World Handicap System Explained - 8 Things Every Golfer Needs To Know
In this video, Golf Monthly's Jezz Ellwood takes a detailed look at the world handicap system. He picks out the 8 most important things that every golfer needs to know. From handicap indexes to slope rating and exceptional score reductions, this video will walk you through the terms and explain how they might affect your game. What do you think of the new world handicap system?
Transcript
00:00 [Music]
00:02 WHS, the World Handicap System, it's here.
00:08 We're all now going to be playing by the same set of handicap regulations wherever we play
00:12 golf in the world.
00:13 In the UK and Ireland for example we've been used to terms like competition scratch score,
00:18 standard scratch score, buffer zones, 0.1 increases for a long time.
00:23 Those have all gone.
00:24 There's a whole new set of terms to get your head around to understand how this slope based
00:28 system is going to work.
00:30 In this video we're going to pick out eight of what we think are the key terms to get
00:35 your head around so you get a better understanding of how the new system works.
00:40 [Music]
00:42 Well the most important term I think is handicap index because this is what we all have now
00:50 rather than a handicap as such.
00:51 And there is a key difference here because the index is then used to determine how many
00:56 shots you get on a given course off a given set of tees.
01:01 And you'll get more shots on harder courses and fewer shots on easier courses based on
01:05 the slope rating which is another term we'll come on to in a minute.
01:10 In the transition from the old system to the new system it will work out your best eight
01:14 scores from 20 over a two year period going forward best eight out of a rolling 20 and
01:19 it will average those out.
01:21 And for those who didn't have 20 scores in the system when the changeover came it will
01:24 pro rater it on the number of scores available and work out a suitable number of those to
01:29 use to create your average.
01:30 So handicap index is what you're going to have going forward rather than a handicap.
01:36 [Music]
01:38 So from handicap index we then come on to course handicap which is what you'll actually
01:45 get when you play a given course and it's a factor of your handicap index, the tees
01:49 you choose to play from and the slope rating from those tees.
01:54 You will actually from that then get a playing handicap depending on the format being played.
01:58 For example single stroke play events are going to be 95% of your course handicap.
02:03 To calculate your course handicap and you don't have to do this because this will all
02:07 be done for you, you take the slope rating of the course, divide it by the 113 average
02:14 and then multiply it by your handicap index and that will give you your course handicap
02:19 for the set of tees you're choosing to play from.
02:22 Basically what you really need to know is that if the slope rating is above 113 you're
02:27 likely to get more shots depending how much above it is and if it's below 113 you're
02:33 likely to get fewer shots than your handicap index.
02:36 But that will depend on what your handicap index is and how much above or below that
02:41 113 average the slope rating of the course you're playing that day is.
02:46 [Music]
02:48 Course rating is the figure that trained course assessors expect a scratch golfer to
02:57 get round a golf course in and for the purposes of their calculations they assume a scratch
03:02 golfer is someone who can hit it 250 off the tee with a driver and 230 with a fairway wood
03:08 in normal playing conditions.
03:10 For a lady I think those figures are 210 and 170.
03:14 So the course rating will sometimes be more than the par of the course, sometimes less
03:18 than the par of the course and that will depend on factors such as topography, fairway width,
03:24 difficulty of holes, amount of out of bounds, factors that make one course harder than another
03:29 and course assessors take all of that into account.
03:32 I suppose for those of us in the UK and Ireland it's similar to the way in which standard
03:36 scratch score often was different to the par of the course one way or the other by a shot
03:40 or two.
03:41 [Music]
03:41 The final piece of the jigsaw then to allow us to get the slope rating is the bogey rating
03:51 and this is effectively the same as the course rating but for a 20 handicap male golfer or
03:57 24 handicap lady golfer and they assume in the assessments there that a 20 handicap male
04:03 golfer will hit it 200 with driver, 170 with a fairway wood.
04:07 Obviously we all know people who vary massively one way or the other from that, but that's
04:10 the average ladies the figures are 150 and 130 and the idea here is this will assess
04:16 how difficult the golf course is to get round for golfers in that handicap bracket.
04:21 From there we then go on to work out what the slope rating is.
04:30 So now we come on to the crux of the whole system, the slope rating and this uses course
04:35 rating and bogey rating to assess the relative difficulty of a golf course for good players
04:40 if you like and slightly less skilled players.
04:43 Now these slope ratings vary from 55 for what would be a fairly easy course up to 155 for
04:49 a very difficult golf course.
04:50 113 is the key figure, it is the average against which the difficulty level of a golf course
04:56 is assessed.
04:57 We will come on to that a little bit more in a minute.
05:00 The idea is that the harder a golf course is the more strokes a higher handicapper might
05:04 need to get round on an equal basis with a lower handicapper.
05:08 The difficulty level kind of goes in a curve like that rather than like that.
05:12 If you want an example of what I mean by that let's think about Augusta National.
05:16 Tour pros are often asked how would an average 20 handicapper fair round here in the master
05:22 set up and they will say they wouldn't come remotely close to breaking 100, 110 even.
05:27 Whereas that same 20 handicapper could play around a relatively easy golf course in the
05:31 early 90s.
