Handicap Committee

[jim8flog]

One of the things that makes me inwardly smirk is when I read comments like

" an efficient handicap committee"

" handicap committees should be monitoring this"

I used to be the Chairman of the HC com' we used to only meet 3 times a years or as necessary (requested review , complaint). All members of the committee are volunteers with a willingness to only give up a certain amount of time.

In these days we have 40 or so General Play scores being submitted every day and the idea of monitoring these makes me glad not to be chairman. The only two people who have access to the WHS portal where I play are the clubs 2 managers who have lots of other responsibilities and would probably not have the time other than to check the occasional score.

If you are responsible what is what your opinion and is it a paid job?

 

[Banchory Buddha]

No it's not paid. Our Handicap committee meets once a year to conduct the annual review. We'd casually discuss someone if we thought there was a problem. We are a small club though, 330 members.

Regarding GP scores, we're seeing very few, and those that are are nearly all guys who don't play in the medals, so until such time as they do they can rack up whatever handicap they want, we've got nothing to judge them on anyway.

 

[nickjdavis]

At my place (a proprietary club where the owner manages the business of the golf course and a volunteer committee runs all of the competitions) it's a volunteer position. Our H'cap sec does a great job, he is in a fortunate position that he is retired and has an active golfing life meaning he is at the club regularly. He does a great job of managing all the movements in and out of the club which, to be fair gives him the most headaches, because its seemingly a difficult thing for other clubs to understand how to release ex-players...also many of the players turn up without a clue about their past history (or are sometime coy about revealing it!!).

He occasionally looks at the reports available in the WHS portal to see if there are any sudden movements in handicaps or patterns of score returning that are out of the ordinary but it's not something he does every week. Likewise the number of General Play cards submitted, a similar amount to the OP, is simply impossible for him to do more than a cursory check. However....like BB indicates and like I've mentioned before...there is a reasonably clear delination between those who play regularly in comps and submit scores and those who submit GP scores....the crossover is pretty marginal so we dont see an issue with folks managing a h'cap to clear up in comps.

There are only two people who have access to the WHS portal are the H'Cap sec and myself (I kind of have a "minister without portfolio" role on the committee where I am kept on simply to draw upon my 16 years of experience helping run things at the club)....although still full time employed I do my best to fill in and assist the H'cap Sec....plus I've always been a "numbers" sort of person so I'm interested in scoring patterns and similar.

The Handicap and Comps Committee meet typically just 4 times a year...a few weeks before each of our four biggest comps....if anything pressing arises in the meantime then the H'Cap sec and myself discuss it, come to an agreed position, and advise the Club Captain/rest of the Committee (if necessary) of what he/they needs to say or do, if anything.

 

[IanM]

No idea what happens at our club in terms of numbers or process.

Technically, there are a couple of comps a week in the season, so plenty of qualifying opportunities not to bother with General Play cards.

But I'd be surprised if many clubs bother with the sort of monitoring the WHS Police advocate!

 

[patricks148]

That's an interesting one, as far as I know we no longer even have a handicap sec let alone a committee. All the scores are now imputed by the pro shop as the new system the club implemented isn't very user friendly and caused all sorts of problems with scores being entered online wrong. I think last year the annual review was done by the membership sec.

 

[Banchory Buddha]

That's an interesting one, as far as I know we no longer even have a handicap sec let alone a committee. All the scores are now imputed by the pro shop as the new system the club implemented isn't very user friendly and caused all sorts of problems with scores being entered online wrong. I think last year the annual review was done by the membership sec.

You're required to have one, so I'd be surprised if there isn't. I'm assuming your club switched to the Scottish golf App & back end? Good news there is the back end is being binned Jan 1st and a new provider coming in so things should improve.

 

[wjemather]

One of the things that makes me inwardly smirk is when I read comments like

" an efficient handicap committee"

" handicap committees should be monitoring this"

I used to be the Chairman of the HC com' we used to only meet 3 times a years or as necessary (requested review , complaint). All members of the committee are volunteers with a willingness to only give up a certain amount of time.

In these days we have 40 or so General Play scores being submitted every day and the idea of monitoring these makes me glad not to be chairman. The only two people who have access to the WHS portal where I play are the clubs 2 managers who have lots of other responsibilities and would probably not have the time other than to check the occasional score.

If you are responsible what is what your opinion and is it a paid job?

I think I've probably said both of these, and more!

We have a single committee for handicaps and competitions, with 3 volunteers who meet (usually virtually) a few times a year. Club management & pro shop are also involved, performing various admin tasks, etc. As chair, I also sit on the members committee and deliver reports there.

It takes very little time each week to check all the relevant queries/reports on the EG portal and do random checks of GP cards (commonly 50-100 per week, depending on midweek comps for seniors and ladies). Outside of annual handicap reviews, managing and processing competitions takes up 80-90% of the committee's time.

 

[patricks148]

You're required to have one, so I'd be surprised if there isn't. I'm assuming your club switched to the Scottish golf App & back end? Good news there is the back end is being binned Jan 1st and a new provider coming in so things should improve.

I've sent an email to the club asking. We had a shake up of the committee a couple of years ago and got rid of the seniors and ladies captains and slimmed down the com by at least half.

 

[patricks148]

I've sent an email to the club asking. We had a shake up of the committee a couple of years ago and got rid of the seniors and ladies captains and slimmed down the com by at least half.

Nope don't have one.

 

[Swango1980]

I was handicap secretary at my old club. I started a couple of years pre WHS, went through the transition to WHS, and left the club in August 2021.

It was a club that membership was very cheap (most payed green fee membership about £200 per year, and then a few quid to play each round. It had an owner, so not a members club). All Committee members were volunteers.

I was essentially the only person who really checked Handicaps. However, each year, we nominated a few others for the Annual Review. Usually other Committee members, and representatives from each Section. Continuous Review (pre WHS), or any other handicap related issues were discussed at Committee. If, for example, I felt a players handicap needed review, I would not do so on my own, but determine a reasonable suggestion and then discuss at Committee.

Once we went to WHS, the amount of extra work was almost terrifying. Trying to continue processing handicaps in the same way as before, my workload probably went from no more than an hour a week, to 6 or 7 hours a week (and that was before GP rounds became more and more frequent). I guess the volume of new golfers after lockdown also added to this. In the end, even though I'd estimate there were significant errors in at least 20% of card submissions, I had no choice but to become more relaxed about GP rounds, and just assume submissions were within the guidelines. That said, I spent lots of time chasing at least 4 or 5 guys per week who didn't submit scores, and I had to frequently send e-mails to players who didn't return scores in competitions, just to explain why it is more important that pre WHS.

I am so glad I am not in that role now. I really enjoyed learning about it, and helping educate people and processing initial handicaps and doing Annual Review. No issues with any of that. However, the amount of chasing that was required once WHS came into effect worse me down. It also made me uneasy about knowing how legitimate scores were from some people. As I said, cheap club, so many players are not overly bothered about official procedures, and some less so on integrity (usually the ones you never ever see in comps, but could be playing many Opens). At least at expensive clubs, generally members are keen to keep their noses clean due to their investment.

My old club now has one person doing the role of Handicap Sec, Treasurer and Competition Secretary. They do have time to do things during the week (I work Monday to Friday), but I do not envy their workload.