Hever Castle Golf Club
IMPORTANT LINKS
Mens Course Handicap Tables (Championship - 1st April 2024)
Ladies Course Handicap Tables (Championship - 1st April 2024)
Princes Mens & Ladies Course Handicap Tables (Princes - 1st April 2024)
2024 Players Reference Edition
Record of Member Communications
24/09/20 General Play & Competition Rounds
04/08/20 Course & Slope Rating
WHS Videos
England Golf Resources
- England Golf Members Presentation Video (45 minutes)
- England Golf - Know the Score (FAQ's)
- World Handicap System (WHS) - Privacy Notice
- WHS Toolkit for Golfers
What is the World Handicap System?
Summary
The new World Handicap System (WHS) is designed to provide a balanced system, bringing together Handicapping and the Course Rating System into one consistent approach linked through a golfer's Handicap Index.
There are 3 key elements:
Handicap Index
Course Handicap
Competition Handicap
The closest link a player will see with the current Congu handicap is their Course Handicap.
The Handicap Index is based on scores from rounds played at various courses, and adjusted to a world wide standard based on a theoretical average difficulty golf course, which incidentally has a slope rating of 113. This enables golfing ability and scores to be comparable for all golfers across all courses.
Hever Castle GC Handicap Indexes will be lower than current handicaps, but will return to roughly the same level when turned into a Course handicap. WHS will make little difference to golfer's handicaps for those who just play their home course.
Some examples:
Hever Handicap today 5 12 18 24
Estimated Handicap Index 4.2 10.2 15.3 20.4
Hever Yellow Course Handicap 5 12 18 24
Competition handicap (95%) 5 11 17 23
Hever White Course Handicap 5 12 18 25
Competition handicap (95%) 5 11 17 24
The method of calculation for handicaps has changed, and is different to Congu which was the past system, so no more 0.1 increases.
The Handicap Index is calculated using the best 8 of your last 20 scores, making it more responsive to current form. There is a sliding scale for those who have played fewer than 20 competition or supplementary rounds since 1st Jan 2019.
With WHS, and as before, only preregistered rounds count ie. rounds played in a competition or declared as a supplementary round in advance of play.
World Handicap System - what's changed?
Handicap Index - what's new?
Put simply, your Handicap Index is calculated from your best eight scores from your last 20. With this being an average it is a much fairer calculation. You will no longer go up by 0.1 for not scoring in your buffer zone.
Your Handicap Index can then be used to work out your Course Handicap, which means your Handicap will change to reflect the difficulty of the course and the set of tees you elect to play. Every golf club including Hever Castle will have a chart available so you can quickly and easily work out your Course Handicap. At Hever Castle these charts will be available on the website and copies will be posted up at the first tee and in the Pro shop.
If playing in a competition you will need to calculate your Competition Handicap, for example, most strokeplay events are off 95% of course handicap
Then just go out and play like you have always done. The WHS doesn't change the way you play the game, it just makes taking score and measuring your ability fairer and more consistent
What is a Course Handicap?
For your Handicap Index (HI) to be effective and portable across different courses, it must be converted into a Course Handicap to determine the number of strokes you receive for the golf course or tee set that you are playing that day.
This conversion is driven by the Slope Index and is done using the charts available for each tee, for example at Hever Castle GC, a Handicap Index of 18 will convert to a Course Handicap of:
Men's White tees - 22
Men's Yellow tees - 21
Men's Green tees - 20
Ladies Red tees - 21.
For those who wish to know more, details on slope and how to calculate course handicaps will be available in other documents. It is however considered easier, and is established practice in areas of the world already using slope, to just use the conversion tables provided.
Competition Handicap
Depending on the game you are playing the course handicap is adjusted for the competition, most stroke play events are to be played at 95% of handicap.
Courses still have their own Course rating which works in the same way as the SSS does today, these values are:
White 73.8
Yellow 72.1
Green 69.8
Red 74.0
Submitting scores
When you have finished your round, please complete your scorecard and submit your score via either the IG App or the PSI system as before.
The score is adjusted by the Playing Conditions Calculation (PCC) which is calculated once a day after all scores of the day have been entered, rather than per competition via the CSS as now. The PCC can vary the Course Rating by -1 to +3 to take account of the prevailing conditions.
This means handicaps are adjusted overnight, rather than immediately following a competition.
Recreational rounds
From 2 November 2020, you will be able to return recreational rounds for handicap purposes provided you pre-register your round as an acceptable score before you go out and play, including if you are playing at a course other than your home club.
At Hever Castle it is anticipated this will be done in the same way as supplementary rounds, by advising the ProShop in advance of play that you intend to submit the round for handicap purposes.
It's your choice...
You don't have to return a score every time you play golf.
Unless you have pre-registered or are playing in a competition, you are not required to return your scorecard.
The accuracy of your Handicap Index will be improved with every scorecard you submit.
Tracking your Handicap Index
Your Handicap Index will be calculated each night after you have returned a score that is acceptable for handicapping purposes.
Any changes to your Handicap Index will be posted on your record from midnight of the day that you played or shortly after.
Created by intelligentgolf version 10.1.2.
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