England Golf’s announcement that they would postpone making any decision on handicap allowances before 2028 awoke plenty of you from your pre-Christmas slumbers.
The governing body told counties it would hold off any plans to adopt measures trialled in Ireland this year – which gave clubs more powers over how they used Playing Handicaps in competitions – until the next World Handicap System rules review.
That came after “careful consideration and consultation, including feedback from counties, committees, club staff and volunteers”.
WHS chiefs at Woodhall Spa said they would use the next couple of years to further analyse Playing Handicap allowances, while looking at existing measures “designed to improve competition equity”.
But their decision stirred plenty of you, and you have been writing to our various platforms to have your say. So what are some of your thoughts?
What did you think of the Playing Handicaps decision?
John nailed his colours to the mast from the very first sentence. He said: “The general consensus in Ireland is WHS has destroyed club golf and inter club competitions, it’s unworkable and unfixable.
“Since it was introduced 5 years ago the initial WHS has been altered so many times that it can’t really be called a WHS anymore as it is so different now to North America and countries all over the World.
“It is fundamentally flawed and makes a mockery of club golf – 45/46/47+ pts winning competitions. Golfers with a 54 handicap only feature occasionally, the biggest problem is two years ago 11/12/13 handicappers are now playing off 21/22/23, and there are loads and loads of them. Some by choice, some due to the system.
“As a 9 handicapper, I have long given up on winning any competitions as I can’t shoot 2 or 3 over for a chance of winning. 40 pts in my opinion was always a great winning score irrespective of your handicap. Every golfer on their day can score 40 pts. When 44+ points are winning it eliminates 95% of entries.
“I know of a club matchplay championship where a 2-handicapper had to give 37 shots to his opponent, a total mockery of golf.
“When people talk about low handicappers not being able to win competitions I would say anyone below 14 has no chance unless due to WHS they used to be a very low handicapper.”
Mervyn added: “My local club reduced the handicap allowance to 85% this year and most competitions were won by low handicappers. The other noticeable thing was that your handicap would be reduced with a score of 31 or 32 points.”
Kevin, meanwhile, is thinking about taking drastic action.
“The English Golf Union are playing into the hands of the bandits yet again (everything still based on the Stableford system),” he said.
“I won’t be playing in any more competitions until they change the rules and I will now have to consider if it’s worth joining my club for the foreseeable future.
“It will cost the club in membership fees as my regular fourball were thinking of stopping playing in competitions anyway and visiting other courses in our area, playing midweek golf only and no competitions.”
Phil asked why we had a Playing Handicap in the first place. He wrote: “Why do we still adjust the Course Handicap by 95% or 90% on singles competition to give a Playing Handicap when the Course Handicap is calculated using the WHS adjusted by slope/113 and further adjusted by Course Rating – par? Utter madness. In all singles comps leave it at the Course Handicap.”
Sean contrasted the winning points scores in competitions at his club. “I have noticed that nearly all scratch competitions are won in and around 36 to 38 points, but handicap comps are about 42 to 46. Surely that shows low handicappers have virtually no chance in club comps.”
And, finally, Les said the decision to postpone was “a shame”. He explained: “We had a Board competition where a player did not win, even though they equalled the course record, because someone playing off 22 had a good day.
“Low handicappers cannot compete with this and being able to adjust the Playing Handicap was a way that we could make it a bit fairer.
“It may be that we have to look at reintroducing the maximum handicap into Board Competitions, which I think is a negative step as [it] will exclude a number of players from playing.”
Now have your say
What do you make of England Golf’s decision to postpone a change to Playing Handicaps? Let me know by leaving a comment, email me at s.carroll@nationalclubgolfer.com, or get in touch on X.
