World Handicap System (WHS)

[Lord Tyrion]

True for those playing competitions at other courses. and, yes, it would be nice, but, when I go to play another course, lovely summer day etc, why do I have to faff about finding the computer to log into to put in my H I to find my playing handicap etc?
Or, do I have to do this, or can my mate and I just amble to the first tee and off we go?
As I say, competition , fair enough, but unless I've understood this wrong ( likely?) am I not supposed to record all my rounds of golf when this system comes in?

I don't think this is the case. I believe it was originally suggested but it was reigned back to be similar to the situation now. You can record them but you don't have to.

If you are just playing with a friend in a social round at a different club then just rock up, use your home club handicap and don't worry about faffing with charts and the like. It is what 99% of us will do, for the first 6 months or so anyway until we get used to this.

 

[Swango1980]

True for those playing competitions at other courses. and, yes, it would be nice, but, when I go to play another course, lovely summer day etc, why do I have to faff about finding the computer to log into to put in my H I to find my playing handicap etc?
Or, do I have to do this, or can my mate and I just amble to the first tee and off we go?
As I say, competition , fair enough, but unless I've understood this wrong ( likely?) am I not supposed to record all my rounds of golf when this system comes in?

Nope, that is one of the misconceptions, as that is what the Americans seemed to have done for years.

Social golf is social golf. If you wish, you MAY submit a social round of golf in the same way you can do now, effectively as a supplementary score. Otherwise, you are free to play without bothering about officially submitting score afterwards

 

[jim8flog]

True for those playing competitions at other courses. and, yes, it would be nice, but, when I go to play another course, lovely summer day etc, why do I have to faff about finding the computer to log into to put in my H I to find my playing handicap etc?
Or, do I have to do this, or can my mate and I just amble to the first tee and off we go?
As I say, competition , fair enough, but unless I've understood this wrong ( likely?) am I not supposed to record all my rounds of golf when this system comes in?

If you are just playing social golf who cares what you do? There is no need for all this faffing around.

Re your last question no you are not. Only preregistered rounds have to be recorded (as per the Supplementary Score System now).

 

[Swango1980]

If you are just playing social golf who cares what you do? There is no need for all this faffing around.

Re your last question no you are not. Only preregistered rounds have to be recorded (as per the Supplementary Score System now).

Although it is a fair point to a degree, you will find that there are a lot of casual golfers who would still like to play off the correct handicap. For these golfers, then they will require this "faffing around"

 

[nickjdavis]

You shouldn't have to pfaff around with finding a computer....most clubs should also publish the course handicap lookup tables in an easily accessible area....possibly close to the first tee.

 

[Deleted member 25172]

I cannot think of a single club in Sweden that didn’t have a handicap lookup table close to or on the first tee. I’d suggest the same thing will happen here in the UK as well.

As for not understanding how to work the lookup table, I’d go out on a limb and say that those individuals don’t know how to tie their own shoe laces either.

 

[rulefan]

1) can my mate and I just amble to the first tee and off we go?
2) am I not supposed to record all my rounds of golf when this system comes in?

1) Yes
2) The is no such requirement. But you may if you wish to and provided you declare your intention beforehand.

 

[IanM]

I cannot think of a single club in Sweden that didn’t have a handicap lookup table close to or on the first tee. I’d suggest the same thing will happen here in the UK as well. As for not understanding how to work the lookup table, I’d go out on a limb and say that those individuals don’t know how to tie their own shoe laces either.

Very reassuring - I am thinking that I can ignore all the waffle, find out my handicap from the computer, (I deliberately left out the word "index!!") - use the look-up table (where ever it is hanging) and go and play golf as usual. Heck, we might even go out and just play for fun sometimes and not keep score! When it changes, I will smile and not worry about what or why.

I suspect there will be a lengthy period after WHS implements when golfers meet and have the current "what are you off?" conversation, the reply will be "I was off 12 before the current dopey system started, now I think I am about 14.767474673434434 But who knows for sure!

 

[chrisd]

I cannot think of a single club in Sweden that didn’t have a handicap lookup table close to or on the first tee. I’d suggest the same thing will happen here in the UK as well.

As for not understanding how to work the lookup table, I’d go out on a limb and say that those individuals don’t know how to tie their own shoe laces either.

