WHS doesn't work

[Bdill93]

Yup I gotta agree with you, something does not add up at your place

I just checked another course here I played last weekend again with HI of 15.6 at a course rated 70.1/127 and had to play off 16 course handicap off tees measuring 6,300 yards and tough enough to be used as a European tour venue

It simply doesn't make sense that I can come to your place and be given an extra shot with a CH of 17 at fully 800 yards shorter and by all accounts an easier course

Exactly! And thats why we keep seeing points of 40+

If the slope/ CR or whatever it is that needs changing was genuine, players should be playing off or below their HI at my club for sure.

I can promise you now, at Hayling in a couple of weeks off a HI of 12.4 I will be lucky for 20+ points

 

[backwoodsman]

I think he was off 13 and shot 75 on a par 68! So either 1.2 cut or 1.8 cut, can't remember if it was 0.2 or 0.3 per shot at that level. And what @Bdill93 said earlier was right, new system he'd have probably only been cut 0.3 in total.

Broadly speaking, that's six or seven shots better than handicap. So, basic maths suggest he'd drop by a full stroke at least (unless the score happened to be pushing an earlier great round into 21st place). And if it was 7 better than handicap, there'd be an extra 1 shot cut added on. Eg, I recently played 7 better than handicap and my index went down 2.2 overnight.

 

[Bdill93]

MC is a stroke and a half more difficult than RP (CR of 68.6 versus CR of 67.1), but this does not show up in Course Handicap calculations (regardless of method is used) as its sole purpose is to level the playing field with respect to the relative difficulty of the course, not reflect differences in actual/absolute difficulty.

You are also using two different Course Handicap calculation methods - the CONGU calculation does not account for the difference in CR and Par, whereas the Mauritius calculation does.

RP (white): CR 67.1 Slope 122 Par 69
MC (blue): CR 68.6 Slope 122 Par 72

CONGU method - both CH are 17.
RoW method - CH at RP is 15, CH at MC is 13 - this simply reflects the difference between Course Rating and Par (1.9 at RP and 3.4 at MC).

All that I read from this is - it obviously doesn't work then.

How can a course be easier in all aspects of length and difficulty of obstacles and yet still give you more shots?

 

[Slab]

MC is a stroke and a half more difficult than RP (CR of 68.6 versus CR of 67.1), but this does not show up in Course Handicap calculations (regardless of method is used) as its sole purpose is to level the playing field with respect to the relative difficulty of the course, not reflect differences in actual/absolute difficulty.

You are also using two different Course Handicap calculation methods - the CONGU calculation does not account for the difference in CR and Par, whereas the Mauritius calculation does.

RP (white): CR 67.1 Slope 122 Par 69
MC (blue): CR 68.6 Slope 122 Par 72

CONGU method - both CH are 17.
RoW method - CH at RP is 15, CH at MC is 13 - this simply reflects the difference between Course Rating and Par (1.9 at RP and 3.4 at MC).

Appreciate the info. I have to admit to my shortcomings and I'll probably need to re-read this a few times to understand it fully but the Q that screams out is with all the differences, how can what we all have possible resemble a WHS

 

[IanM]

Appreciate the info. I have to admit to my shortcomings and I'll probably need to re-read this a few times to understand it fully but the Q that screams out is with all the differences, how can what we all have possible resemble a WHS

Yes indeed, but maybe what has been done so far, makes full unification possible in due course.

 

[wjemather]

All that I read from this is - it obviously doesn't work then.

How can a course be easier in all aspects of length and difficulty of obstacles and yet still give you more shots?

Handicap systems are simply designed to allow people to compete on a level playing field. The actual number of strokes each player gets is largely irrelevant; what matters is the number of strokes they get relative to each other. Using the CONGU method, your target score is the Course Rating (or "CR-Par" Stableford points); pretty much everywhere else in the world, your target score would be Par (36 points).

