You get your course handicap and then, depending on the format you are playing, there’s an allowance to come off.
We’re all familiar with losing bits of our handicap for 4BBB or pairs match play. It was baked into the old CONGU ways. There was that handy little chart on the back of the scorecard.
We also know that under the World Handicap System, there is an allowance for individual stroke play competitions which comes off to provide our Playing Handicap. That’s right, it’s 95 per cent.
But why? Why do we get a cut in events? Why isn’t the Course Handicap good enough? We’re going to endeavour to give you an answer…
Golf handicap allowance: Why do we need one in individual medals and Stablefords?
Essentially, it’s about equity. The aim is to ensure that when everyone gets together for a competition, each player has got an equal chance of success – or gaining success – in that event.
Let’s take a player off scratch and a 28 handicapper. The difference between the best and worst score of a scratch player is quite tight – they’re good players after all!
If a scratch player puts in a stinker, it might be five over. How does a good round look? It could be two or three under. But, usually, they’re not going to be putting in very high or very low scores when they play.
Now let’s take the 28 handicapper.
Their scores can vary far more considerably and when they have a good day, it can be a very good one. They can also be very bad too so there is a much wider tolerance for the score they will submit in any given round.
Even though our handicap index has been converted into a Course Handicap, the logic goes that if the entire field played off 100 per cent of those handicaps, players with higher numbers would have a statistically better chance of winning.
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That’s because it’s easier for them to shoot five, six, seven or more below their number.
What the 95 per cent allowance does is reduce that likelihood – by taking more shots off the higher handicaps and fewer from those with lower marks. It aims to better distribute scores across the field.
And it isn’t exclusive to WHS either.
A similar deduction was built into the CONGU handicap system but you didn’t see it. The USGA called it Bonus for Excellence and it was monitored in the background. Handicap chiefs say it was part the way a handicap was calculated and why you only went up ‘point one’ but came down by a certain value depending on the category of your handicap.
Now have your say
Does that help you work out the reasons for the reduction in this Playing Handicap on the golf course? Should we use this golf handicap allowance or consign it to history? Let me know on X.
