Your New WHS Index

We have an internal competition cut on our regular winter/turkey comps. There was a case last year of a ~12 index player getting cut 3 shots from his WHS index due to an exceptional score. Level par for the 15 holes of a turkey comp. Worth noting that it was from the most forward tees, with placing on fairways and a club-length drop in the rough. So trees and bad positions/lies were almost negated entirely. Even allowing for the favourable conditions it's still probably 7-8 shots better than a "normal" good score.

There don't seem to be any repeat offenders or bandity activity that I can see in my club this winter. The weekly winners tend to be 2-4 shots better than their playing HC over 12 or 15 holes this winter.

Anyone know how an ESR works now...or whatever the equivalent WHS version of ESR is.

I have been cut on observation and all that has happened is the top line WHS Index has reduced by 1 shot

Last game played (back in October) still shows actual calculated WHS.

Am curious as to how it is applied and how it washes itself out

I didn't play great last year and maintained my cut from like you in winter (Feb) went up slightly about .4. Wonder was my last 20 rounds reduced by 1 too as I never noticed.

We're not doing a club matchplay this year - instead we're doing a one third of the club (0-9 handicaps) and two thirds of the club (10+). It's such bullsh1t. I really like the club matchplay - it would be one of my favourite comps of the year. I stuck the post in this thread, because lets be honest - this is because the organisers have it in their head that they can't beat people with higher handicaps so have decided to run it this way. I'm fairly certain that the opposite is in fact true - matchplay is a format that favours the lower handicap golfer.

It annoys me greatly to see the comp split this way and I fear that this is the way comps will go in the future. You see it with the emphasis on classes in comps now. They existed in the past, but now some people are focusing on them more that the overall winners. I reckon we'll see clubs in the near future have 2 Captains prizes - split in a similar way to this matchplay. And the lower one will obviously be the real one. It will be an absolute shame, because one of the real strengths of the game is that a whole club can play a comp. The fact that they haven't even split it evenly is just even more disrespectful to the majority of members. Some of those lads are getting a bye to the last 16 - 4 matches to win a club matchplay and no qualifier? That's not a real winner.

I agree. I got to the semi final 2 years ago in our match play was up against one of the lowest guys in are club he was off 1. I was off 18 at the time I was beat before I even tee'd it up! It got in on my head.. I was like I have 17 shots.. what if I dont beat him with 17 shots etc I really put added pressure on me.. He was 6 up going onto 12th I was playing good golf but he was next level really nice chap too.. I had it in my head if I just get pass the 12th I'll be happy as I beat the last fella on the 12th but he was roughly around the same hc as me.. Anyway I couldn't win a hole best I was doing was halves it was impossible he was hitting 3w from the trees and bending it 200yds+ when I taught I finally had a hole.. Unreal stuff.. anyway got to 12th and won my first hole then 4 on the bounce.. But he proceeded to stop talking to me which threw me a bit as we were having a bit of a laugh all the way around .. Stood on 16th Par 3 and taught I actually have a chance here and shanked my rescue 🤦‍♂️ and that was that..

Only my second year playing match play never a fan but starting to like it.. Its a whole different game and mindset.. You learn a lot about yourself too.

The thing is - matchplay rewards consistency more than anything. And if you look at where the scratch player typically finishes, it'll be in the top half of the field. Which means they'd win in matchplay against the majority of golfers.

The 30 handicapper is obviously more likely to shoot 46 points, but it's still so so unlikely. Is it 1% of rounds? I doubt it's that high to be honest. And the odds are that the higher handicaps will be gone as the rounds go on.

There's an element of luck to it, but I would say that lots of low handicap golfers would feel cheated if they played someone off 30 who shot a 40 point round. Whereas if they played an 8 handicapper who shot a 40 point round they wouldn't. That's just a perception problem.

Another way of working scoring which would be completely different would be to score rounds based on how they are compared to your ability. So if anyone does the parkrun on a Saturday you might have noticed your percentage score. Basically, you might run a 5k in 25 minutes and you'll finish 50th out of 100 people. But your percentage score will show you how you did compared to your age group and gender. So a 23 year old male with that score will have a percentage score of 43% say whereas a 50 year old female could be 60%. In golf you could do that and compare it to handicap. So a scratch golfer coming in with a score of 41 points could be the equivalent of a 30 handicapper with a score of 46 points. And conversely, a 30 handicapper with a score of 33 points could be as good as the scratch golfer with a score of 36 points. Because the 30 handicapper plays to their handicap far less. If you want everyone to have an equal chance of winning, that would be a way of doing it. But I'd love to be a fly on the wall when a scratch player shoots 36 points, a 30 handicapper 35 and the 30 handicapper wins the comp. Obviously I'm mixing formats because it's easier to talk about stableford than matchplay.

