Work out your new handicap with this handy World Handicap System chart
If you’re worried you’ll need advanced maths skills to work out what you’ll be playing off under the World Handicap System then fear not: it should be child’s play.
If software doesn’t do the job automatically when you register to play, clubs will put up a conversion table that will help you easily use your handicap index to find your course handicap for that day’s play.
Don’t believe me? Have a look at the course handicap table for my home club, Sandburn Hall in York.
When you have your World Handicap System handicap index, you’ll simply find it on the chart and your course handicap at the club where you are playing will be revealed.
Don’t try to do this now with your current CONGU handicap as it may change when we move to the new handicap system and it’s your best eight out of the 20 most recent scores that replaces the current aggregate method.
Let me give you my own example, though, to show you how it might work in practice. At the end of the 2018 season, my CONGU handicap was 9.2.
When my best 8 out of 20 scores were put through the calculator, my handicap index under the new system came out at 7.8.
Taking the course rating and slope of my course into consideration – Sandburn Hall is relatively difficult off the white tees at 73.6 course rating and 136 slope – my course handicap came out at 9.
So, in my case, my course handicap under WHS happened to be the same as my CONGU handicap at that time.
This table doesn’t take into account the later revisions that might be needed from various allowances – such as medals, Stableford, or fourball betterball – to give us our Playing Handicap for a particular day’s competition or event.
But, hopefully, it will show you that life under the new handicap system need not be the head-scratching, calculator-inducing headache you might assume if you’ve lost yourself in trying to work out how slope applies to you.
Need more information on the World Handicap System?
Visit our dedicated WHS page where you will find everything you need to know and details of how to contact us if you have any more questions.
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Steve Carroll
A journalist for 25 years, Steve has been immersed in club golf for almost as long. A former club captain, he has passed the Level 3 Rules of Golf exam with distinction having attended the R&A's prestigious Tournament Administrators and Referees Seminar.
Steve has officiated at a host of high-profile tournaments, including Open Regional Qualifying, PGA Fourball Championship, English Men's Senior Amateur, and the North of England Amateur Championship. In 2023, he made his international debut as part of the team that refereed England vs Switzerland U16 girls.
A part of NCG's Top 100s panel, Steve has a particular love of links golf and is frantically trying to restore his single-figure handicap. He currently floats at around 11.
Steve plays at Close House, in Newcastle, and York GC, where he is a member of the club's matches and competitions committee and referees the annual 36-hole scratch York Rose Bowl.
Having studied history at Newcastle University, he became a journalist having passed his NTCJ exams at Darlington College of Technology.
What's in Steve's bag: TaylorMade Stealth 2 driver, 3-wood, and hybrids; Caley 01T irons 4-PW; TaylorMade Hi-Toe wedges, Ping ChipR, Sik Putter.
