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Re: Real Golf: World Handicap Index

• alosso 21,034 Posts

  Mon, Apr 5 2021 9:29 PM

  Hi,

  I'm curious to hear about the new WHI in other countries worldwide. How is the transition going? How are you affected? What do you think about the new regulations?

  I take it that all golfers with an official handicap are now "blessed" with the American way.

  In Germany, like in other countries of continental Europe, we used to calculate and add up the net Stableford points of each individual hole, and each tournament result would alter the HCP on itself.

  Now it's the stroke differential and the "best 8 out of 20" average.

  The German association DGV sticks with our habit that only tournament scores are used and uses a rather complicated calculation including the current HCP and the scores of the last four years to determine the initial WHI. All has been set with the yearly membership cards which show the new WHI.

  To me, there is a striking injustice that HCPs were left unchanged if no tournaments were played but an artificial reduction of at least 2 strokes applies if only one to five tournament scores are available. I was pushed from 14 to 11 :(

  What about you?

• alosso 21,034 Posts

  Tue, Apr 13 2021 10:18 PM

  Anybody from outside the US playing real golf?

• NrEighteen 956 Posts

  Wed, Apr 14 2021 1:04 AM

  Yep. 

  One of my friends had a habit of only recording his better scores, which was very few over a season. Once the new system was implemented, he had 4 rounds recorded and his hcp went from an already too low 10 to 6,5. Poor guy never won a bet again lol. 

  I think the idea is to record every round you play, to eventually get a pretty fair average. I like it better vs the old system, where adjusting upwards could take forever. 

• alosso 21,034 Posts

  Wed, Apr 14 2021 1:22 AM

  Thanks for the informative reply!

  "Post every round" is the original concept of the USGA, AFAIK. As I said, us Germans have always only used (supervised?) tournament scores, plus scores from special private rounds with a marker, for handicap purposes. This hasn't changed.

  Me, too, fell victim to the "few rounds trap". Below five scores (plus the old handicap), only the best SD (stroke differential) is used as the "average", and below three scores (plus HCP), two strokes are subtracted. Thus, with any SD higher than your HCP, the latter will drop by 2 for the new WHI. (Unjustly, those who posted no rounds will be spared of that)

  Your pal and I obviously share the additional "treat" of one SD lower than the HCP. In my case, a 13 turned into 11, he must have had a whopping 8.5 (39 Stableford?).

  It will cost me a few beers, I'm afraid :(

• NrEighteen 956 Posts

  Wed, Apr 14 2021 1:15 PM

  alosso:

  It will cost me a few beers, I'm afraid :(

  As it did my friend, to my benefit:) 

  But can´t you record every round if you want to? As long as you have a marker that shouldn't be a problem?

  Before the new system, we (Sweden) had a mandatory hcp scoring during club tournaments while rounds played with friends was recorded by choice (even if it was encouraged to record every round, but few did). Once a year, my club had a revision based on your recorded rounds compared with the average within your hcp group. For some, that could result in a correction of your hcp with some +/- 1-2 strokes. 

  I always record my rounds, unless there are extreme conditions where the fun part is to wrap it up and go home...

• alosso 21,034 Posts

  Thu, Apr 15 2021 12:04 AM

  NrEighteen:

  alosso:

  It will cost me a few beers, I'm afraid :(

  As it did my friend, to my benefit:)

  Skol!

  For "registered private rounds" to count in Germany, they must be announced to the club in advance, and paid for, as they issue the scorecard and process the posting. This is not attractive to most players.

  For tournaments, this process is inherent. This is what it has been "forever", while the private rounds have been included about ten years ago.

  Those yearly revisions have been executed by our clubs, too. I have no clue if they will be upheld, since my club told me that the HCI is now held directly by the German golfing union, DGV, while it was the clubs' responsibility before.

  I've been keeping my scores in my smartphone (mscorecard app) from the start, calculating my private HCP after every round. Due to health issues (and age), it has been veering south for some years. Now I have changed the calculation mode from EGA to WHI, instantly adding four strokes. Now, my "private HCI" is 20 while my official HCI is 11. Talk about my chances...