I suspect that there'll be no slip on lookup table but those who struggle with laces are well catered for ??

 

[Deleted member 25172]

Very reassuring - I am thinking that I can ignore all the waffle, find out my handicap from the computer, (I deliberately left out the word "index!!") - use the look-up table (where ever it is hanging) and go and play golf as usual. Heck, we might even go out and just play for fun sometimes and not keep score! When it changes, I will smile and not worry about what or why.

I suspect there will be a lengthy period after WHS implements when golfers meet and have the current "what are you off?" conversation, the reply will be "I was off 12 before the current dopey system started, now I think I am about 14.767474673434434 But who knows for sure!

Don’t get me wrong, there’s been one issue highlighted regarding same handicap indexes being given different playing handicaps, but I believe rulefan has confirmed that that is being “fixed”.

But apart from that, for us who are not in a handicap committee or any other administrative role at a golf club, this thread baffles me as these charts are simple enough for a 5 year old to read.

Once it’s implemented and the charts are up, I’m sure there will be more than a few people asking themselves what all the fuzz, or should I say “faff” - was all about.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

As above, everywhere I've played abroad that uses this system has the tables very clearly available either in the golf reception, pro shop and/or near the 1st tee, and of course on the club website.
It's very straightforward, just look at the number next to your HI for the relevant tees and that's what you play off.

...as I found in Australia ad NZ last year. No issues whatsoever.

 

[IanM]

As per last two posts.... golfers know what OB posts mean....but most of them don't give a stuff about what rule number it is!!

 

[jim8flog]

I'm sure it's been posted before but here's a simple chart that would be displayed, apologies I could only get up to about 15 handicap on the screen, but you will see 4 columns depending if you're playing off white, gold, blue or red tees.

So if your exact is 12.4, you play off 18 off whites, 16 off gold, 13 off blue and 11 off red.
Clearly it's quite a hard course off the white or gold tees.View attachment 32093

As per other discussions Playing Handicap means something different in CONGU regions , the idea will be the same but the charts will read Course Handicap.

 

[jim8flog]

These are what you should expect to find on most courses (eagle golf has struck a deal with England Golf)

https://www.eagle.uk.com/WHSinfo.html

 

[abjectplop]

Is course rating the same as SSS? My club only lists the slope rating, can't find any mention of course rating.

 

[Swango1980]

Is course rating the same as SSS? My club only lists the slope rating, can't find any mention of course rating.

It is, although Course Rating is to 1 decimal point, unlike SSS

 

[jim8flog]

Is course rating the same as SSS? My club only lists the slope rating, can't find any mention of course rating.

You will find the info here
https://ncrdb.usga.org/

At some point your club should display the official course ratings in the same way they display SSS ratings at present.

 

[abjectplop]

You will find the info here
https://ncrdb.usga.org/

At some point your club should display the official course ratings in the same way they display SSS ratings at present.

I'd had a look on there but there's only 2 courses in the whole of my area....assuming Golf Scotland of Scottish courses are a bit slow on this.

 

[jim8flog]

But as I've previously demonstrated, using the boards may result in you having a higher playing handicap than you are entitled to.

Rule 6.1b says that the fully calculated Course Handicap is used without rounding all the way through to the Playing Handicap Calculation

A 5.1 index player on a course with slope 124 will have a decimal Course Handicap of 5.59646 which if he was playing in a singles strokeplay comp off 95% would result in a Playing ~Handicap of 5.3166 which would be rounded down to 5

The same player using the Course Handicap Tables to look up his Course Handicap will see that his Course Handicap is shown as 6. 95% of 6 is 5.7....so this would be rounded to 6.

Two players...same index....different playing handicaps depending on which method they use to determine their course handicap.

Funnily enough with some time to pass away this morning I spent the time 'doing the maths' on my own courses with my own handicap

On 3 of the courses/tees I would get an extra shot if I used rounding of the course handicap using the info on the boards rather than rounding at the end using a calculator.

 

[jim8flog]

So.... we're getting on to the end of August. I know Scottish Golf have said they will be publishing people's expected WHS handicaps in advance of the change but does anyone know when we'll start to get sight of these?

Do you not know how to work it out for yourself?