes are wheeled off of par.

I'll show you what I mean. Assume a hypothetical par 72 course rated 75.0/113. 

• Under the old system, a 0.0 golfer would 0 strokes. A 10.0 golfer would get 10 strokes.
• Under the new system, a 0.0 golfer will get 3 strokes. A 10.0 golfer would get 13 strokes.

I think it makes more sense. Under the old system, a 0.0 handicap would get no strokes even though he would be expected to shoot 3 over par. That didn't make a lot of sense to me, and it always bugged me when I played a course with a high rating and still go my same number of strokes.

Hopefully that helps.

[dsc123]

Do we know how soon after a round any PCC adjustment will take place?  And do we know if they will make those adjustments during the off-season?

[iacas]

1 hour ago, DeadMan said:

Par basically replaced course rating as the starting point for course handicap for the new system.

I wouldn't put it that way. The course rating still has the most importance.

5.8 * 126/113 + 66.4 - 72
5.8 * 142/113 + 73.4 - 72

Par didn't have the biggest effect there. The Course Rating did.

18 minutes ago, dsc123 said:

Do we know how soon after a round any PCC adjustment will take place?  And do we know if they will make those adjustments during the off-season?

The next day.

How can they make PCC adjustments in the off-season?

[DeadMan]

10 minutes ago, iacas said:

I wouldn't put it that way. The course rating still has the most importance.

5.8 * 126/113 + 66.4 - 72
5.8 * 142/113 + 73.4 - 72

Par didn't have the biggest effect there. The Course Rating did.

You're right, this is just the explanation that I came up with that helped me understand it.

[iacas]

7 minutes ago, DeadMan said:

You're right, this is just the explanation that I came up with that helped me understand it.

Just replace the "par replaced…" part, because in the old system, your course handicap wasn't even calculated using the course rating. (And I know you know that.)

[Shindig]

12 hours ago, DeadMan said:

Par basically replaced course rating as the starting point for course handicap for the new system. Under the old system, handicap strokes were wheeled off of a what a scratch golfer would shoot at a course (i.e., the course rating). Under the new system, handicap strokes are wheeled off of par.

I'll show you what I mean. Assume a hypothetical par 72 course rated 75.0/113. 

• Under the old system, a 0.0 golfer would 0 strokes. A 10.0 golfer would get 10 strokes.
• Under the new system, a 0.0 golfer will get 3 strokes. A 10.0 golfer would get 13 strokes.

I think it makes more sense. Under the old system, a 0.0 handicap would get no strokes even though he would be expected to shoot 3 over par. That didn't make a lot of sense to me, and it always bugged me when I played a course with a high rating and still go my same number of strokes.

Hopefully that helps.

It helps a bit.  I got in the habit of thinking of the course rating as the "real par" to some extent.  Similarly, my home course, on the scorecard, is a par-71, but there are four holes I think of as having a par that is .5 over the listing amount.  In any case, you did lead me closer to understanding it, thank you.

[SteveH]

On 1/13/2020 at 9:23 AM, cutchemist42 said:

So I checked in on the Golf Canada app for the first time since they updated it. My HI went from 19.6 to 20.

I think the app might need work as they arent showing the different pars of the teeboxs yet but is automatically giving CH.

I think Golf Canada is a bit of a mess right now, including the app. Hopefully it's fixed soon. 

[cutchemist42]

2 hours ago, SteveH said:

I think Golf Canada is a bit of a mess right now, including the app. Hopefully it's fixed soon. 

I actually something may have changed as it does look slightly different tonight when I checked. Maybe the app updated in the background.

 

So the new WHS system would have gone through our old scores and made any ESC to net double bogey adjustments as well?

[mvmac]

There is a group at my club that is still playing with Dec handicaps because they refuse to believe the new ones are accurate 😂

[iacas]

35 minutes ago, mvmac said:

There is a group at my club that is still playing with Dec handicaps because they refuse to believe the new ones are accurate 😂

Oh brother.

Seriously, report them to the handicap committee. If for example they think they're still a 16 and they should be a 12, that's going to affect their NDB postings and some other things.

It's not malicious.

[SteveH]

The whole thing seems messed up right now. As fast as I understood the new system and why my cap went from 16 to 12, it went back to 16 again. At least it's winter so scores shouldn't change anything anyway but my skins group is going to be a little confusing for a while.

[humblepeasant]

Is the minimum handicap index still a +9.9, like it was before the WHS in the US?

I know they raised the max to 54, but I haven’t read about a minimum. Wondering if there is no longer any minimum.

Certainly nothing any of us will ever probably really need to think about, just a random thought/question I had haha

[DaveP043]

2 hours ago, humblepeasant said:

Is the minimum handicap index still a +9.9, like it was before the WHS in the US?

I know they raised the max to 54, but I haven’t read about a minimum. Wondering if there is no longer any minimum.

Certainly nothing any of us will ever probably really need to think about, just a random thought/question I had haha

I can find the old maximum Handicap Index in Section 3-4 here, https://www.usga.org/handicapping/handicap-manual-2012-2015.html#!rule-14373,

but I can't find a mention of a limit at the low end.  Was there really such a limit?  But in reviewing the new rules, I don't see a limit at the low end either, the maximum is in 5.3.

[humblepeasant]

4 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

I can find the old maximum Handicap Index in Section 3-4 here, https://www.usga.org/handicapping/handicap-manual-2012-2015.html#!rule-14373,

but I can't find a mention of a limit at the low end.  Was there really such a limit?  But in reviewing the new rules, I don't see a limit at the low end either, the maximum is in 5.3.

Actually I guess I'm not sure...I just remember the USGA course handicap calculator used to prompt you to enter you handicap index, and it would specify a range of +9.9 to 36.4 for men. But that might have just been the calculator 🤷‍♂️

[iacas]

Virtually nobody is better than +9.

[mauricio]

5.3 says the maximum, there's no minimum, but in 25 years I've never seen anybody playing more than +3. As @iacas said virtually no one amateur has better than +5 index. But if you calculate on USGA website you can find your +12 handicap index as course handicap...