Your New WHS Index

Interesting, opens up a few options to have counting rounds at a course with a few wetter holes this time of the year

I don't it has much to do with interclubs, the changes are just for local comps. Anyone "holding back" for interclubs isn't targeting a run at their home club comps. This is just chucked in to the statement on the info release. The changes themselves appear to be more so for dealing with the distribution of handicap ranges in a given comp. It's basically taking a bell curve and shifting the graph right/left depending on what percentage allowance is in play.

There's a KEY statement at the end of the appendix document: "As an alternative, Committees may consider adapting their competitions to include divisions or flights, with different handicap ranges competing for different prizes." Which most clubs seem to have already done.

I don't think this is as easy as you think. You can't mix/match holes to be considered "counting". The course is either in counting conditions or not.

To get a less than 18-hole score scaled up for a WHS differential, you must play a properly rated 9-hole course at a minimum. Eg a complete front 9 or back 9, both of which will have ratings. Additional holes can be played. Eg 1-9 & 10-12 for 15 holes or 10-18 & 1-3 for 12 holes. Both of these scenarios include a rated course, so the score will be scaled up.

You can't for example receive a counting score for playing 1-8 on the front and 11-18 on the back 9. There's no rated course of 9 holes completed here so nothing that can be done.

I think it's 1 off index for 7 ..9 over level 36 pts.

2 off index 10 and up

It's the same for any cut or adjustment including exceptional score reduction. They always go onto your last 20 scores. So it does take time for it to disappear. By then the player's index/ability is expected to catch up or even out so to speak.

https://www.randa.org/en/roh/the-rules-of-handicapping/rule-5#5_9

yes this is exactly how it’s done. So each of your last 20 differentials would be reduced by 2. Obviously most of them don’t count… but some do and others could come in at later points in time.

So when you take your best 8, reduced each of them by 2, and get the average (/8) it will work back to the 2 shot HI cut.

obviously as soon as you start playing and putting new counting scores through, the cut begins to wash itself out

What way are clubs going with the handicap allowance?

Ours are going 85% of course handicap for singles comps, 75% in fourball comps will be interesting to see what impact it has.

I was at a WHS seminar run by golf Ireland a couple of weeks ago

They indicated that clubs should not just jump to change the % allowances without careful consideration

They gave stats (I didn’t note them down unfortunately but think I have this correct, and if not it’s not far off). Before WHS something like 48% of prize winners were single figure handicappers. Since WHS it’s 52%. Now this is obviously from a wide range and every club is different.

Personally I think it’s a disaster of a move. You will end up not knowing what your handicap is, especially if you play in multiple clubs / course who all have different rules.

They should have done away with a playing handicap altogether and adjusted the course handicap formula.

course and playing handicap actually make for higher handicap’s. Someone in a comp who has no shot with their playing handicap just picks up their ball rather than knocking it in for the double but they would have had a shot with their course handicap….. their true score differential is now not reflected and their posted SD is higher resulting in a higher handicap. Now there could be quite a few holes where this happens for higher handicap’s.

the average would not really have a major impact of lower handicap’s but the whole CH and PH is aimed at the higher ones and these are the golfers who will do this kind of thing quite a lot.

It’s an unintended consequence and was discussed at the seminar but the recommendations from golf Ireland was everyone should be aware and finish out for their net bogey when their PH would otherwise give them no point. Now I’ve seen this countless times and had plenty of chats about it and most golfers basically don’t understand. Us nerds do, but even still I’ve fallen victim to it myself a fair few times because on the day you are really only looking at what shots you have and not your CH and in an instant you can very easily make a quick decision to pick up in error.

I had absolutely no awareness of that, wow. Good to know.

If you're playing at 95%, someone with say a 13 index on a course with a slope of 130 and CR of 72 vs par of 72 would have 15 shots as a course handicap but would have 14 as a PH

If they're playing the index 15 in the comp, they have no shot, but off their CH they do have a shot.

So, if they've scratched the hole, as a 14 handicap, they could pick up and say, stick me down for a double, which would be a counting score off their PH, even though its a scratch off their CH.

I think that's the point Seve was making.