If you want to compare course difficulty in absolute terms, simply compare Course Ratings for scratch golfers and Bogey Ratings for ~20 handicappers. (If interested you can lookup ratings at the USGA's Course Rating and Slope Database).

 

[Bdill93]

Handicap systems are simply designed to allow people to compete on a level playing field. The actual number of strokes each player gets is largely irrelevant; what matters is the number of strokes they get relative to each other. Using the CONGU method, your target score is the Course Rating (or "CR-Par" Stableford points); pretty much everywhere else in the world, your target score would be Par (36 points).

If you want to compare course difficulty in absolute terms, simply compare Course Ratings for scratch golfers and Bogey Ratings for ~20 handicappers. (If interested you can lookup ratings at the USGA's Course Rating and Slope Database).

None of this explains how to actually help in my situation of 20+ HI guys running away with almost every comp with 40+ points.

 

[Slab]

Yes indeed, but maybe what has been done so far, makes full unification possible in due course.

Let's hope so
Meantime I can't see any chance @Bdill93 is gonna invite me round for a match

 

[wjemather]

None of this explains how to actually help in my situation of 20+ HI guys running away with almost every comp with 40+ points.

40+ points isn't an exceptional score at most courses. This is especially true at your place, where playing to handicap is 38 points.
However, if you think something is amiss, you should contact your handicap committee.

 

[D-S]

This discussion shows to me why we, as the the rest of the world have done, should have moved to CR-Par in Course Handicaps.
I know that all the nay sayers will say that par is not a measure of difficulty and that you can have 5000 yard par 72 and a 7500 par 72 etc. etc. I also know that performance against course rating is the only proper measure of achievement. However, how many people on here say 'I shot 7 over the CR' or that the medal was won by someone shooting x under the CR. They never do, they always refer to number of poibnts or a net number. We all use the shorthand of score against par as a typical measure of performance.
At courses with very low CR versus par your CH would automatically come down and then you would realise that it is an easy course. As a 5 handicapper I almost always get 5 or 6 shots as a CH, however if CR-Par was used I would frequently on an easy course off the yellow tees have CH of 2 or a tough one offf the whites a CH of 7 or 8. Then my stableford points score would be an immediate indication of how well or badly I (and everyone else) played without the extra step (which few do) of checking what my real gross differential was.

 

[Swango1980]

Once a month? It's weird how the experience differs from club to club. I've just looked at all the men's individual medal/stableford results at my club since 1st April.

Stableford
16 competitions
Average winning score: 38.8 pts
Highest score: 46
Scores in the 50s: none
Scores in the 40s: seven (four of which occurred in the same competition, only three out of sixteen comps have been won with scores in the 40s)

Medal
Seven competitions
Average winning score: 68.3 (net)
Lowest net score: 64
Net scores under 60: none
Net scores 60-69: ten (five of which were winning scores)

So, all season, we've had zero stableford scores in the 50s and zero net scores sub 60 - but you're getting either or both once a month!! What can account for a difference like that?

It'll be partly down to the difference between CR and Par (if CR was a lot lower than Par, you'd expect higher points), and the types of player at your club.

The club you are at is a reasonably tough course, with many established golfers (I'm not sure you have any entry limitations related to handicap, but I know you have several divisions). Likewise, my club is similar, and we limit many comps to a handicap of 24. So, I'd not expect too many ridiculously good scores). However, at our OLD club, that CR was lower than Par and it had many new, beginner type golfers, it was common to see scores in the high 40's (stableford) frequently.

There was a junior comp at my place last week, the winner had 56 points. This junior already had 10 scores on their record (9 this year), they simply went out and shot a massively improved score.

I happened to look at the Titleist Order of Merit leaders on howdidido, and was surprised to see several golfers at the very top of the leaderboard from 2 or 3 of the same club. I've no idea what factors would lead to that, but it did seem odd that being at one club must clearly provide a significant advantage to being at another club (or most other clubs). I had a scan at some of the club results, and for some of them also noticed ridiculously good scores in many competitions.

