By Kelly Neely, Sr. Dir., Handicapping & Course Rating
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What the WHS Doesn’t Do, Part I

It occurs to me that I’ve spent the better part of the last 18 months (Note: given the last 18 months, the better part is undoubtedly right now) encouraging everyone to fully, if not enthusiastically, embrace the World Handicap System.

This is where I would normally spew out a trite adage like “time flies when you’re having fun” but as you get older you realize that time flies with the same speed when you’re having fun as when you’re not having fun, unless of course you’ve been following an excruciatingly slow group for five holes.

But back to the WHS. Often like an over-caffeinated cheerleader or a face-painted fan wearing a foam finger, I’ve cheerfully championed the new system (this might be a tad overstated). Hopefully at this stage of the game you have a better understanding of what the WHS is and what it does. But maybe some things become even more clear when you know what they are not and what they don’t do.

As the World Handicap System comprises both the Rules of Handicapping and the Course Rating System, we’ll cover the latter next month. Don’t know how you’ll manage the anticipation but I’m sure you’ll think of something. Please post your score afterwards.
 

The WHS doesn’t...

• ...give you an average
  
  Especially with all the stats now available in our scoring records, it’s fun to see what our median score is. But is this useable data? No. It has no meaning to a Handicap Index. I get weekly calls from golfers not quite knowing how the system works, who are more than a little disenchanted with their handicap. Frankly, they assume it’s wrong because it seems too low. “But my average score is 86!” they plead. When you’re playing against another player – in the Club Championship or just for a beer – you want to know the best they are capable of, not their average. And they want to know the same about you.
  
  (Note: If you’re running a tournament and a player without a Handicap Index tries to enter by presenting to you their average score, please don’t accept it. This doesn’t mean you’re cantankerous. Well, you might be but it’s simply what is fair. Afterall, when dealing with handicaps we want to compare apples to apples. Or kumquats to kumquats. Ask for recent scores and manually apply the Handicap System formulas, which will help you get a better indicator of the player’s demonstrated ability. You’ll have to do a little icky math, but the rest of the field will thank you. Better yet, ask the player to join an OGA member club, get a real Index and become an apple. Or a kumquat. Whatever.
   
• ... care about your age
  
  I applaud senior discounts – from Honored Citizen Menus to 10% off Tuesdays at Freddie’s, I think seniors should receive every possible advantage. And up to a certain age kids also get price breaks that please parents. But when it comes to the World Handicap System, you’re not going to get a pass for your age. Whether you’re 8 or 80, the only thing the WHS focuses in on is your golf skill as denoted by the scores you’re posting. Your Handicap Index will go up and down as your game changes and is more responsive than ever before, but the system doesn’t know you can’t hit the ball as far as you once did or that you just turned 75. The WHS is the ultimate anti-ageist.   
   
• ... know you have a bad back
  
  All golfers suffer pain now and then and sometimes every day. No, I’m not referring to the mental misery inflicted by a wonky swing or a case of the yips. From a gimpy gait due to sore knees, or that annoying affliction typical to many golfers – a rotator cuff issue – the WHS is completely unaware of your physical distress (my achy shoulder is due to my 110 lb. German Shepherd walking me). The system is simply a perpetual motion machine constantly crunching numbers. Notice that when you are posting your score, no data field exists where you can enter a value for Today’s Pain Scale. All of that said, numbers can be cold, hard, and unfeeling. And that’s where amiable humans come in – which is a warm and fuzzy segue into the next bullet point.
   
• ... only consider formulas
  
  Complicated equations abound in the WHS. We see decimal figures, integers, pluses and minuses. Scoring differentials, Handicap Indexes, Course Handicaps and Playing Handicaps: each have their own formula. Interestingly, the algorithm for the Playing Conditions Calculation (PCC) is safely shrouded like a state secret and is only unlocked by the mathematical geniuses on the Handicap Research Team. Heady stuff, to be sure.
  
  Many players assume that the Handicap System is a purely data in, data out process. They have no idea there is an earnest individual at the club who has taken on the rather thankless job of Handicap Chair, and this fellow member wields quite a bit of power. Our Handicap Chairs are a humble lot. They’re not chest-thumping and handing out Penalty Scores like foot-longs at a baseball game, but they are the final word in handicapping at the club. If you’ve suffered an illness or injury significant enough to impact your ability to play with or against other players on a fair and equal basis, then your Handicap Chair might be able to provide a more benevolent adjustment than even your chiropractor can.
   
• ... put more emphasis on tournament scores
  
  We all know that uber-competitive golfer who performs better in tournaments than in regular play (how DO they do it?). They seem to thrive on the pressure-cooker environment of a major event and are able to pull out all the stops along with the right clubs in their bag. In the prior USGA Handicap System, a player who had at least two Tournament scores that were significantly better than their Handicap Index could experience a reduction to their Index – the big, dreaded R we wryly called a “reward for playing well” – even months after playing in the event. This was not only difficult to explain (one culprit of my premature aging), the reduction procedure was not a particularly responsive feature of the system.
  
  But with the launch of the WHS, scores made in events (now tagged as Competition scores) do not undergo the same tracking and extra reduction calculation as before. The system has evolved and is now much more intuitive, as any score can be considered exceptional if it’s low enough. Pretty sure you’ll know if you’ve carded an ESR before the system does.  
   
• ... care who you play with
  
  While this article has highlighted a few important things the WHS doesn’t do, I’ll conclude with one of its main objectives. It literally does not care who you play with because it allows you to play with anyone. You’ve got to start with accurate Handicap Indexes (not too much to ask, right?) but the WHS does enable golfers of differing abilities, genders and nationalities to take their handicap to any rated course in the world and compete on a fair basis.
   

Another way to say this is: somebody’s giving somebody strokes.
 

Questions? Contact Kelly or Gretchen in the OGA Handicapping & Course Rating Department at (503) 981-4653 x226 or Click Here to Email Your Question