05:33 Now I have looked on the England Golf website and it tells me that my handicap index is
05:36 going to be 4.3.
05:39 Now that means around this golf course here at the London Club, we have done the maths,
05:43 I would get 5.25, 5.3 shots so I would play off 5 if I played off the tips around here.
05:50 If I played elsewhere, even a harder golf course, let's say Carnoustie, Trump International
05:55 off the back tees, the slope rating is going to be somewhere up in the 140s, maybe even
05:59 150, I suspect I would get 6 shots round there.
06:03 But the difference is a higher handicapper going to a place like that, let's say you
06:07 are playing off 21 or 22, you might find when you get to Trump International and you decide
06:12 to take it on off the back tees, wisely or unwisely, you might find you are getting 28
06:17 or 29 shots.
06:18 I haven't done the precise maths, but the higher your handicap, the more shots you are
06:23 likely to get over and above your handicap index than a lower handicapper.
06:28 Conversely of course if the slope rating is lower you are going to get fewer shots.
06:32 Now the good news is you don't have to do all this maths yourself.
06:35 Club should be displaying course handicap information on notice boards, perhaps big
06:41 boards by the tee, hopefully on the website.
06:44 So all the figures are there for you, all you have to do is cross reference your handicap
06:48 index against the slope rating of the tees you have chosen to play from that day and
06:53 you will find out how many strokes you are entitled to for that given round.
07:02 Ok so that is the basics, now there are a few other little things that are going to
07:05 have some bearing on how the whole thing works.
07:07 One of those is the playing conditions calculation, PCC, and this is going to factor in other
07:14 conditions on the day out on the golf course, weather, firmness of fairways or whatever
07:19 that either make the course particularly easy or particularly hard and it is going to factor
07:23 that into the handicap calculations for that day based on anyone out on the course that
07:28 day playing in a competition or putting in a card for handicap.
07:32 It can go down one, it can go up plus three, those of us in the UK are kind of used to
07:37 a similar thing with the competition scratch score which mitigated against the course playing
07:43 particularly easy or particularly hard on a given day.
07:45 So that will still be there for those of us in the UK, it may be new to people elsewhere
07:49 in the world.
07:57 Finally then there is a couple of what you might term safeguards in the system which
08:00 we just need to talk about here.
08:02 The first of those is the low handicap index and this is an anchor point which is the low
08:07 point of your handicap over a 12 month period and your handicap cannot rise by more than
08:12 five shots from that.
08:14 I guess that is to mitigate possibly against foul play I suppose, but more a really poor
08:19 spell of form seeing your handicap go like that which it would do under the new system
08:24 more so than under the old system for those of us in the UK and Ireland where 20 bad rounds
08:29 would see you go up two shots 0.1 times 20, 20 really poor rounds under the new system
08:35 could in theory see your handicap rise massively.
08:39 So there is going to be a limit of five and there is also a couple of things called soft
08:42 and hard caps.
08:43 The soft cap once your handicap has gone up by more than three from that LHI, low handicap
08:49 index anything above that between there and five only goes up by half what it would do
08:54 under the normal calculation.
08:55 So if it would have gone up to five it only goes up to four, if it would have gone up
08:59 to six it only goes up to 4.5 and then there is the hard cap which is that five, that absolute
09:05 limit by which your handicap cannot go up by more than that over the course of a 12
09:09 month period.
09:17 Finally then we have a safeguard the other way if you like by the exceptional score reduction
09:22 measure that is going to be built into the system and this is really to ensure that if
09:27 you have an absolute blinder and you play a long way below your handicap index your
09:32 handicap index gets affected by more than it would do under the normal calculation and
09:37 the bar has been set at seven.
09:38 If you have a score differential in a round which is seven or more so you play seven shots
09:44 better than your handicap index there will be an extra minus one set against your handicap
09:48 index and that will apply to all the 20 current counting score differentials which means that
09:54 over time it will gradually drop off but at that particular moment you will have an extra
09:59 one shot taken off your handicap.
10:01 Finally then if you shoot 10 under your handicap index you are going to have a two stroke additional
10:07 reduction applied to your 20 current counting score differentials and that is just to make
10:12 sure that your handicap index reflects your current ability and that you don't therefore
10:18 go and clean up in competitions because the normal calculation didn't give you a big enough
10:22 reduction and if it was just a freak once in a lifetime score then gradually over the
10:28 next few rounds it will work its way back out of your handicap index.
10:32 So there we are those are what we think are the key terms you need to know about the World
10:35 Handicap System you can go into as much detail as you like elsewhere on the Home Union websites
10:40 but the key things you really need to know are handicap index and the slope rating of
10:44 the course you are playing from the tees you are playing from that day.
10:48 So what do you think of the World Handicap System, Handicap Index, do you know what yours
10:52 is?
10:53 Has it surprised you?
10:54 Do you think the system is going to be better or worse than the old system for us in the
10:58 UK and Ireland?
10:59 Let us know your thoughts below but for now from a slightly wet and windy London club
11:03 it's goodbye.
11:04 [Music]