If all was equal, and players had many scores on their record, the system should be relatively "fair". Possibly with the exception that any player, no matter how experienced, may always improve, and the scope of improvement is much bigger the higher the handicapper. Hopefully, the 95% factors that in. However, the biggest improvers are always going to be, in general, those that are starting the game and have very few scores on their record. They are always likely to submit 3 (or even a lot more than that) dodgy scores as they get used to the game, the course and the pressure. However, before they get their 20 scores in, hopefully they've settled down and many of those golfers will then show they are capable of shooting much better scores than their first few submissions. Of course, the issue is that the scores that result in rightful big reductions in handicap can also be the ones that smash the field in a competition, and disheartens some of those competitors. One improving golfer might be able to shoot 2 or 3 of these great scores before their handicap catches up. If you have 5 or 6 newish golfers in your competitions, they can start to take over those competitions for a while. And, if you are a club that attracts beginner golfers all the time, then you may well always have this issue. It will never be a case of "WHS will eventually catch up", because that is only true on an individual case, but it will always be catching up if the club always has new golfers in their competitions.

Divisions will help this to some extent, if the club has enough competitors to do this. Although, it might still be a little tough on high handicappers who have genuinely been high handicappers for years with many scores. All you are doing is protecting the lower handicappers from the new high handicappers who are best placed to shoot great scores, but just dumping them in with the genuine high handicappers who are at or close to their potential.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Out of interest just checked club website for most recent comp. It was a seniors comp…for all seniors who have played in an inter club match this season so competitive players. 31 played off our front tees - same par but 2 shots lower CR than back tees - so likely to generate higher Stableford scores than off backs. Weather was fair.

Only six players played to handicap or better. Winning score was 43 pts with just 3 (CHs 18, 20, 6) scoring 40pts or more.

As I have mentioned before…I think this sort of result is typical of my place. Our greens are very well protected by our bunkers, and our bunkers are tough but fair. If you are not good out of bunkers you will struggle if you get in them, and our higher handicappers are typically those who will struggle - that’s often why they are high handicappers. And so the likelihood of a v high handicapper, or indeed anyone, racking up a 46ptr is v low, and a 50+ being so low that it just doesn’t happen.

 

[Neilds]

There was a junior comp at my place last week, the winner had 56 points. This junior already had 10 scores on their record (9 this year), they simply went out and shot a massively improved score.

You really can't use a junior who has only just started playing the game as a benchmark in this argument. He will still be getting used to playing and will obviously improve as he plays more. These outlying scores will level off as his handicap improves and settles down.

PS - if i have misunderstood why you posted this, then apologies.

 

[rulefan]

Was it not 0.3 or 0.4 per shot under handicap for a cat 3 golfer?

0.3

 

[nickjdavis]

May or may not be of interest to folks, but I've been looking at scores/handicaps/finishing positions of a number of comps at our place pre/post WHS. Attached is a screenshot of a table of stats and a chart.

The table is largely self explanatory but shows average scores and handicaps of winners, 2-5th place, 6-10th place, along with proportions of entrants from the various handicap levels, average scores across various handicap groups and average finishing positions across handicap groups.

The data was taken from 9 or 10 Stableford comps, played largely between 1st March and 15th September each year, with the exception of 2020, where, due to the disruption of C-19, rescheduling resulted in a few of the comps being played into October...as I recall though, the weather wasn't too bad so scoring patterns were not significantly affected.

Looking at the first block of data we see that largely there is no change at all in any of the categories across the 4 years...with the exception of the average handicap of folks who won the competitions....the increase from mid-teens to mid/low 20's is a significant change....however...that change is not mirrored when you look at the handicaps of golfers who finished in 2-5th places or indeed 6-10th places. This suggests to me that, whilst one or perhaps two golfers from higher handicap groups might be having "days in the sun" since the WHS was introduced, we are not seeing a raft of higher handicappers sweeping all before them. We will come back to this little anomaly later.

