General Handicapping Information

The information below describes the more technical aspects of WHS golf handicapping that you may be interested in.

• For a simple overview see the information provided on the World Handicap System website:
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• For highly technical information see the USGA document:
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• The WHS allows handicap indexes up to 54.0. It also caters for "plus" handicaps. A "plus" handicap is one that is better than "scratch". When a plus handicap player finishes a round of golf, instead of SUBTRACTING the playing handicap from the gross score to get the net score the player has to ADD the playing handicap to the gross score instead. Less than 1% of amateur golfers have a "plus" handicap.
• Your WHS handicap index is based on the average of your 8 best scores in your last 20 rounds. It essentally uses the Adjusted Gross Score (your score after applying Net Double Bogey limits) to calculate what is known as the score differential, which allows WHS to compare rounds played on different courses, tees, or days on a fair, standardised basis.
• A simple way of calculating your approximate score differential is to figure out what handicap index you would have needed to be to have scored 36 stableford points instead of the score you scored on that round of golf e.g.
  • your handicap index is currently 21.3
  • you scored 32 stableford points
  • to have scored 36 stableford points you would have had to have a handicap index of approximately:

    21.3 + (36 - 32) = 25.3

  This would be your score differential. It is only approximate though as it also depends on the Slope Rating (SR) and the Course Rating (CR) of the course as well as the Playing Conditions (PCC) of the course on that day. The true WHS formula is:
  
  
  Score Differential = 113/SR x (Adjusted Gross Score - CR - PCC)

As you can see, calculating your new WHS Handicap Index after a competition is quite complicated. It is far easier just to go to the CGF webpage, shown earlier, or use the MyCGF app.

Course Rating (CR)

The 'Course Rating' is a measure of the playing difficulty of a course for scratch golfers under normal course and weather conditions. It is expressed as strokes taken to one decimal place, and is based on yardage and other obstacles (such as bunkers and penalty areas) to the extent that they affect the scoring ability of a scratch golfer.

A 'Scratch Golfer' is a theoretical construct used in rating golf courses. A scratch golfer would have a playing handicap of zero on any and all properly rated golf courses.

• A male scratch golfer can hit tee shots an average of 250 yards and can reach a 470-yard hole in two shots.
• A female scratch golfer can hit tee shots an average of 210 yards and can reach a 400-yard hole in two shots.

Slope Rating (SR)

The 'Slope Rating' is a measure of the relative playing difficulty of a course for players who are not scratch golfers, relative to the Course Rating (i.e. compared to the difficulty of the course for scratch golfers). Slope Rating is computed from the difference between the rating for a Bogey Golfer and the Course Rating.

A 'Bogey Golfer' is a theoretical construct used in rating golf courses.

• A male bogey golfer has a playing handicap of approximately 20 on a course of standard difficulty¹⁾ He can hit tee shots an average of 200 yards and can reach a 370-yard hole in two shots.
• A female bogey golfer has a playing handicap of approximately 24 on a course of standard difficulty. She can hit tee shots an average of 150 yards and can reach a 280-yard hole in two shots.

Course Handicap

A 'Course Handicap' is the number of handicap strokes a player receives for a specific set of tees at the course being played. It is expressed as a whole number (e.g. 0.5 rounds upwards to 1, 11.5 rounds upwards to 12, for "plus" handicaps however 0.5 rounds upwards to scratch, "plus" 1.5 to "plus" 1 and so on) using the EGA Playing Handicap Formula:

A less mentally demanding way of finding the playing handicap is to look at the "Playing Handicap Table" for the particular set of tees on that course. This is displayed in the notice board by the first tee at Minthis Hills.

Please note that your Course Handicap is not necessarily the handicap you will use when playing a competition. Some competitions only allow you to use a percentage (e.g. 90%) of your course handicap when competing. Your Playing Handicap will be the Percentage Allowance for that competition of your Course Handicap.