At the tail-end of last year, one of my Golf Monthly colleagues, Carly Frost, penned an article showcasing why the new World Handicap System has ruined golf for lower handicappers and, for 99% of the piece, I found myself agreeing with what was said.
Holding a handicap of 3.0, my golf game has been back on the rise in 2024 but, when I look at the scores that are winning our club medals, Stablefords and boarded competitions, I do wonder what is the point? Unless I’m shooting under-par gross, I stand no chance, as nett 65s and 40+ points continue to tumble in and make a mockery of the scoring.
At my home club of Witney Lakes, it appears that enough is enough and, for our most recent medal, a new format was trialled whereby the usual divisions one and two were replaced with a gross and nett concept. Other clubs have introduced and tried this method and, on paper, it is appealing to the low handicappers like myself but, does it work? Well now that the tournament is over, and I’ve spoken to various members about it, I’ve pencilled my thoughts, specifically around the positives and negatives.
Positives
To begin with, aside from our Club Championship, all of our competitions are based off nett scores so, by implementing a gross section into the monthly medal, it does make perfect sense. Unlike a Stableford, which is already tailored to a higher handicapper, every shot counts in a medal and, ultimately, it is the best and toughest test of golf as you can’t pick up if anything goes wrong.
Doing some digging, if I were to list the winning handicaps from the previous medals, Stablefords and boarded competitions, it would be 25, 16, 18, 27, 28, 15, 21 and 16. Within the top 10 of those eight events, or 80 spots, single figure handicappers featured just nine times, with six of those being under a 5 handicap.
Taking this into account, many low handicappers were obviously very happy to hear the trial of this new format, primarily because now, instead of playing in one gross competition a year, there could be more events available. What’s more, it’s a system that actually rewards you for playing good golf and a competitive format that will actually make the best players at the club want to turn up and play.
Despite the new system coming into place, my handicap has remained around the 2-4 mark for over a decade
(Image credit: Future)
It’s not just low handicappers who think this. In a survey sent out to the membership, one player who sits in the 16-20 handicap range wrote:…
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Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Golf Monthly…