World Handicap System (WHS)

[jim8flog]

Purely in terms of winning comps, does WHS benefit higher handicappers over lower handicappers?

I would agree with 2blue

What I would expect is that over a number years that there would be fewer bandits as everyone's handicaps starts to reflect their true ability. Although the WHS does give room for players to manipulate their handicaps if they put in exceptional scores in comps the system reacts quicker than now.

 

[rulefan]

Purely in terms of winning comps, does WHS benefit higher handicappers over lower handicappers?

Once conversions from CONGU to WHS have bedded down, no advantage to either.

 

[Backsticks]

Once conversions from CONGU to WHS have bedded down, no advantage to either.

I would have thought, that like the Congu system, it will still favour lower handicappers chances of winning. Its not really an aspect of the handicap system per se, just a consequence of lower handicappers having a tighter spread of scores, and therefore, while they will not shoot a 43pts Stbl like the high handicapper, they nevertheless have a relatively higher number of scores that are in the reckoning. Less field crushers. But more dogs in the hunt.

 

[Swango1980]

I would have thought, that like the Congu system, it will still favour lower handicappers chances of winning. Its not really an aspect of the handicap system per se, just a consequence of lower handicappers having a tighter spread of scores, and therefore, while they will not shoot a 43pts Stbl like the high handicapper, they nevertheless have a relatively higher number of scores that are in the reckoning. Less field crushers. But more dogs in the hunt.

On that logic, you could argue low handicappers would have a much worse chance when the size of the field is quite large. Because, out of all the higher handicappers, it is more likely that at least 1 of them will have a good day with 43+ points.

Though, this is why the handicap has never been calculated as a pure average of all scores.

 

[rulefan]

The odds are different in match play and stroke play. But it is not comparing like with like.
In the former, it has been shown that the lower capper wins more than 50% of all matches. In the latter, players win in proportion to the number of entrants in the particular handicap ranges.
Matches are a player against a player. SP comps are any player against a field of players

 

[2blue]

21.3 An acceptable score for Supplementary Score purposes is any authenticated score under Competition Play Conditions in compliance with the conditions listed in this clause and played over either: (a) an 18-hole Measured Course in either Stroke Play or Stableford format; or (b) a Designated Nine-Hole Course in a Stableford format.

Anyone know why these could not also be Stroke Play?

 

[Old Skier]

21.3 An acceptable score for Supplementary Score purposes is any authenticated score under Competition Play Conditions in compliance with the conditions listed in this clause and played over either: (a) an 18-hole Measured Course in either Stroke Play or Stableford format; or (b) a Designated Nine-Hole Course in a Stableford format.

Anyone know why these could not also be Stroke Play?

Just checked my V1 system and you can only do Stroke Play on 9 holes unless my system is broke. Need to find the magic book.

 

[Old Skier]

Strange, it does indeed say that. Best speak to V1

 

[Old Skier]

World Handicap System County Update - Gemma Hunter (England Golf)
The Launch Date:
The launch date for WHS in England and the other CONGU nations remains at 2nd November 2020. The lack of scores being returned this year, while not being ideal does not have any impact on the move as we will be using records back to January 2018 for the transition. (more information later in the update)
Rules of Handicapping:
The Rules of Handicapping manual has been signed off and ready to print and we are aiming for this to be available to clubs around the end of June or beginning of July.

We will be sending out 2 printed copies per club, and there will be a downloadable PDF version online. We will also make sure that all Counties have printed copies.

Working alongside the Rules of Handicapping Manual will be a CONGU guidance document, which is currently being developed to support the understanding and interpretation within the main rules. This will only be available in PDF format, so that it can be updated and added too when required.
Course and Slope Ratings:
We had been due to send Course Rating information to clubs week commencing 13th April, however due to the current situation we have been unable to print and send the Slope Certificates, but for information when it is released clubs will receive:

• Slope certificates – front and back 9. Clubs will only have a separate 9 hole certificate if they have a different combination of holes other than 1-9 or 10-18;
• Poster explaining what Course Rating is (as shown and similar to the one used in Education Workshops)
• Paper Slope Rating Tables;
• Voucher for £40 discount for printed boards as mentioned during the Education Workshops.

Central Platform
Development of our new CDH platform is continuing and I am looking forward to being able to show you all, we hope this will be possible at some point in June. Along side the Central Platform, we will also have an access point for Club and a link into a newly designed players area.
The transition process:
England Golf and CONGU (Thanks to Jim Fisher for his hard work on this) have been testing the transition process using scores from the CDH from 2018/2019 seasons.

Over 450,000 individual players and over 6,600,000 score records have been identified and processed to convert their CONGU handicap to a WHS Handicap Index.

The process used the Adjusted Gross Differential based on the Competition Scratch Score, along with the slope rating of the tees to establish a score differential. (if Course/ Slope Rating has been calculated this is used, if a course is yet to be rated a provisional rating will be used, should the course not be identified we will use 125)

There were some issues with the data which this testing process identified and has given us the opportunity to form strategies that will allow us to use or disregard these scores during the transition process.

The results of the testing showed that the majority of handicaps would transition with little of no issues. The increase during transition will be limited to 5 strokes, and we will be able to identify players, who should have been increased by more and flag these with Clubs and Counties for a further review.
Education:
Thank you all for your assistance in the deliver of the Workshops over the winter months, it was a great effort with 1384 clubs attending the 84 workshops that took place, unfortunately we had 5 sessions cancelled which would have been another 130 clubs.

To help educate those who had sessions cancelled, we have split the presentation in to 4 parts and recorded them with a voiceover, so that they can watch them in their own time following this we will host a couple of Q&A sessions on a webinar, We hope this will go out W/C 27th April.