My main problem with it though is the creation of a two tiered system in a club. I'm more than happy to accept an imperfect system in the interest of everyone playing the same comp (even if in this case it's the lower handicap guy who's is advantaged). But even think about the older guys in the club - through no fault of theirs they'll no longer be able to enter the real club matchplay or win the captains prize because they can't play to a low handicap any more. They'll be able to win the division 2 one, but it will be just like GAA or any other sport - the real prize is the one at the top level. The rest are just background noise.

In my club the overall prize is pretty much by passed, it’s still there but all the kudos goes the the category winners.

I can understand low handicappers not wanting to be drawn against someone who's handicap isn't accurate. All non low handicappers feel the same way. No genuine 26 handicapper wants to be drawn against someone who's playing off 26 but should be 18 for whatever reason.

The lower down you go the less likely a guys handicap will be far higher than it should. So if you split the comp between high and low handicaps, then you're reducing the problem drastically in the lower handicap section, but making it much worse in the higher. That's just wrong. Imagine a chipper who went through the bags of chips and removed all the green chips from the bags before 7pm. But then put them into the bags for the rest of the evening. It would be great for the early customers but crap for the rest. This is the exact same for golf!

However, while the fairness bothers me it's still not my main problem. Before this new system came in, people in golf clubs were equal. This is being lost. And it's not a fault of the new system, people are just using it as an excuse. Of the 5 singles Sunday comps this year in my club, handicaps of 10 or less have been in the top 3 7 times, including 2 winners. But this wouldn't suit the perception that the lower guys haven't a hope in comps any more. So they'll look at another stretch when they didn't feature as heavily and say there you go, that proves it, low handicappers can't compete with this system.

I agree with bakerbhoy.

as I said I gave 31 shots last year. Ridiculous really.

I know the handicap system aspires to level the playing field but sometimes there is just too much of a gap.

a matchplay for 12 and below and one for 13 and above would be more equitable. That way giving 2 shots a hole would be exceptionally unlikely in either.

captains prizes are gone by the wayside now too. The handicap system allows for too many shots for people IMO. 54 is a crazy limit.

If I'm giving more than 18 shots to someone and they're outdriving me I'm going to be thinking that I'll be able to win holes with double bogeys. Unless distance is combined with accuracy and consistency it doesn't mean a whole lot. If a fella can reach the par 5s in two, but has to reload off the tee a few times a round any gains he has from distance will be offset against losses from accuracy. There must be parts of his game where he's falling down. If not, he simply wouldn't have that handicap.

How did the games go? Were you beaten by the 11th each time? It would be annoying being so near the clubhouse and having to walk away from it again in the knowledge that there's no chance of bringing the game to 16th. It's a long walk in from those other holes.

Our 2022 singles matchplay final was contested by 2 golfers both off around 8.5 HI.

Our 2022 fourball matchplay final was won by 2 guys off around 5.5 and 11 HI who beat the 2 singles finalists above on 19th. So pretty evenly match handicaps wise.

I recall that over the years, the singles matchplay has been won by guys around the 8-12 range several times.

I looked at the winners of 26 x 12-hole competitions played since November under winter rules. Based on their PH over 18 holes, the winners break down as follows:

• 0-9 strokes - 2 winners
• 10-18 strokes - 15 winners
• 19-29 strokes - 8 winners
• 30 or more strokes - 1 winner

This aligns pretty much exactly with the distribution of handicaps across these ranges. This to me would suggest that not too many are off incorrect handicaps, be they high or low.

I haven't got a lot of matchplay experience or success but I think I'd prefer to be against the higher handicapper than the lower, assuming all off correct handicaps.

Blue Note, do you not do auto balancing in your comps, so the same number of people are in each category?

That’s a load of shite, all the comp systems have an auto balance, so the categories change based on numbers, means fair chance for all to be in with a shout

Short game is the king though. 80% of shots are lost around the green has been a statistic that stuck with me from when I was first told it. Any time I've had a good score, it's almost always because I've chipped and putted well. You can take three shots to get on the green on a par 4 and still walk away with a par if the approach shot was accurate and the putt was inside your makeable range.

Lads who can hit the ball miles but have high handicaps are plentiful. They just don't put in the work on the short game and often are wayward off the tee. Dispersion gets much more important the further you hit the ball.

Also matchplay is a funny beast. It's a head game as much as it is about golf. Arguably more so. Decision making, course management and staying in the hole regardless of how it's going for you are hugely important. Have sometimes had to reload from the tee and still win or half the hole because my opponent thought they had it won and got careless.

Is that actually a thing ? Genuinely asking as I've never heard of it. Our handicap classes have been set in stone since forever.