Your New WHS Index

2 to 13. Love to hear that excuse.

Did he play like a 2 or a 13 in the match though!?

The hard cap is 5, so he hit it consecutive seasons plus 1 more for good measure. Very hard to do if he was genuinely sand bagging.

Playing horrible golf for over two full years!

did they not want to win before the WHS came in, because people were doing this in the past

Was playing in a competition earlier and as I teed off on 10 got a call from the creche that my daughter was sick and had to be collected. I just went straight to the car and went to get her and totally forgot to put my card in the box. Just got a text there from one of the committee to say I might be receiving a penalty score from Golf Ireland. Anyone know what this is is likely to be?

i.e. a high number that pushes my handicap up or a low one that brings it down? As I feel someone would see one as a penalty and others would think the opposite! Or is a penalty score just null so you only take 8 of 19 rounds rather than 20?

I don't have an issue with it, it was my error, I should have ran in and taken the 60 seconds to input the scores I had so far just didn't.

I believe that the default penalty score is a stroke score of Course Rating + Course Handicap. That should give you a score differential that is slightly lower than your current handicap index.

However your handicap secretary would have to power to apply a different penalty procedure.

If you send them on your correct score then they should be able to add it to your handicap record before the penalty score is applied.

I have being off 18/19 for years I find it impossible to get down its 2 or 3 blow ups out of know where thats kills me! and can be at anytime and on any hole. I am a believer of putting every card in though (in competition) I knew loads of lads that didnt in my old club and on the old system. Some were embarrassed as they were so bad and some obviously pulling for handicap reasons and weren't shy about it.

I personally shot a PB last year of 78 Gross, 48 pts won the comp by 8 points just the standard comp nothing special! but loads called me a bandit but it was all in Jest.. I had lads in the club congratulating me on my score that I didnt even know some even days later! But these where genuine golfers they got it.. plus they could see the smile on my face! I'm actually smiling now typing this.. It was one on them rare days where I was in the zone and didnt let doubt creep in... And done it with my Blades 😁 If you know you know 😉

Sadly didnt break 90 for the rest of the year though! 🙈

Just on the guys sitting on multiple shots, isn't pretty much everyone sitting on a few shots now that they weren't before ? Like, if our index is average of best 8 scores, there's probably a good chance 4 of those scores will be better than the average anyway, so its not really all that unusual to beat your index by a few shots, without necessarily playing "well" as such. If you happen to have a hot day you could easily be into the 42pts territory without necessarily being a bandit. Most guys I play with are a few shots higher under WHS, but I think that's mostly because its reflective of how they're actually playing whereas under CONGU the 1 shot limit meant you could take years to recover from that one really good round. You'd have a 6 handicapper constantly shooting 85 but he can only go out to 7 in a season, but now he's maybe a 10 and plays to it sometimes. Meh, I dunno, maybe I'm wrong, its just a theory !

I get your point about bandits though, and I don't doubt there are a few in most clubs, but honestly in general I don't believe there's an amateur golfer out there who can play well on demand. The best players in the world can go 62 followed by 75 or vice versa, and they're trying all the time, I really don't buy that Joe 16 handicapper can throw in a 40pts when he wants to.

Exactly..especially when Tom was 9 or 10 handicapper under the old system only a few years back.

I know guys who were genuinely well able to play consistently good golf who are now off 26 and 28 handicaps and will rock up and win any classic they want.

Some load of sh1t

Great shooting, just shows what a little tidying up of a round can do. Cutting out doubles and 3 putts.

