Your New WHS Index

You could play qualifying golf anywhere through winter and get your index back down so you wouldn't have the cap in effect.

If you are close to your hard cap or hitting it, your handicap committee should be reviewing you at some point soon and giving you an upward revision. There is a report there for handicap committees and in my club we do a periodic review of people hitting their hard cap and seeing if they player deserves an upward revision. Sometimes it works well, sometimes it backfires.

We have a member in our club who used to be a very good golfer. He encountered some serious health issues and when he was finally able to return to golf he got a number of upward revisions. We gave him a very recent upward revision and 1 week afterwards, he won a club major. Handicap committee got a lot of slagging and in no way do I think he was sandbagging his handicap, but sometimes getting a whole pile of shots can give a player renewed confidence. He's now back down below the handicap he was when we gave him his last increase. It just took a few extra shots for him to realise he is a better golfer than the handicap he was given.

Look if there is a will there is a way ..

If I needed a qualifying comp to avoid some.sort of winter stagnation..I'd travel and do it.

Lots of places have a winter series ..

If people want to hang up their clubs in September..they are not golfers anyway..

I'm not actually secretary but I'm on the handicaps Committee in my club. There are 3 of us and we all just work together on things. The hardest part about the job for the Sec would be the email complaints I would say. That seems to be the most frustrating thing and you need a level head/calm demeanor for it. I'd be too brash to be looking after the emails.

Setting up a new member with a handicap takes 15 minutes total between keying the 3 cards, linking with your club software (clubv1 for us) and contacting the new member to inform them.

I look after casual rounds. That involves popping out to the club once a week to grab any cards that have been handed in, making sure they are keyed or keyed correctly. Again, takes about 15 to 20 minutes and I can bring the cards home to do them at home or do them on my phone in the club.

Other than that, it's checking reports for which there is about 20. I login every few days to check scores, make sure there are no duplicate entries, unsatisfied score intents, look at penalty scores, etc. Other reports are checked periodically. This could all be a chore for some people but I have a real grá for the handicap system, so its no hassle for me.

I wasn't involved with handicaps before whs, so I can't compare but the handicap sec said he preferred the reports available on the older systems. Made the job much easier, etc...

I find it very rewarding and I've already been asked to be involved again next year which I'm happy about. Tbh, at the moment, I hope it's my voluntary job for life. I don't take on the actual handicap sec role because I can't attend committee meetings for which the Sec is supposed to attend.

Anything else you want to know ? 😂

Is he checking for banditry

This is what's confusing me, your low index is a rolling 12 month mark, so it ultimately doesn't matter how much you play in that 12 month period right?

Is the OP just confused around the fact its a rolling number?

During the counting season, from April to October roughly, there's not an awful lot to do. WHS looks after itself mostly. Most work involves processing new handicaps, which takes 20 minutes or so, and average of 2 per week in my club. I keep a spreadsheet with past handicaps issued so I can refer back and maintain consistency.

During non-counting, from November to March, we implement our own system to adjust based on winter scoring - observation as such. This requires a bit of work and really helps if you're adept with spreadsheets.

Another aspect is responding to emails. These are mostly asking to cancel unattested penalty scores. Quite a few query handicap index movements, so you need to develop a thorough understanding of how WHS works in order to respond competently. I've only encountered a few tetchy emails and the sender is usually happy when they receive a polite response with a good explanation.

There's a couple of Golf Ireland meetings to attend and the annual reports to submit. A few reports to check periodically. We've a WhatsApp committee group where we can discuss matters. Once a month attendance at club committee meetings.

I'm in my second year of it. It's quite enjoyable and rewarding. Helps if you're competent with computers, especially Excel. Great banter with the members about getting watched, cut etc.

I'd be happy to chat about it if you want to DM me.

I thought they could be allowed

Each 9 holes has it's own course rating

We have 11 hole. Finishes at clubhouse.

Seniors, long and 4 ball .

29 30 pts normally required.

All non counting.

Thanks Parlance and bakerbhoy. Looks like other clubs are doing the same thing.

@Seve OB Maybe it is a directive from Golf Ireland to only accept 9 & 18 hole rounds?

Funnily enough, I know of 1 guy who entered a general play score in the app instead of playing in the competition and his score was accepted for handicap purposes.

