H.I. Adjustments at Annual Review

[bunkerblaster]

I am proposing an annual players handicap review in June. The old rec. of between Oct and March having been removed. Thinking is we have had two months back playing golf after a series of lockdown interruptions, we can now see which players have found their old form and which players have struggled either with loss of form, COVID or other related illness or anxiety, loss of fitness and stamina and or decline due to age.
So I am having regard to WHS Rules of Handicapping Dec 2020 version. Rule 7 states: "Only increase a player’s Handicap Index by up to 5.0 strokes above the player’s Low Handicap Index, unless there are exceptional circumstances. Such circumstances could include a player who has a long-term illness or injury preventing them from playing golf at the level previously attained."
The question is: With regard to the above how can I increase the H.I. of a player who has reached the hard cap of 5 strokes above the 12 month rolling average anchor point? They are capped and only passing of time will allow it to adjust. I have a number of players who have rounds dating back to September 2018 being used in the WHS H.I. calculation. A lot of water under the bridge from then to now.

 

[rulie]

My suggestion - notify the players to start putting in more scores for their handicap record. Without such scores, how will you determine where they should be? Imo, it's up to the players to ensure that their handicap reflects their current ability, not the handicap committee/secretary to guess what their current ability is. Again, imo, if there are no scores since September 2018, just leave them be until more scores are available. Don't make work for yourself. Yes, I can be a hard a**, but a handicap committee/secretary is not a nanny either.

 

[jim8flog]

I am proposing an annual players handicap review in June. The old rec. of between Oct and March having been removed. Thinking is we have had two months back playing golf after a series of lockdown interruptions, we can now see which players have found their old form and which players have struggled either with loss of form, COVID or other related illness or anxiety, loss of fitness and stamina and or decline due to age.
So I am having regard to WHS Rules of Handicapping Dec 2020 version. Rule 7 states: "Only increase a player’s Handicap Index by up to 5.0 strokes above the player’s Low Handicap Index, unless there are exceptional circumstances. Such circumstances could include a player who has a long-term illness or injury preventing them from playing golf at the level previously attained."
The question is: With regard to the above how can I increase the H.I. of a player who has reached the hard cap of 5 strokes above the 12 month rolling average anchor point? They are capped and only passing of time will allow it to adjust. I have a number of players who have rounds dating back to September 2018 being used in the WHS H.I. calculation. A lot of water under the bridge from then to now.

Re the last bit I would not be adjusting H.I of players with a very low number of recent scores on their record.

Similarly re illness or injury you should only be adjusting a players H.I. based upon scores recorded after the injury the occured

Rule 7 also states
l Be sanctioned or ratified by the Authorized Association if the player’s Handicap
Index is to be increased by more than 5 stroke(s).

 

[bunkerblaster]

Thank you both for your input. The answer to my central question has I think been answered, namely, that if a player has hit the hard cap, his handicap index has already risen by 5 strokes from the low H.I. of the previous 12 months, and cannot be increased further without authorisation from County Golf.

 

[wjemather]

Thank you both for your input. The answer to my central question has I think been answered, namely, that if a player has hit the hard cap, his handicap index has already risen by 5 strokes from the low H.I. of the previous 12 months, and cannot be increased further without authorisation from County Golf.

My take is that authorisation is only required for manual adjustments in excess of 5. You are able to reset the Low Index to allow HI calculated to rise by more than 5 (in the process of applying a small adjustment; which can also be negated by an equal adjustment in the opposite direction while retaining the LI reset).

 

[bunkerblaster]

Thanks for that. I do not want to go into specifics but the problem we face is the Low Index for the last 12 months (anchor point for hard cap calc) is itself too low. It was arrived at using rounds dating back to mid 2018. The lack of a measured course during successive winters, and then COVID lockdowns has had a greater impact on some senior players than others. Some seniors have had ESRs one H.I. went down -4.6 the other week. I want to make clear there is no lack of rounds being played, a lot of our players already have 10 rounds + recorded since end of March. The idea is that an annual review in June will level things up to enable all players to be competitive for the summer (if it ever arrives).

 

[rulefan]

One of the problems with the transition was that confusing information from EG meant that some clubs didn't update 9 hole course information in time for the transition run. I know of many situations where older players rushed to get 9 hole scores in but because of the problem they were not taken into account when calculating the new Index. Many such players had in effect previously given up on GONGU because it was so slow in recognising decreases in performance due to old age. They were getting the usual 0.1 each time they did play but their performance was going down by 3 or more strokes a year. That's lot of round for many seniors.

One chap in my club only managed to get 2 counting scores in (both over 18 holes). The transition gave him a 'dummy' score and his CONGU cap as his index. Next time he puts a score in his Index will go down by 2 strokes!!

 

[bunkerblaster]

Just a quick update: emailed ISV, Handicap Master, to ask what reports there were to assist a handicap review, they advised that such reports had been disabled and ball was in EG/WHS court. Emailed County, who advised ISVs have no role to play, all relevant data will be with EG/WHS problem is they have no reports which will assist in an annual handicap review. They are working on a report and it should be available in July, in other words do not attempt an annual review yet. Tried to access the EG App this afternoon does not appear to be working.

