All posts by Duane Bender - 6. page

As I explained in an earlier post here, the golf world changed yesterday to the new World Handicap System. This necessitated changes to the My Handicap program on our website. Gérard Grégoire has completed the software changes to comply with the WHS, and he will be installing them this Saturday, January 4th. The My Handicap app will be offline for some time Saturday for installation and testing. So….

• Before Saturday morning: You may post scores as normal. The course handicaps calculated during this period will not be correct, but scores posted will be recalculated and updated on Saturday.
• Saturday morning: While we’re installing and testing the new software, you will not have access to the My Handicap page. Write down your scores and post them after the update has completed.
• After Saturday morning: The new system will be active, and you may post scores and see your new WHS-complaint course handicaps.
  

The biggest difference you will notice is that your handicaps from the different tees will be markedly different. Under the old system, which did not take course rating into account in calculating course handicaps, your course handicaps were about the same (+/- 1 stroke) from all the tees. Under the WHS, which adjusts course handicaps to account for course ratings, your handicaps will be much different for each tee. For women, your handicap from the gold tees will be 3-4 strokes higher than from the red tees. For men, your handicap from the black tees will be 7-8 strokes higher than from the golds. The good news is that, no matter what tees you play from, and no matter what tees your opponents play from, you will use the displayed course handicap for your tees. No more subtracting 2 strokes when you play from the golds in Mens League, for example.

Starting on January 1st, all golf federations (USGA, RCGA, R&A, etc) will change to the new World Handicap System (WHS).  The following is a summary of the major changes.

• The one change you need to make: The maximum score you can take on any hole will be net double bogey. So that’s a double bogey on a non-stroke hole, triple bogey on a hole where you get one stroke, quadruple bogey on a hole where you get two strokes, etc.

• A major change that won’t require any action on your part, but a change you will definitely see—is the way in which your course handicaps are calculated. The new system will adjust your course handicap by the difference between par and course rating on each tee. Since our blue tees have a course rating of 71.7 (only 0.3 less than par), you won’t see much if any change. But the other tees have course ratings significantly above or below par, so they will change accordingly. Black tee handicaps will go up by 2-3 strokes, while white tee handicaps will go down by about 2 strokes, and gold by about 4 strokes. These WHS handicaps will allow you to play against players on different tees without further adjustment. On our website, you will no longer see two sets of handicaps (course and league)—just the new already-adjusted course handicaps.

• Another change, which will tend to make your handicap index slightly lower, is that your index will be based on the best 8 of your last 20 scores, rather than the 10 best we used in the past.

• Your WHS handicap index will be updated immediately whenever a new score is posted. Our system was already doing that, but Americans with GHIN handicaps will see this change back home.

• Maximum handicap index for all players, men and women, is now 54.0.

• WHS will institute a couple new measures, called “soft caps” and “hard caps,” intended to keep your handicap index from climbing too rapidly. This will only affect you if your index climbs more than 3 strokes in a 365-day period, so you’re unlikely to see any effect from this one.

• There will no longer be “tournament scores.” They are being replaced by “exceptional score reduction.” Every time you post a score, the system will compare that score with your handicap index, and, if the score is deemed exceptionally low for your index, it will lower your index slightly.

• Penalty scores for failure to post your score after a round. The Handicap Committee will consider procedures for implementing this at El Tigre. 

For further details, you can read the actual new WHS rules in this document. If you have any questions on these changes, post a comment here.

NOTE: You probably already received an email about this tournament, but I’m posting it here so that players looking for a team can leave a comment.

Andy asked me to post the following notice:

The American school is doing a golf tournament this Saturday out at Punta Mita. If anyone wants to play it’s $900.00 usd per foursome, breakfast and lunch included. Let me know if anyone wants to enter a team. It’s a great value and the course is in great shape. If you ever wanted to play Four Seasons Punta Mita, this is a very cheap way to do it . Regular rate is over $300.00, with  no breakfast or lunch . Oh and tons of prizes.

Andy Schmidt
322 159 2839