Your New WHS Index

Increasingly becoming dissatisfied with this system.

Allegedly it is supposed to show you current form/potential and may work well for new / improving golfers, but is proving at least in ireland to be a disaster.

To provide a part to a potential 10 shot increase in handicap in 24 months is absolutely mental.

Offer it up you will have takers.

Golf ireland do not properly support club h/cap secs in dealing with outliers/outlaws.

I recall even if anecdotal, golfers refusing to attest scores on grounds of not trying, outright cheating etc.

A campaign (Golf Ireland ) lead to educate all golfers would not go astray..

All alleged sandbaggers have complicate playing partners, even if they are not fully aware of it.

Willy nilly signing off on a card as we all do to be fair is a large part of the problem

Education from the top is an imperative .

Still not nearly often enough

I've seen PCC once in the last 2 years but what confuses the average golfer is for some major events that have qualifying rounds you can see via masterscoreboard that some days were significantly tougher than others in terms of scoring but yet no adjustments are ever made. I assume this is because the handicaps of the players playing on different days might be different so scores are averaging out higher/lower but it would be useful to have some transparency and an explanation when PCC is applied instead of saying 'the algorithm'. The other thing is a lot of players seem to think that if its a very windy day there should be a PCC adjustment but as far as i know the weather is not a factor in any calculation.

This system is something I just cannot warm to. The scale of movement of handicap, the speed at which people can increase and the attribution of astronomical handicaps are all lessening my enjoyment of the game

However, a computer has no idea if the day is sunny or windy, so it actually cant calculate it. if the required number of people hit the required score, it won't give anything, despite the fact that half the field might have bailed early.

The PCC is based solely on scores. The assumption is that if scoring is bad across the board, it must have been a windy day or tough course conditions. Not the other way around

According to data collected by Europe’s largest network of golfers on HowDidiDo, average stableford scores in competition have actually shifted from significantly favouring players in lower categories to being almost equal. Furthermore, there’s just under two points between the average totals scored by players in all categories, down from an almost 13 point difference pre-WHS.

https://irishgolfer.ie/latest-golf-news/2022/08/19/is-the-world-handicap-system-beginning-to-prove-its-worth/?mc_cid=64c347adc0&mc_eid=9631517e94

The lower players are far more consistent though. So while the averages are now much closer, the article doesn't indicate what their liklihood of winning a competition is. But I suspect that's far closer than people would expect too.

I'm one of the few who is happy to see higher handicaps win competitions now. I had a look at the society charter the other day and saw that people who had never played golf before were given a handicap of 18. That was fairly typical of the mindset in golf. Delighted to have you, but there's no way we're going to risk you being a natural and actually winning a comp. In a club you'd be stuck with the 18 handicap for a year. If you are struggling to break 20 for the year they'd probably bump you up a couple of shots at the annual review. Another year later if you were low 20s every week you might get another shot or two. We talk about how great the handicap system is because it allows everyone to play against each other. But in reality it was everyone of a minimum ability.

People calling for counting casual rounds to be scrapped need to think about the consequences of it too. For me, I think my rounds would be going back over 3 years if that was brought in. It just wouldn't be an up to date handicap. And I'm sure there are plenty like me.

I think the system is fine for the most part. Perhaps certain rules around minimum number of counting rounds to be eligible for prizes or winning. I'm not sure what the cap is on number of shots you can go up by, but putting a sensible number on that. And these things need to come direct from Golf Ireland as opposed to leaving it up to clubs - who are reluctant to do anything for fear they might get themselves into trouble.

I personally enjoy the greater focus on handicap the system causes - rounds that were previously a lost cause in the old system can now be important if you have scores dropping out. I had five counting scores in a row drop out recently and it really made me focus and try to put in something decent as my handicap was spiraling upwards.

Did anyone who played yesterday notice that their WHS has not been updated this morning? or is it just me? Normally it seems to be updated around 1 am but it didn't this morning for some reason.

Would there not be a lot more comp cards go in than society though which would outweigh the easier conditions?

I find the course rating fairly easy to understand and it gives me a good idea of how much harder the back tees are for example but slope I find harder to quantify so pay less attention to it. I'd have thought course rating is pretty good at identifying the difficulty increases between tees, my home course is par 70, 71.2 off the standard whites and 72.4 off the blues so over a shot harder off the blues. Slope is 124 and 127 but i don't really understand that difference in all honesty. Interested to hear why you think the ratings don't reflect the actual difficulty changes?

Regarding the PCC always being zero, I had assumed the handicaps in my club were too high, hence there were always good scores coming in, regardless of the conditions. Good to see it may be actually the algorithm at fault. The amount of PCC adjustments we have had is crazy.

I had one PCC adjustment since WHS. Somewhere between 40-50 scores logged IIRC. It's funny though as a couple of weeks back the weather was glorious with receptive greens and our major qualifier (strokes) had lots of good scores. Probably better than usual. The following week, wind and rain. Much more difficult conditions and the scores were obviously somewhat poorer—no adjustments in either case. Usually, I wouldn't even think about it, only because I've seen the post earlier in the thread.

The only other thing that I can say WHS-related is on slope ratings and I don't think it's the WHS that's the flaw here. My home course 100% plays easier than the rating for me. Any time I play away on similar parkland I surprisingly find them to be rated as less difficult from similar distances. Often there are more hazards/water, rough, narrower or have testing OBs. They don't seem to play the 1-2 shots easier whatsoever. So I think that most players' HCs in my home course are probably slightly better than they should be. Mine included. With the slope ratings being whatever they may be, I also think our 4/5 hardest holes are in the wrong index order.

However, my statements above on the rating/index are purely subjective to my level and experience. If they're looked at from the perspective of an elite amateur or scratch golfer, then it could easily be entirely different. Would love to know more about how the courses are assessed for difficulty and how often it gets updated.

Are you genuinely saying no max, that is really saying literally someone who just started can win...(even if we are practically at that level)

I think there is a cultural aspect that is in Irish sport too , that I personally like, there is an enjoyment for genuine, hard work , improvement and excellence.

Whs probably has a cultural problem in Irish golf...as a nation I don't think we genuinely believe everyone can win, no matter what and you don't have to work hard at something at all..

I think Irish golf on the competitive side is very serious (maybe too) - and whs at its heart, enables a far more casual, social idea of golf.

Probably better for the wider body of golf, but has torn apart competitive Irish golf - people who invest heavily in the Irish golf industry, keep clubs going etc...

I like that there's no max handicap, it makes golf a lot more inclusive for people with mobility issues or disabilities. The way forward though is probably putting more emphasis and focus on categories with just a nominal prize for overall win.

That's an excellent point Fix, the cultural side here Vs the WHS. I know lots of guys who wouldn't bother with weekend golf if there wasn't a competition and it was just casual. Its different in many other countries, I've played in a few places in Europe and golf is very much more of a family, all inclusive thing. There are competitions of course, but its much more about everyone taking part and competing, but not in the "everyone gets a medal in the egg & spoon race" kind of thing either, actually competing. Not sure we've moved away from winning is everything in this country, you see it in other sports too, just look at schools rugby. Not saying its better or worse, just arguably different to other places.

That said, I do think there needs to be a max handicap and I'm old enough and grumpy enough to think it shouldn't be 54, but I can get the reasoning for it at the same time. Let's be honest, there's not many 54 h/caps cleaning up in the prizes in most clubs anyway.