Looking at the second block of data, we see that the make-up of comps in terms of entries from various handicap groups is largely similar....yes there was an upsurge between 2019 and 2020 in terms of the number of >28 h'cappers and it was in the summer of 2020 where we saw a whole new batch of players taking up golf...however, looking in to 2021/22 we see that the increase has only been maintained, not extended further....so we cannot easily attribute the increased success of higher handicaps to the relative number of entrants...yes there are proportionally more >28 h'cappers entering comps (certainly compared to 2019 but not 2020), but the base number was relatively low in the first place.

If you then go on to look at the scoring patterns you see that perhaps the lower and mid handicappers are scoring a little bit less than what they were in 2019/20 ago and the higher handicappers scoring 1-2 shots better...but there is no evidence supporting what seems to be a common complaint that higher handicappers across the board are now shooting silly scores every week....maybe the odd one or two is now a little more likely to shoot a good score than before but we are not seeing hordes of golfers racking up silly scores on a regular basis.

The single line showing the number of scores of >42 points is further evidence that, at my club at least, the WHS has not resulted in a drastic increase in scoring.

Finally...and perhaps this table is the most interesting of the lot (and is the data that is represented in the chart that is attached) ....we have a record of the average finishing position of various handicap groups in competitions....because the number of entrants has varied across the years, this data has been normalised to represent the finishing position in a field of 100 golfers. Now....given the handicapping system is supposed to present a level playing field for all, we would expect that would result in everyone having an equal chance of winning, coming last or finishing in mid table obscurity....so all things being equal we would expect the average finishing position of each handicap group to be 50th (in our normalised data).

However, we know that golf does not work like this and that lower handicappers are more consistent than their higher handicap brethren....perhaps what we should see is that lower handicappers typically finish on average better than 50th and higher handicappers worse than 50th. The four years of data clearly show a levelling up...in 2019 low handicappers finished significantly better than half-way and very high handicappers significantly worse....things levelled up a bit in 2020 and then since the introduction of WHS have evened things out further....perhaps to the point where high handicappers are over performing a bit....the 2021 data is probably what I would have expected to see if I had to guess in advance. It will be very interesting to see how this progresses in 2023. The chart shows graphically this "levelling up" which is what I believe is fundamentally responsible for the higher handicappers to be winning more of the comps and thus pushing up the "average winning handicap".

So...in summary I would conclude based on data from my own club that...

1. WHS has not resulted in a raft of handicap increases....I have other data that shows of the 70 players who were regular competition entrants in 2019 and still are in 2022, 45 of them now play off lower Comp Handicaps than their old Playing Handicap.
2. WHS has not resulted in a wholesale increase in scores...there was an increase in 2021 but this seems to have now settled back to previous levels...I wonder if this is due to folks handicaps settling down, getting into a rhythm of submitting scores etc. There also were a couple of course setup issues (health and safety, land disputes) that forced us to use a couple of forward tees for periods in 2021 that may have helped scores during this period.
3. WHS has perhaps increased the probability of a higher handicap golfer having a day in the sun. There has seemingly been a levelling off, resulting in lower handicappers being a little less competitive and higher handicappers a little more competitive. Whether the slope has flattened out a little too much is a bit early to say.

 

[Backsticks]

May or may not be of interest to folks, but I've been looking at scores/handicaps/finishing positions of a number of comps at our place pre/post WHS. Attached is a screenshot of a table of stats and a chart.

The table is largely self explanatory but shows average scores and handicaps of winners, 2-5th place, 6-10th place, along with proportions of entrants from the various handicap levels, average scores across various handicap groups and average finishing positions across handicap groups.

The data was taken from 9 or 10 Stableford comps, played largely between 1st March and 15th September each year, with the exception of 2020, where, due to the disruption of C-19, rescheduling resulted in a few of the comps being played into October...as I recall though, the weather wasn't too bad so scoring patterns were not significantly affected.