This is where the new system differs in my opinion. Guessing you got cut roughly 1.25? Under the old system that cut would have been 2.8

If you go out next week and shoot the same score of the new h/c you would be cut roughly 1.1 or a total of 2.35

Under the old system if you did the same you'd get a cut of 1.9 + an exceptional scoring reduction of at least 1 so a total cut of 5.7

(these are rough calculations with out knowing exact details)

True, and tbh I do think there should be a much lower limit on handicaps, like 28, but if we're being completely 100% honest, how many guys really played to their handicap consistently under the old system ? I'd bet very few if we actually looked at the numbers. I know the data at the time said something like 1 in 7 rounds you were expected to play to your handicap, and your handicap was supposed to be you playing at your best. The whole system was set up that way, you'd get six or seven 0.1s back and then probably do a score and lose most of them and over time stay more or less the same h/c. Obviously fast improvers / juniors were outside this bell curve and similarly people with, I dunno, injuries or something, but most fell within this.

I don't think WHS is perfect, far from it, but I honestly think your handicap is so, so different under it, compared to what it was under CONGU, that it arguably should have even been given a different name. I do think we're totally conditioned to expecting it to mean what it always meant. IMHO, the reality is most of us play sh1t most of the time, relative to what we expect of ourselves, but whereas before, you'd only get 0.1 back, now we're getting "credit" for just how bad our round actually was. Are there a few bad eggs out there ? Of course there are, but I really think the vast, vast majority of golfers are just playing how they play and their WHS index is now reflecting it rather than still being low because of the 42 points we had 3 years ago.

As for classics, meh, I think giving out about them is like wondering why you were mugged in a dark alley in a bad area at midnight, moths to a flame and all that 😀

A little tidying up? 3 ten footers holed and nothing missed from inside 6 feet - Rory would have killed for those putting stats in the US open. He'd have won by a couple of shots.

I always think people massively underestimate how hard the easy wins on a golf course are. Cutting out three putts being a particularly big one - a quick Google tells me that the average 15 handicapper three putts almost twice per round. For a 5 handicapper it's still almost once per round. Suggesting someone can cut out three putts is pretty much suggesting that they just putt like a scratch golfer.

Same with removing the big numbers. It's a fine idea, but what does it really mean? Keeping all your drives in play - that sounds like just getting better at driving. Stop duffing chips - that sounds like just getting better at chipping. Cut out penalty shots - that sounds like getting more consistent with your ball striking. I.e. getting better at hitting the golf ball.

Excluding the obvious eejit who takes on carries where he's more likely to come up short of the water than get over it, when people talk about making easy wins on your scorecard, they're generally talking about practicing and getting better at golf.

A large part of it is practising the various techniques to become better. Without question, people underestimate how much practice is needed to improve. I know I 100% do. Obviously more golf, more practice = more consistent in all aspects of the game.

However, course management on its own without any technique improvement has a massive influence on higher handicaps. Significantly less so the closer the HC is to scratch.

It's generally simple enough stuff: keeping it in play, knowing your carry numbers and missing in the correct area (away from trouble, bunkers, short-sided). Also our own ego always gets in the way and everyone is guilty of thinking they're a better golfer than their ability.

As for 3 putts, it is an aspiration or goal to reduce them. You'll never eliminate them. If you do nothing else in golf but practice 4 footers religiously and some lag putts it'll change your game.

A month ago, the answer would have been no but a few weeks ago it became possible for players from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England to submit general play scores in any of those countries. Just be sure to update your Golf Ireland app to the latest version before your trip.

It is also possible for your score to be signed off by players from the UK

Like much of WHS, working out a 9 hole score differential is not a simple task.

Basically you are given 17 points for another 9 holes to make up an 18 hole score. However the 2nd 9 is based on the same 9 holes that you just played. For example, the 18 holes could be two front 9s and won't match the course rating and slope rating of your 18 hole course.

Another complication is how it calculates your 18 hole handicap. It doesn't simply double your 9 hole handicap.

e.g. If you had 3 shots in the 9 hole competition, you might find that the system used an 18 hole handicap of 7 shots to calculate your score differential.

I know a couple of lads personally at my club that never submit a bad card after registering for the round. I think its a joke that they are not punished by the club as its always the same lads.

Majority of the lads I play with submit all their cards, like myself, as your only cheating yourself in my opinion. Plus I enjoy the challenge of trying to keep your HC down, it keeps you motivated when things aren't going your way.