Are you sitting down? For some of you this is going to come as a shock. It turns out many of you quite like the World Handicap System.
The biggest single group of golfers, who filled in a massive NCG Club Golf Survey, said they believed WHS is better than the previous CONGU handicapping system in Great Britain & Ireland.
Some 1,147 of the 3,250 respondents ticked the better box, representing 35.3 per cent of all of those who took the time to answer questions.
But before those who like the system, which was launched in November 2020, get too carried away, the overall results remain mixed.
Some 983 respondents, or 30.2 per cent, said they felt WHS was worse than what had been in place before.
Even so, within a background of governing bodies reporting more scores being submitted, more general play scores being posted, and more players carrying World Handicap System indexes, the numbers will be encouraging for those governing the global order, who have seen it relentless attacked in some quarters as being easy to manipulate and unfair to certain player types.
What were the full survey results?
If your experience of the WHS is conducted through comments on internet sites and social media you might have expected the answers to the survey question to only go one way. If we’re being honest, we probably did.
The results, though, are more nuanced. We asked the question: “How does WHS compare to the old CONGU handicapping system?”
Some 43 per cent of respondents said it was either much better (8%, 250 people) or better (35.3%, 1,147 people). Just over 19 per cent said it was the same (19.3%, 628 people). Those who thought it was worse numbered just over 30 per cent (30.2%, 983 people), while around 7 per cent considered WHS to be much worse than its predecessor (7.1%, 283 people).
These statistics reveal that more people like the system than dislike it (43.3% against 37.3%), while nearly a fifth of respondents remain either unconvinced or are sitting on the fence.
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But amid a background, in both England and the USA at least, of rising numbers of players with handicaps and record scores, the survey results continue to suggest that WHS is finally bedding in – presumably cheering administrators who have been embattled by ferocious internet criticism.
Where it seems there is still work to do is around how players perceive the World Handicap System treats better players.
We also asked the question: “In your experience, is WHS more or less favourable to lower handicappers than the old system?”
Much more favourable – 2.8% (91 people)
More favourable – 18.3% (594 people)
Same – 29.4% (954 people)
Less favourable – 40.8% (1,325 people)
Much less favourable – 8.8% (286 people)
With just under half of respondents arguing the WHS treats more talented golfers differently, the game’s governing bodies have got a task on their hands to either explain how that’s not the case, or to bring in measures that address the concerns of those players.
What’s the view at the top?
We put these figures to Richard Flint, England Golf’s chief operating officer, and asked his view on the survey results and on the WHS generally.
“It’s still a relatively new handicap system that has embedded well and people are settling into it,” he said.
“We’ll continue to refine it – working with the R&A and USGA because they license us as they do with other affiliates around the world.
“We feel that WHS, and the core system, is in a really good place. The numbers are certainly showing that, in terms of volume and increases – overall scores and general play scores and nine-hole scores. People are obviously playing more golf and putting in scores for handicap purposes.
“There are always ways we can refine the system but WHS is in a really good place.”
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On the perception the system is disadvantageous to low handicappers, Flint said there was more work to be done on educating players about the system.
“We do hear that,” he said. “We do hear those concerns from low handicap golfers right across the country and I think there are some challenges there.
“What I would try and articulate is that in any competition, because the average index is around 19, the majority of golfers in that competition will probably be within 16 and 21 and therefore the probability of someone winning in that category is higher than the lower handicap – because of the numbers of those players and they’ve got more room to improve within their handicap as well.
“That is an educational piece – and not everyone will necessarily agree with it – but it’s the probability of that group of golfers being more likely to win because there are more of them, not because the handicap system is biased in any way.
“Of course, there is the fairness and equity that’s built into the system [with measures like playing handicaps]. With the anonymised data we’re providing to the R&A and USGA, like all federations, they’re analysing that on a regular basis to make sure the handicap allowances are where they should we.
“We’ve done some data crunching in the past around handicap allowances and if there were changes – 100%, 95%, 90%, 80% – what impact that would have on competitions. It would have a very limiting effect – certainly in terms of the top three golfers that would win, on average, a competition.
“The data tells a story and that’s something from our point of view of responsibility, and also the R&A and USGA, that we’re constantly looking at. But it’s more around education and awareness as opposed to an issue with the system itself.”
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What do we think of the World Handicap System?
On The NCG Golf Podcast, Tom Irwin and I discussed the figures and whether the perception of golfers towards the World Handicap System was shifting.
Tom said: “There’s some context that’s quite important in that the readers of National Club Golfer, and the people who filled out this survey, are not Johnny Come Lately golfers who like the World Handicap System because it’s the only think they’ve ever experienced, or like the World Handicap System because they’re an iGolfer and that’s the way they access it,
“They are dyed in the wool club golfers who have been through the CONGU system and through the change of the handicap system. They play a lot, so I think it’s very surprising that such a big portion of what people would describe as trad golfers think the new season is all right.”
He added: “The other bit of context is that, in this same survey, the people who responded said they really valued competitive golf. So they’re people who are playing a lot, who like playing competitively, and want the system to be equitable on that basis.
“I guess what you would read into it is that many do see the system is at least as equitable as the old, otherwise they wouldn’t really like it. It somewhat begs the question, ‘why do people like it’ and what does this particularly population of people think it’s OK when the noise online tends to be the opposite of people harking back to the days of CONGU and being very critical of the new system.”
Tom and I talk in depth about these World Handicap System findings and what they mean for its future, along with looking at what you thought about dress codes, in this week’s episode of The NCG Golf Podcast.
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Now have your say on the World Handicap System
What do you think about these World Handicap System survey results? Do you like the system, or do you struggle with it? Let us know with a comment on X.
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