Looking at the first block of data we see that largely there is no change at all in any of the categories across the 4 years...with the exception of the average handicap of folks who won the competitions....the increase from mid-teens to mid/low 20's is a significant change....however...that change is not mirrored when you look at the handicaps of golfers who finished in 2-5th places or indeed 6-10th places. This suggests to me that, whilst one or perhaps two golfers from higher handicap groups might be having "days in the sun" since the WHS was introduced, we are not seeing a raft of higher handicappers sweeping all before them. We will come back to this little anomaly later.

Looking at the second block of data, we see that the make-up of comps in terms of entries from various handicap groups is largely similar....yes there was an upsurge between 2019 and 2020 in terms of the number of >28 h'cappers and it was in the summer of 2020 where we saw a whole new batch of players taking up golf...however, looking in to 2021/22 we see that the increase has only been maintained, not extended further....so we cannot easily attribute the increased success of higher handicaps to the relative number of entrants...yes there are proportionally more >28 h'cappers entering comps (certainly compared to 2019 but not 2020), but the base number was relatively low in the first place.

If you then go on to look at the scoring patterns you see that perhaps the lower and mid handicappers are scoring a little bit less than what they were in 2019/20 ago and the higher handicappers scoring 1-2 shots better...but there is no evidence supporting what seems to be a common complaint that higher handicappers across the board are now shooting silly scores every week....maybe the odd one or two is now a little more likely to shoot a good score than before but we are not seeing hordes of golfers racking up silly scores on a regular basis.

The single line showing the number of scores of >42 points is further evidence that, at my club at least, the WHS has not resulted in a drastic increase in scoring.

Finally...and perhaps this table is the most interesting of the lot (and is the data that is represented in the chart that is attached) ....we have a record of the average finishing position of various handicap groups in competitions....because the number of entrants has varied across the years, this data has been normalised to represent the finishing position in a field of 100 golfers. Now....given the handicapping system is supposed to present a level playing field for all, we would expect that would result in everyone having an equal chance of winning, coming last or finishing in mid table obscurity....so all things being equal we would expect the average finishing position of each handicap group to be 50th (in our normalised data).

However, we know that golf does not work like this and that lower handicappers are more consistent than their higher handicap brethren....perhaps what we should see is that lower handicappers typically finish on average better than 50th and higher handicappers worse than 50th. The four years of data clearly show a levelling up...in 2019 low handicappers finished significantly better than half-way and very high handicappers significantly worse....things levelled up a bit in 2020 and then since the introduction of WHS have evened things out further....perhaps to the point where high handicappers are over performing a bit....the 2021 data is probably what I would have expected to see if I had to guess in advance. It will be very interesting to see how this progresses in 2023. The chart shows graphically this "levelling up" which is what I believe is fundamentally responsible for the higher handicappers to be winning more of the comps and thus pushing up the "average winning handicap".

So...in summary I would conclude based on data from my own club that...

1. WHS has not resulted in a raft of handicap increases....I have other data that shows of the 70 players who were regular competition entrants in 2019 and still are in 2022, 45 of them now play off lower Comp Handicaps than their old Playing Handicap.
2. WHS has not resulted in a wholesale increase in scores...there was an increase in 2021 but this seems to have now settled back to previous levels...I wonder if this is due to folks handicaps settling down, getting into a rhythm of submitting scores etc. There also were a couple of course setup issues (health and safety, land disputes) that forced us to use a couple of forward tees for periods in 2021 that may have helped scores during this period.
3. WHS has perhaps increased the probability of a higher handicap golfer having a day in the sun. There has seemingly been a levelling off, resulting in lower handicappers being a little less competitive and higher handicappers a little more competitive. Whether the slope has flattened out a little too much is a bit early to say.

View attachment 44660
View attachment 44661

Thanks. Nice data.
Suggests WHS really has done a great job in levelling things.