It's more for handicap/differential calculation than competition points

The point that struck me most in Seve's post was that single figure handicappers went from making up just under half to just over half of prizewinners. It's the point I keep on banging on about with regard to the calls to make the system more fair to lower handicap golfers - what do the stats actually say? From reading opinions and anecdotal evidence from message board posters, podcasters, committees - single figure golfers can't compete under the new system. We're now giving clubs the option of amending the handicaps to increase that 52% of prizes that they're picking up. What percentage of entrants do they make up in a comp? My handicap is 12.2 and I'm in the top 20%. The single figure guys play more than the higher handicap ones, but there's no way they're making up half of the competition entrants on average. Might they make up a quarter of entrants? And pick up half the prizes? Making them 3 times more likely to win prizes than the higher handicap guys? Here I am making up stats and giving out about people doing just that in the same paragraph. But it's clear the stats are there. I'd love to be overloaded with them so that I could actually have a proper opinion. But there seems to be no interest in releasing them.

Now, there's far more to say about it than what I've said above. The other point that I think gets completely lost is that people want handicaps to do different things. I'd love to GAA to provide guidance on it to make it clear what they're trying to achieve (clear, not vague). Do they want everyone to be able to compete against each other? Is it to reflect the players form? Is it to reflect potential (and how much is it to reflect this - if a fella could be good if he played more, but has never played much in the last 10 or 20 years, should it still reflect this potential?).

Still though - single figures - 52% of prizes. That's not the impression you get in any commentary on the new system.

I've a huge issue with the reporting side of the administration of WHS. We have a poster here who says Golf Ireland say its 52% or at least they have some sort of stats on it anyway regardless of what it says, why is that not in the public domain? They should compile a yearly report going through the stats and not leave people to do their own work on their clubs results or speculate online as to how friendly or unfriendly the WHS is to high/low handicappers. The fact they aren't doing this just lends support to whatever conspiracy theory you have around WHS. From conversations I've had and similar to others here, a lot of lower handicappers think WHS is unfair to them, if there are stats that disprove this, make them public. Not doing so just makes no sense to me and contributes to the distrust of the new system.

I'd think you'd also need to make sure you're comparing apples with apples in terms of the prize data.

Most clubs have now switched over to category prizes rather than overall prizes as I think it got skewed badly initially when WHS was introduced.

So by nature you should end up with a more equitable spread of prizes now, if low guys are technically competing in Most comps against other low guys, etc...

You'd also need to remove gross prize from the stats I think, as that's going to skew any stats massively.

My place switched from top 3 and gross in most weekly comps to category prizes because of inequality in prizes

Question in expected score calculations to make a 9 hole round into an 18 hole differential:

I’m trying to work out if the expected back 9 differential calculation is punitive and therefore will hurt you when trying to lower your handicap.

As I understand it the expected 9 hole differential calc is WHI*0.52+1.2. i.e. there is no relationship between how you played your front 9 its a fixed expected score. Am I right in saying though that by definition that calc is assuming you won’t play to your WHI (multiplying by 0.52 rather than 0.5 and adding 1.2 shots)- which is a reasonable concept but if you are playing well you’d be better off finishing off your 18 holes than relying on the expecting differential to “continue” your good scoring if you’re trying to get your handicap down.
In other words am I right in saying that putting in 9 hole general play scores will make it harder to get your handicap down than playing 18.

Short Course Handicaps in Singles Competitions

• For Singles competitions that are non-acceptable for handicaps played on an 18 Hole Course then when selecting "Yes" to the "Holes in Use" setting, a new setting for "Course Handicap Calculation Type" will display. Users can select between "Standard Calculation" and "Short Course Calculation".
• Selecting "Standard Calculation" will use the standard handicap calculations, for example (Handicap Index x (Slope Rating / 113)) x (Course Rating - Par).
• Selecting "Short Course Calculation" will take into account any holes not in use and adjust the Course Handicap accordingly. The following is an example of the Short Course Calculation. (Handicap Index x (Slope Rating / 113))  + (Course Rating - Par) x (Number of Holes in Use / 18).
• There will also be another option to rationalise the Stroke Indexes of the remaining holes. If for example there are 4 holes not in use, the stroke indexes will change to account for the loss of these holes. The Stroke Indexes will then be from 1 - 14 instead of 1 - 18 but will retain their order.
  
  

This is a extract from some new ClubV1 “ improvements “.

Do we really need a new complicated Formulae on top of everything else ?

New system is absolute tosh in comparison to the old.

The R&A took what the yanks had, made it even worse, and tried to fix something that wasn't broken. So a golf for all etc. When it wasn't really required.

And now here we are. Not that I really care anymore.