Can team scores count for the World Handicap System?

Let’s clear up a poser that often has many of you scratching your heads. Lots of roll ups include team games. There may be two out of three scores to count, or two from four, but there is an element of individual scoring that contributes to a greater whole.

Often, one or two players can complete an entire card and there is nothing to stop other team members from holing out and recording their own scores.

But can those scores count for your handicap? Can a round that’s put together as part of a team event be one of those WHS counting golf scores?

Let’s get into it…

WHS counting scores: Can a team score count for handicap?

Not in GB&I. Scores from team events, and that includes best two of four or any other iteration of which you can think, are not acceptable for WHS purposes.

England Golf’s checklist for acceptable scores also says: “In addition, players may not choose to submit a general play score whilst playing in a team event”.

Acceptable scores come from individual stroke play. What if we play individual stroke play within a team event, you might ask?

Handicapping rules don’t accept it as an individual score. If you think about it logically, it makes a lot of sense.

What if you had to play a hole in a particular way – attack or defend – to maximise an opportunity in a team event? You might not approach it the same way if you were playing an individual Stableford or medal.

So if you’re playing in a roll-up and you want to put in a score for handicap, you need to play an individual, rather than a team, format if you are to get your way and enter a World Handicap System score.

In the United States, though, it’s a very different picture. As well as formats in individual stroke play, four ball stroke play over both 9 and 18 holes is acceptable as is four-ball match play.

You can’t submit a score if you’re being coached, or if you’re playing in a competition where the number of clubs are restricted – such as a two-club and putter. Solo scores are not allowed and neither are those where players don’t play their own balls. So scrambles are out.

Outside of those restrictions, it’s pretty much anything goes.

Now have your say

What do you think of these WHS counting scores rules? Should team scores be allowed to count for handicap, and would you put in more if you had the chance to do so? Let me know with a comment on X.

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