 

[upsidedown]

Gone back to 2019 -

https://www.howdidido.com/My/Result?sectionId=4631&compNumber=101533
https://www.howdidido.com/My/Result?sectionId=4631&compNumber=101534
https://www.howdidido.com/My/Result?sectionId=4631&compNumber=101527
https://www.howdidido.com/My/Result?sectionId=4631&compNumber=101490
https://www.howdidido.com/My/Result?sectionId=4631&compNumber=101481

A hodge podge of results there but more guys sub 20 towards the top of the tables.

Thanks for taking the time, I'm no statistician but I'm not seeing a great deal of difference pre WHS . Also note guy who won in 2019 with a nett 63 off a 18 handicap is now off 14 with a nett 71 the other day.
I'd say and I think you've said it too but you've a easy course to score on so always going to get "Day in the sun " scores

 

[upsidedown]

May or may not be of interest to folks, but I've been looking at scores/handicaps/finishing positions of a number of comps at our place pre/post WHS. Attached is a screenshot of a table of stats and a chart.

The table is largely self explanatory but shows average scores and handicaps of winners, 2-5th place, 6-10th place, along with proportions of entrants from the various handicap levels, average scores across various handicap groups and average finishing positions across handicap groups.

The data was taken from 9 or 10 Stableford comps, played largely between 1st March and 15th September each year, with the exception of 2020, where, due to the disruption of C-19, rescheduling resulted in a few of the comps being played into October...as I recall though, the weather wasn't too bad so scoring patterns were not significantly affected.

Looking at the first block of data we see that largely there is no change at all in any of the categories across the 4 years...with the exception of the average handicap of folks who won the competitions....the increase from mid-teens to mid/low 20's is a significant change....however...that change is not mirrored when you look at the handicaps of golfers who finished in 2-5th places or indeed 6-10th places. This suggests to me that, whilst one or perhaps two golfers from higher handicap groups might be having "days in the sun" since the WHS was introduced, we are not seeing a raft of higher handicappers sweeping all before them. We will come back to this little anomaly later.

Looking at the second block of data, we see that the make-up of comps in terms of entries from various handicap groups is largely similar....yes there was an upsurge between 2019 and 2020 in terms of the number of >28 h'cappers and it was in the summer of 2020 where we saw a whole new batch of players taking up golf...however, looking in to 2021/22 we see that the increase has only been maintained, not extended further....so we cannot easily attribute the increased success of higher handicaps to the relative number of entrants...yes there are proportionally more >28 h'cappers entering comps (certainly compared to 2019 but not 2020), but the base number was relatively low in the first place.

If you then go on to look at the scoring patterns you see that perhaps the lower and mid handicappers are scoring a little bit less than what they were in 2019/20 ago and the higher handicappers scoring 1-2 shots better...but there is no evidence supporting what seems to be a common complaint that higher handicappers across the board are now shooting silly scores every week....maybe the odd one or two is now a little more likely to shoot a good score than before but we are not seeing hordes of golfers racking up silly scores on a regular basis.

The single line showing the number of scores of >42 points is further evidence that, at my club at least, the WHS has not resulted in a drastic increase in scoring.

Finally...and perhaps this table is the most interesting of the lot (and is the data that is represented in the chart that is attached) ....we have a record of the average finishing position of various handicap groups in competitions....because the number of entrants has varied across the years, this data has been normalised to represent the finishing position in a field of 100 golfers. Now....given the handicapping system is supposed to present a level playing field for all, we would expect that would result in everyone having an equal chance of winning, coming last or finishing in mid table obscurity....so all things being equal we would expect the average finishing position of each handicap group to be 50th (in our normalised data).

