Official WHS Survey

[Voyager EMH]

Change all your board comps to medals.
Stableford is for novelty events.
Let the higher handicap players rack up some very big scores on some holes.
That should nullify a few big handicap winners.
Medal is proper golf after all.

 

[IanM]

Change all your board comps to medals.
Stableford is for novelty events.
Let the higher handicap players rack up some very big scores on some holes.
That should nullify a few big handicap winners.
Medal is proper golf after all.

... you'll fall foul of the inclusion police. Everyone gets a prize!

 

[Imurg]

I always thought Matchplay was "proper" golf......

 

[Voyager EMH]

I always thought Matchplay was "proper" golf......

That as well.
Off scratch though.

 

[AussieKB]

You have got it all wrong, play badly and you are rewarded with more handicap, isn't that the objective from the R & A.

 

[rulefan]

You have got it all wrong, play badly and you are rewarded with more handicap, isn't that the objective from the R & A.

Isn't that the way all handicap systems have worked in the past?

 

[Voyager EMH]

Isn't that the way all handicap systems have worked in the past?

But it took a long time to go up by 1 shot.
Anyone doing it quickly with many supplementary scores stuck out like a sore thumb and could be dealt with.

I really and genuinely feel that I come across many more players who comfortably play to their handicap 50% of the time or more in social golf.
Over our last 20 scores, we all have played to our handicaps around 20% of the time.
There does seem to be more of a culture than there used to be of enjoying a higher handicap than one's true ability.
Anecdotal, I accept, but I seem to strike a chord with many players with years of golfing experience.

 

[clubchamp98]

Isn't that the way all handicap systems have worked in the past?

Think the app is the game changer!
In principle it’s a great tool.
But there’s to many in golf with no principals who abuse it.

 

[rulefan]

Think the app is the game changer!
In principle it’s a great tool.
But there’s to many in golf with no principals who abuse it.

I must say I haven't experienced it but seemingly many on here have.
But I wonder if club handicap committees became rather blasé prior to the app.

 

[IanMac]

Think the app is the game changer!
In principle it’s a great tool.
But there’s to many in golf with no principals who abuse it.

And there are also those who feel the system is so bad they abuse it to make a point. R&A cannot let the situation continue for much longer. Hopefully they will act quickly on the results of the recent survey which will show that experienced golfers, across UK and Ireland, are not happy. If they don't act I wouldn't be surprised to see even more abuse of the system.

 

[clubchamp98]

I must say I haven't experienced it but seemingly many on here have.
But I wonder if club handicap committees became rather blasé prior to the app.

Imho it’s the opposite.
Committees probably looked at most Supplementary cards in the past.
Now it’s done straight to the app which bypasses them unless it’s flagged up.

We were assured by some on here that committee workload would not change.
Most are volunteering and it’s a thankless job.

Something has to change
Using divisions to divide golfers up is the opposite of what a handicap system is supposed to do.
At the end of the day only one person can win a comp.

 

[IanMac]

Imho it’s the opposite.
Committees probably looked at most Supplementary cards in the past.
Now it’s done straight to the app which bypasses them unless it’s flagged up.

We were assured by some on here that committee workload would not change.
Most are volunteering and it’s a thankless job.

Something has to change
Using divisions to divide golfers up is the opposite of what a handicap system is supposed to do.
At the end of the day only one person can win a comp.

It must surely change. However any change will probably be held up due to software development.

Do we really need to be reliant on software and phones etc to play golf? How did we manage for all these years? Is it technology for the sake of it?

 

[Banchory Buddha]

That's useful to know (which I did of course) but I was simply asking if there were more div 3 players than div 1.

No, Div 3 is usually the smallest. Yesterday's medal (which was won by a DIv 3 player) hasn;t been posted to HDID yet from live leaderboard status, but I'll come back to you with the figures, Div 1 is usually the largest

 

[Banchory Buddha]

Change all your board comps to medals.
Stableford is for novelty events.
Let the higher handicap players rack up some very big scores on some holes.
That should nullify a few big handicap winners.
Medal is proper golf after all.

My club has no stablefords for trophies, in fact just one stableford all year

 

[wjemather]

Do we really need to be reliant on software and phones etc to play golf? How did we manage for all these years? Is it technology for the sake of it?

You can play golf without but will find managing competitions and handicaps extremely cumbersome and time consuming - as was the case previously when endless hours of volunteer and/or staff time were spent processing everything manually.

 

[wjemather]

Using divisions to divide golfers up is the opposite of what a handicap system is supposed to do.
At the end of the day only one person can win a comp.

As has been said before, no handicap system exists (or ever will) that can maintain an acceptable level of equity in a large field with a wide range of handicaps. The broader range of scores (particularly good ones, and the increasing likelihood of exceptional ones) for higher handicaps make it impossible.
A competition can have as many winners as there are divisions - we have 3 winners most Saturdays.

 

[IanMac]

As has been said before, no handicap system exists (or ever will) that can maintain an acceptable level of equity in a large field with a wide range of handicaps. The broader range of scores (particularly good ones, and the increasing likelihood of exceptional ones) for higher handicaps make it impossible.
A competition can have as many winners as there are divisions - we have 3 winners most Saturdays.

As has been said before, but only one trophy....

 

[wjemather]

As has been said before, but only one trophy....

Obviously there are no trophies for most comps, but there is nothing to prevent having a trophy for each handicap division when there is - indeed this is how many big competitions have been run since long before WHS - or limiting the trophy winner to players in specified divisions - another a long-standing practice.

 

[2blue]

Obviously there are no trophies for most comps, but there is nothing to prevent having a trophy for each handicap division when there is - indeed this is how many big competitions have been run since long before WHS - or limiting the trophy winner to players in specified divisions - another a long-standing practice.

It really is quite amazing that the rest of the world has been for some time & still is, managing with this system but our UK Trad golfers want to turn the clock back. Better to just look to make changes to their Trophy Comps so that things work.

 

[PJ87]

I really like whs but could easily have liked the old system the same just the app that does it for me.

We used to have to pay £3 each time we wanted to submit an extra cards.. so wasn't much point. Where as whs do often or as little as you like plus the ability for none club golfers to get an official handicap