Is this evidence golf’s governing bodies do listen or just proof it was botched all along? How you answer that question will depend on what you feel about the World Handicap System – and we all know views on it range from the heavenly to the hysterical.
What we can agree on, though, is that changes to the Playing Handicap are going to have a profound impact on how competitions are run under the system in the future.
To recap: Golf Ireland are piloting measures giving power to golf club competition and handicap committees to alter the allowances they use in competitions.
They’ll come into effect on April 1 and are set to be introduced in England, Scotland and Wales next year.
Right now, there are set and mandatory allowances depending on the format of the competition. We all know individual medals and Stablefords are 95% of Course Handicap, while fourball competitions usually run at 85%.
Those allowances have been causing issues at some golf clubs. For years, better players have been telling their clubs and WHS chiefs they don’t work as they should.
They have argued they disproportionately benefit those with higher indexes. Treated almost apocryphally at first, that view has been gathering pace over time.
We’ve reported how the sheer numbers of golfers holding higher handicaps, along with the probabilities of shooting certain score differentials based on those indexes, appears to make them statistically likely to better their more ‘talented’ competitors.
The governing bodies have been collecting data too and they have been able to look through the millions of scores submitted each year through the WHS portal and search for patterns.
Back at the coal face, some golfers were voting with their feet and did not enter competitions where they felt they were at a disadvantage. For clubs where that was happening, it was obviously injurious.
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Now in Ireland this year, and in the rest of GB&I next year, clubs will have the power to act.
That the allowances were mandatory always struck me as curious. In the Rules of Handicapping, and the oft-quoted Appendix C, it’s revealed that while national associations are responsible for establishing handicap allowances they could “delegate this responsibility to a Regional Golf Association or golf club”.
Furthermore, the allowances it set out were “recommended”. But in GB&I we had no choice. It was a case of 95% or nothing. That is changing.
What should golf clubs do about their handicap allowances?
We should give Golf GB&I, the amalgamation of handicapping chiefs from the home unions and formerly known as CONGU, credit for listening. As they did with the Playing Conditions Calculation, they have gathered evidence and are working through a change.
Now it’s going to be up to clubs to choose their preferred option, but they should be cautious. I imagine many will want to quickly impose the lowest allowance available – 85% in singles competitions and 75% in fourball.
They’ll be under pressure from those better players to do so, and from purists who hark back to the old CONGU UHS. They will remember that prior to the start of 2016, for example, the fourball better ball handicap allowance was 75%.
But they should temper that desire until they’ve considered the make-up of their memberships and looked at just who is winning competitions.
In clubs with large field sizes in competitions, where there is a big gap between the lowest and highest handicaps of entrants and where there is a clear disparity in the field in terms of how those handicaps trend, then – as Golf Ireland themselves have said – lowering the Playing Handicap may be the best solution.
Would the same be true of competitions with only 50 players? It’s more unlikely. What about women’s competitions? What about mixed competitions?
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It’s tempting to impose a one-size-fits-all solution – if only to give golfers clarity. But just as low handicappers have felt that WHS has worked against them since 2020, clubs should be careful not to potentially discriminate against other golfers by imposing another arbitrary number.
Whatever they decide will require research and will likely be individual for each club.
But will these measures now remove one of the major bugbears some golfers have had with WHS? Will it change the distribution of competition winners? And what will it mean for higher handicappers, who now face losing more shots?
It will be interesting over the next couple of years to track the results of these changes.
Listen to The NCG Golf Podcast
Have low handicappers been getting a raw deal under WHS? Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll debate the issue in this episode.
Now have your say
What do you think of Golf Ireland’s handicap allowances plans? Would your club bring them in? Should the other home unions follow the same path and announce their Playing Handicap plans? Let us know by leaving a comment on X.
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