However, we know that golf does not work like this and that lower handicappers are more consistent than their higher handicap brethren....perhaps what we should see is that lower handicappers typically finish on average better than 50th and higher handicappers worse than 50th. The four years of data clearly show a levelling up...in 2019 low handicappers finished significantly better than half-way and very high handicappers significantly worse....things levelled up a bit in 2020 and then since the introduction of WHS have evened things out further....perhaps to the point where high handicappers are over performing a bit....the 2021 data is probably what I would have expected to see if I had to guess in advance. It will be very interesting to see how this progresses in 2023. The chart shows graphically this "levelling up" which is what I believe is fundamentally responsible for the higher handicappers to be winning more of the comps and thus pushing up the "average winning handicap".

So...in summary I would conclude based on data from my own club that...

1. WHS has not resulted in a raft of handicap increases....I have other data that shows of the 70 players who were regular competition entrants in 2019 and still are in 2022, 45 of them now play off lower Comp Handicaps than their old Playing Handicap.
2. WHS has not resulted in a wholesale increase in scores...there was an increase in 2021 but this seems to have now settled back to previous levels...I wonder if this is due to folks handicaps settling down, getting into a rhythm of submitting scores etc. There also were a couple of course setup issues (health and safety, land disputes) that forced us to use a couple of forward tees for periods in 2021 that may have helped scores during this period.
3. WHS has perhaps increased the probability of a higher handicap golfer having a day in the sun. There has seemingly been a levelling off, resulting in lower handicappers being a little less competitive and higher handicappers a little more competitive. Whether the slope has flattened out a little too much is a bit early to say.

View attachment 44660
View attachment 44661

Excellent data and reply and backs up article from Golf Monthly https://www.golfmonthly.com/news/data-reveals-world-handicap-system-is-levelling-playing-field

 

[YandaB]

May or may not be of interest to folks, but I've been looking at scores/handicaps/finishing positions of a number of comps at our place pre/post WHS. Attached is a screenshot of a table of stats and a chart.

The table is largely self explanatory but shows average scores and handicaps of winners, 2-5th place, 6-10th place, along with proportions of entrants from the various handicap levels, average scores across various handicap groups and average finishing positions across handicap groups.

The data was taken from 9 or 10 Stableford comps, played largely between 1st March and 15th September each year, with the exception of 2020, where, due to the disruption of C-19, rescheduling resulted in a few of the comps being played into October...as I recall though, the weather wasn't too bad so scoring patterns were not significantly affected.

Looking at the first block of data we see that largely there is no change at all in any of the categories across the 4 years...with the exception of the average handicap of folks who won the competitions....the increase from mid-teens to mid/low 20's is a significant change....however...that change is not mirrored when you look at the handicaps of golfers who finished in 2-5th places or indeed 6-10th places. This suggests to me that, whilst one or perhaps two golfers from higher handicap groups might be having "days in the sun" since the WHS was introduced, we are not seeing a raft of higher handicappers sweeping all before them. We will come back to this little anomaly later.

Looking at the second block of data, we see that the make-up of comps in terms of entries from various handicap groups is largely similar....yes there was an upsurge between 2019 and 2020 in terms of the number of >28 h'cappers and it was in the summer of 2020 where we saw a whole new batch of players taking up golf...however, looking in to 2021/22 we see that the increase has only been maintained, not extended further....so we cannot easily attribute the increased success of higher handicaps to the relative number of entrants...yes there are proportionally more >28 h'cappers entering comps (certainly compared to 2019 but not 2020), but the base number was relatively low in the first place.

If you then go on to look at the scoring patterns you see that perhaps the lower and mid handicappers are scoring a little bit less than what they were in 2019/20 ago and the higher handicappers scoring 1-2 shots better...but there is no evidence supporting what seems to be a common complaint that higher handicappers across the board are now shooting silly scores every week....maybe the odd one or two is now a little more likely to shoot a good score than before but we are not seeing hordes of golfers racking up silly scores on a regular basis.

The single line showing the number of scores of >42 points is further evidence that, at my club at least, the WHS has not resulted in a drastic increase in scoring.