What did that fella stick in for the hole that was closed?

I guess he technically could have put in a net par, but he probably shouldn’t have.

also, the club have the control to block the GI app from allowing general play rounds to be submitted, so I suppose they just forgot to block it.

handicap sec could go back and remove it from the players record

I don't remember the exact wording but there is an option in the app to select something like "Didn't Play" when you scratch a hole and the system then inserts a nett par with an asterisk next to it.

@billy3sheets @Rikand

Sound lads, I was just curious as the topic came up recently in a group I was playing with. The usual banditry, whs no good type stuff and questioning how much work the HC secretary/committee actually does. Can't win comps because of 25 hc lads etc.

Tbf to the lads, they said the previous system was good because of the 0.1 shot you'd get back and bandits could be "managed". While not long later stating, that's not fair because you had "no chance" for 2 years after posting a PB to win a comp and getting a big cut.

There's just no pleasing everyone. Plus no system is 100% fair and comprehensive to catch every permutation. You also can't win or place in every single competition either.

FWIW I started playing as a 30-something ex-hurler after WHS was introduced. My first cards handed in were in the 105-112 range. It took ages to get them in also as COVID meant I had to get 6x9 hole cards to cover front/back.

I was given a 21 index on that basis. Because I didn't have enough cards in I also had the additional strokes removed until my record filled up so I was really playing as a 19 index. After a few months, I did start to shoot closer to my hc but I wasn't hitting 50 points. The additional stroke loading and being given a sensible starting index meant it took me a while before I posted a big score.

I was around 17 index but regularly scoring low 90s and then I finally broke 90 to shot an 84 so I ended with 42 points that day. My only Sunday comp win in the 3 years I've played.

Tbf I'm unsure why I got a 21 index applied other than the hc sec applying common sense as you mentioned. If it was just down to a WHS calc then surely I should have been 30+ hc based on my first few cards.

Maybe there is some inconsistency in the way the new handicaps are applied in different clubs. In my club you have to have 28hc max and a certain number of cards to win first prizes. To me, that does incentivise the newcomers to apply themselves and protect the regs from the newcomer "banditry" phenomenon. This is entirely different to the actual bandits who have amazing upticks in form during major season.

Horrible weather yesterday morning.

Finnish of Club champion golfer.

Off the tips stroke.

Top 30 20 odd actually played.

Pcc 1.

Nett 77 for me. Plus 5. 31 pts.

Finnish 6th.

Now one of my counting WHS.

I know of a hcap sec from another club who tried to do this. A new member who believed they should have gotten a 30 handicap based off their cards approached golf ireland. Golf ireland rammed a lightning bolt up the hcap secs arse and told him the point of whs is to apply what is given by the system unless the player has a previous golfing history. A former hurler/footballer/wwf wrestler does not count as being a golfer.

In my club, we asked golf ireland if we could apply new handicaps sensibly and we were also given a firm 'NO'.

Good luck to that handicap sec you have in your club Coillcam 😉

Just on your last paragraph there. I think this is the best way to do it (limit any prizes in majors to players that have a minimum of 20 qualifying scores (ie in my mind "a legit handicap")) and while you say this might discourage new members to play in majors I would look at it the other way. It would encourage new members to play in run of the mill comps all year round but especially early in the year.

V par could muddy the water for you slightly and when you think about it, probably shouldn’t be used for WHS

if you win a hole with 4 points or 3 points it is irrelevant . It is just a win

if you loose a hole with 1 point or 0 points, it’s just a loss.

so for WHS to be applied, you really have to finish out. In v-par if you have lost the hole you are not required to finish out. But for WHS it makes a difference if your loss is 1 point or none. And you can’t stick a 5 down for the par 4 where you had no shot but picked up instead of rolling in the 2 footer

See here:

Ok, the course was rerated this year. Would that explain why 36 points doesn't equal the playing handicap?

if that doesn’t make sense look at it this way

113 is standard slope

if you shoot your handicap 36 points on a course with slope 113, your SD for the day will be your handicap

108 is an easier course so in theory you should be shooting a better score than 36 points to get a SD equal to your handicap.

flip that and if you played a tougher course, say slope 120 and only shoot 33 points, that might be a very good score and enough to get you a SD equal to your handicap