Here's a quick way to work out your World Handicap System Index

Your World Handicap System Index updates at midnight every time you submit an acceptable score.

Even so, that’s still too long for some of us who want to know as soon as possible what our efforts on the course are going to do to our numbers.

In the old CONGU days, you’d have a guess at what competition standard scratch would be – sometimes a live leaderboard would give you a glimpse of how it was looking – and then you’d subtract 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 or 0.4 for each shot you were under your handicap depending on what category you were in.

If you were going to cross a category, you’d have a guess at where that would happen and change accordingly.

If you’d had a bad day, you knew you were adding the dreaded .1.

Some of you clearly yearn to do this with WHS too and you’ll be delighted to learn there is a very simple, and pretty accurate, way to work it out. Ready?

How to quickly calculate your World Handicap System index

Take the score differentials of your best eight rounds out of your last 20 and just divide them by eight.

How do you do this? If you’ve got the MyEG app (and if you haven’t you should just download it from the Apple or Google Play stores), and if you haven’t got a counting round dropping off just look for the rounds in green.

You’ll find the number titled ‘Score Diff’ to the left and it is that figure you use.

So in my case, my WHS index is 11.0. My eight best score differentials are: 9.6, 14.4, 13.5, 14.5, 6.5, 6.5, 11.8 and 11.4.

Add them together and you get 88.2. Divide them by eight, and… the calculator spits out 11.025. Or a WHS Index of 11.0.

If you’ve got a counting round dropping off, you should still be able to find the differential of your next lowest score. If it’s your most latest round the number will be there even if the round hasn’t been tagged as green yet.

Then just repeat the process to find your new Index.

But you will need to be aware that a Playing Conditions Calculation adjustment could apply – depending on how players performed in the conditions against expected scoring patterns – and that isn’t processed until after midnight on the day you’ve played your round.

Have your say

Have you used this system to work out your World Handicap System index? Do you use an even simpler way? Let me know about it on X.

WHS Changes 2024

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; TaylorMade Stealth 2 irons; TaylorMade Hi-Toe, Ping ChipR, Sik Putter.