Finally...and perhaps this table is the most interesting of the lot (and is the data that is represented in the chart that is attached) ....we have a record of the average finishing position of various handicap groups in competitions....because the number of entrants has varied across the years, this data has been normalised to represent the finishing position in a field of 100 golfers. Now....given the handicapping system is supposed to present a level playing field for all, we would expect that would result in everyone having an equal chance of winning, coming last or finishing in mid table obscurity....so all things being equal we would expect the average finishing position of each handicap group to be 50th (in our normalised data).

However, we know that golf does not work like this and that lower handicappers are more consistent than their higher handicap brethren....perhaps what we should see is that lower handicappers typically finish on average better than 50th and higher handicappers worse than 50th. The four years of data clearly show a levelling up...in 2019 low handicappers finished significantly better than half-way and very high handicappers significantly worse....things levelled up a bit in 2020 and then since the introduction of WHS have evened things out further....perhaps to the point where high handicappers are over performing a bit....the 2021 data is probably what I would have expected to see if I had to guess in advance. It will be very interesting to see how this progresses in 2023. The chart shows graphically this "levelling up" which is what I believe is fundamentally responsible for the higher handicappers to be winning more of the comps and thus pushing up the "average winning handicap".

So...in summary I would conclude based on data from my own club that...

1. WHS has not resulted in a raft of handicap increases....I have other data that shows of the 70 players who were regular competition entrants in 2019 and still are in 2022, 45 of them now play off lower Comp Handicaps than their old Playing Handicap.
2. WHS has not resulted in a wholesale increase in scores...there was an increase in 2021 but this seems to have now settled back to previous levels...I wonder if this is due to folks handicaps settling down, getting into a rhythm of submitting scores etc. There also were a couple of course setup issues (health and safety, land disputes) that forced us to use a couple of forward tees for periods in 2021 that may have helped scores during this period.
3. WHS has perhaps increased the probability of a higher handicap golfer having a day in the sun. There has seemingly been a levelling off, resulting in lower handicappers being a little less competitive and higher handicappers a little more competitive. Whether the slope has flattened out a little too much is a bit early to say.

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Thanks, I did some similar but slightly different data analysis of our comp scores from between 2018 and 2022 and found scores were not remarkably better and that wins were now more in relationship to number of players from a particular handicap group: https://forums.golfmonthly.com/thre...more-level-playing-field.112934/#post-2539765

 

[Banchory Buddha]

So...in summary I would conclude based on data from my own club that...

1. WHS has not resulted in a raft of handicap increases....I have other data that shows of the 70 players who were regular competition entrants in 2019 and still are in 2022, 45 of them now play off lower Comp Handicaps than their old Playing Handicap.
2. WHS has not resulted in a wholesale increase in scores...there was an increase in 2021 but this seems to have now settled back to previous levels...I wonder if this is due to folks handicaps settling down, getting into a rhythm of submitting scores etc. There also were a couple of course setup issues (health and safety, land disputes) that forced us to use a couple of forward tees for periods in 2021 that may have helped scores during this period.
3. WHS has perhaps increased the probability of a higher handicap golfer having a day in the sun. There has seemingly been a levelling off, resulting in lower handicappers being a little less competitive and higher handicappers a little more competitive. Whether the slope has flattened out a little too much is a bit early to say.

i did a very similar analysis last winter as the howls from the low guys was very loud, and came to alomost identical conclusions as you. The low guys were still there at the top, but there was a far greater chance of a high guy scooping than previously. With another year under our belt, low handicappers have returned to the winning circle, tho not in as large a number as previously. It's still slightly biased to higher handicaps, as UK wide date from HDID has shown, and that is a major flaw, surely if there's any bias in the system it should reward skill over folks who geta lot of shots?

Anyway, we had a knee jerk, and it was too soon, we tweaked some comps, added a couple of scratch events, when I'd cautioned to hold for another year till things settle down.