In addition, we have approx. 350 clubs that did not engage with the education, and we will be identifying these club and sending them a copy of the presentation, we will also send each county a list of clubs who we don’t have any record of workshop attendance.

The next phase of education is for the golfer themselves and we are looking at doing this in a number of different ways.

We are developing a tool kit for clubs to help them educate golfers, we had hoped that part of this would be done via a presentation to members, but with current restrictions this maybe difficult, so following the same principle as the Club Presentation, we are going to record the Members Presentation and give clubs the ability to share this with their members as an interim measure. Alongside this England Golf will have a promotional campaign. Which you should start to see in the coming weeks.

Don’t worry if there are gaps in your knowledge, England Golf will be educating golfers on WHS as the year goes on with information released through www.englandgolf.org/whs and via your golf club or facility.
Kind regards,

 

[rosecott]

21.3 An acceptable score for Supplementary Score purposes is any authenticated score under Competition Play Conditions in compliance with the conditions listed in this clause and played over either: (a) an 18-hole Measured Course in either Stroke Play or Stableford format; or (b) a Designated Nine-Hole Course in a Stableford format.

Anyone know why these could not also be Stroke Play?

The format for 9-hole QRs can be Stableford or Medal but scores are treated as Stableford with a neutral 18 points added before any handicap adjustment is made.

 

[rosecott]

21.3 An acceptable score for Supplementary Score purposes is any authenticated score under Competition Play Conditions in compliance with the conditions listed in this clause and played over either: (a) an 18-hole Measured Course in either Stroke Play or Stableford format; or (b) a Designated Nine-Hole Course in a Stableford format.

Anyone know why these could not also be Stroke Play?

Dave, are you looking at the current CONGU manual? Clause 21 covers Supplementaries, clause 22 covers 9-hole QRs.

 

[2blue]

Dave, are you looking at the current CONGU manual? Clause 21 covers Supplementaries, clause 22 covers 9-hole QRs.

Yes we'll be using 18 & 9 holer's as Supps rather than running many Comps. & that's how it's come up.... seems strange.

 

[jim8flog]

21.3 An acceptable score for Supplementary Score purposes is any authenticated score under Competition Play Conditions in compliance with the conditions listed in this clause and played over either: (a) an 18-hole Measured Course in either Stroke Play or Stableford format; or (b) a Designated Nine-Hole Course in a Stableford format.

Anyone know why these could not also be Stroke Play?

There is no reason why they could not be stroke play but remember any hole score worse than 2 over /twice the par is converted as appropriate and a NR will count for handicap. All handicaps are based upon Stableford because of the alteration to well over par holes to lesser scores.

 

[rosecott]

Yes we'll be using 18 & 9 holer's as Supps rather than running many Comps. & that's how it's come up.... seems strange.

Dave,

Sorry, but I misread your original post and thought you were talking about running 9-hole QRs. On 1/1/18 CONGU brought in the ability for clubs to run 9-hole QRs in either Stableford or Medal (used to be Stableford only). No mention was made of the same change for Supplementaries. I'm fairly sure that was an omission as our ISV - Handicapmaster - changed the software to allow for either Stableford or Medal to be used for both 9-hole QRs and 9-hole Supplementaries.

 

[2blue]

Dave,

Sorry, but I misread your original post and thought you were talking about running 9-hole QRs. On 1/1/18 CONGU brought in the ability for clubs to run 9-hole QRs in either Stableford or Medal (used to be Stableford only). No mention was made of the same change for Supplementaries. I'm fairly sure that was an omission as our ISV - Handicapmaster - changed the software to allow for either Stableford or Medal to be used for both 9-hole QRs and 9-hole Supplementaries.

I'm with you on this Jim.... I think there's likely been an omission somewhere.... otherwise its hard to understand.

 

[Deleted member 15717]

So, I haven’t read the whoooole thread.

but I understand that social rounds count. So, if going on holiday to play some golf....could you log the scores in these rounds against your handicap. And how?

 

[rulefan]

So, I haven’t read the whoooole thread.

but I understand that social rounds count. So, if going on holiday to play some golf....could you log the scores in these rounds against your handicap. And how?

Under CONGU, social rounds do not count. Outside competitions they have to be played as Supplementary Rounds. Which means they have to registered before play ans the card must be returned.

Under WHS the facility to play handicap counting 'social' rounds varies slightly from country to country. However, in CONGU territory (and the rest of Europe) it remains exactly the same as now. Rounds must be preregistered before play, cards must be attested by a marker, the card must be returned and it must be played on a certified measured course. The only change is that they are no longer called Supplementary Scores.

 

[Deleted member 15717]

Under CONGU, social rounds do not count. Outside competitions they have to be played as Supplementary Rounds. Which means they have to registered before play ans the card must be returned.

Under WHS the facility to play handicap counting 'social' rounds varies slightly from country to country. However, in CONGU territory (and the rest of Europe) it remains exactly the same as now. Rounds must be preregistered before play, cards must be attested by a marker, the card must be returned and it must be played on a certified measured course. The only change is that they are no longer called Supplementary Scores.

I know about current rules and how to put supplementary cards in....just didn’t know how it would be under WHS. shame, was tempted to whack some scores in when I go away next year for the lols as the courses are difficult.

 

[rulefan]

I know about current rules and how to put supplementary cards in....just didn’t know how it would be under WHS. shame, was tempted to whack some scores in when I go away next year for the lols as the courses are difficult.

If the country you are going to is using WHS and you follow all their posting rules, there is no reason why you shouldn't post your scores from rounds played there.

 

[rosecott]

I know about current rules and how to put supplementary cards in....just didn’t know how it would be under WHS. shame, was tempted to whack some scores in when I go away next year for the lols as the courses are difficult.

What? In an attempt to get a handicap increase?