 

[NearHull]

Just a quick update: emailed ISV, Handicap Master, to ask what reports there were to assist a handicap review, they advised that such reports had been disabled and ball was in EG/WHS court. Emailed County, who advised ISVs have no role to play, all relevant data will be with EG/WHS problem is they have no reports which will assist in an annual handicap review. They are working on a report and it should be available in July, in other words do not attempt an annual review yet. Tried to access the EG App this afternoon does not appear to be working.

I’m getting 502 Bad Gateway when try to get to the App.

 

[Swango1980]

I’m getting 502 Bad Gateway when try to get to the App.

I was getting Bat Gateway messages intermittently today in the WHS Platform, when trying to assign handicaps to new members. Seemed to occur quite randomly

 

[bunkerblaster]

My take is that authorisation is only required for manual adjustments in excess of 5. You are able to reset the Low Index to allow HI calculated to rise by more than 5 (in the process of applying a small adjustment; which can also be negated by an equal adjustment in the opposite direction while retaining the LI reset).

I can go into the WHS site and increase a players last 20 diffs easily. But the quote below appears to indicate there will be an immediate hard cap. I would be grateful for any guidance on resetting the players Low HI. The low HI will be the anchor point over the last 12 months, so after changing 20 diffs I then reset the anchor diff by increasing it to the desired HI which would then be the new anchor point from which the players HI could potentially increase by 5 over the coming 12 months? How do I do this on the WHS platform?

"If an applied adjustment increases a player's Handicap Index, consider resetting the player's Low Handicap Index to prevent the player's handicap being upwardly capped despite the adjustment.
This causes the player's Low Handicap Index to become the lowest Handicap Index achieved by a player
a) during the 365-day period preceding their most recent score OR
b) during the period between their most recent score and the creation date of the adjustment, whichever is lower."

 

[Colin L]

I can go into the WHS site and increase a players last 20 diffs easily. ........

Am I getting something way wrong here? You would change a player's score differentials? That would in effect be falsifying the player's scoring record. How can you justify that?

Please tell me I've totally misunderstood.

 

[wjemather]

I can go into the WHS site and increase a players last 20 diffs easily. But the quote below appears to indicate there will be an immediate hard cap. I would be grateful for any guidance on resetting the players Low HI. The low HI will be the anchor point over the last 12 months, so after changing 20 diffs I then reset the anchor diff by increasing it to the desired HI which would then be the new anchor point from which the players HI could potentially increase by 5 over the coming 12 months? How do I do this on the WHS platform?

"If an applied adjustment increases a player's Handicap Index, consider resetting the player's Low Handicap Index to prevent the player's handicap being upwardly capped despite the adjustment.
This causes the player's Low Handicap Index to become the lowest Handicap Index achieved by a player
a) during the 365-day period preceding their most recent score OR
b) during the period between their most recent score and the creation date of the adjustment, whichever is lower."

When applying an "official handicap adjustment" (correctly), there is a "reset low Index" checkbox.

 

[rulefan]

Am I getting something way wrong here? You would change a player's score differentials? That would in effect be falsifying the player's scoring record. How can you justify that?

Please tell me I've totally misunderstood.

See 7.1a(ii)

 

[bobmac]

What a shambles.
Why can't people leave well alone.
Was the old handicapping system so wrong that this is better?
And if it's supposed to be a worldwide system and Scotland and England can't get it together, what hope is there for everyone else?

At the moment the CONGU countries systems don't talk to each other. As Ken found, you'll have to pass your score to your home club to be entered.

The World Handicap System launched in England on 2 November 2020. It is designed to welcome more players, to make golf easier to understand and to give all golfers a handicap which is portable all around the globe.

 

[Smiffy]

What a shambles.
Why can't people leave well alone.
Was the old handicapping system so wrong that this is better?

I agree Bob. My old handicap of 13.2 gives me a playing handicap around Highwoods of 15. What's that all about????
If I wanted to play off 15, I could quite easily cock up a few medals/stablefords.

 

[Swango1980]

I agree Bob. My old handicap of 13.2 gives me a playing handicap around Highwoods of 15. What's that all about????
If I wanted to play off 15, I could quite easily cock up a few medals/stablefords.

Why are you equating your old handicap to your current Index? They are not the same thing.

 

[Colin L]

Am I getting something way wrong here? You would change a player's score differentials? That would in effect be falsifying the player's scoring record. How can you justify that?

Please tell me I've totally misunderstood.

See 7.1a(ii)

Thank, goodness, I've misunderstood. Bunkerblaster was referring to making the single value adjustment which is then applied to all 20 scores in order to adjust a player's handicap index. I had jumped to some daft notion that he was talking about changing score differentials individually.

 

[jim8flog]

I agree Bob. My old handicap of 13.2 gives me a playing handicap around Highwoods of 15. What's that all about????
If I wanted to play off 15, I could quite easily cock up a few medals/stablefords.

Under the old system you would have to cock up 13 rounds not just a few.

 

[bunkerblaster]

When applying an "official handicap adjustment" (correctly), there is a "reset low Index" checkbox.

Thanks very much. To be honest I was not sure how to go about this, the player is going up by 2, so it looks as if it is two steps, a single +2 in the appropriate box will increase the 20 diffs and a check in the "reset low Index" box should give a + 5 new hard cap ceiling from the higher H.I. ? Just to put everybody`s mind at rest, this has been authorised by County. But I only want to trouble them to talk me through this over the phone as a last resort, and we are expanding our knowledge.