. You've probably asked yourself many times when you played your best golf game. The World Handicap System will answer that question.

. To calculate each player's handicap, the 8 lowest played level results from the last 20 submitted results will be taken and the average will be calculated.

You've probably often wondered when you played your best golf game. You might think of your highest Stableford score, but that's obviously related to your handicap that day. Perhaps you're thinking of your lowest scratch score, but the difficulty of the course means that raw scores on different courses aren't directly comparable. The World Handicap System will answer that question.

Perfect Valley

If you've ever been curious about handicaps, you'll know that all our EGA handicaps (and future SHM handicaps as well) are referenced to an imaginary course with a Slope Rating of 113, a course known in the handicap world as Perfect Valley. The advantage of having all handicaps indexed to a reference point is that it makes them comparable: thus, a player with a handicap of 13.4 will be considered a better player than one with a handicap of 16.1.

When we are going to play a course, we must consult the Conversion Table to obtain the Playing Handicap. The Playing Handicap reflects the number of strokes we need to take relative to the course par to meet our handicap. These tables are another way of presenting the results of the following formula:

Playing Handicap = EGA Handicap x Slope Value/113 + Course Value – Par

The result obtained using this formula is rounded to the nearest whole number.

As you can see, this formula uses the two factors that indicate a course's difficulty: the Course Rating (which measures the course's difficulty for a scratch player) and the Slope Rating (which measures the relative difficulty between non-scratch players and a scratch player). Applying a little math, we can see that the higher the Course Rating and the higher the Slope Rating, the higher our Playing Handicap, meaning we'll need more strokes relative to par to meet our handicap.

Where do I play best?

Let's look at two examples: a player with a handicap of 23.8 is going to play 18 holes from the Blue tees at the National Golf Centre: the Course Rating is 66.3, the Slope Rating is 115, and the par is 72. According to the formula, our player's Playing Handicap is 19 (18.5212 rounded up to 19). That is, if they take a gross score of 91, they will have met their handicap.

If the same player is going to play from the Blue tees at Valderrama, whose Course Rating is 70.2, Slope Rating is 131, and par is 71, then they will play with a handicap of 27 (26.791 rounded down to 27). This means they will need to shoot 98 strokes to meet their handicap. In other words, for this player, shooting 91 strokes from the Blue tees at the National Golf Centre is equivalent to shooting 98 from the same tees at Valderrama.

These two examples help us understand the concept of Perfect Valley and the course difficulty ratings (expressed through Course Values and Slope). Players have EGA handicaps based on a reference point (Perfect Valley), and depending on the course's difficulty, they receive more or fewer handicap points (Playing Handicap).

To put it another way, while EGA handicaps are referenced to the same course, Playing Handicaps are referenced to each of the courses, that is, they take into account the difficulty of each one.

Level played

Once we understand the concept of Perfect Valley and the difficulties of each course, we return to the original question: How can I know when I have played my best golf if I play different courses?

Looking at the previous examples, we can conclude that if the player scores 91 strokes from the Blue tees at the National Center and 98 from the Blue tees at Valderrama, he will have played equally well in both cases, since he will have met his handicap. But if he achieves a different result, how can we know which of the two results is better?

The answer lies in considering what was explained in the previous section: if the raw scores on each course are influenced by its difficulty, and Perfect Valley is a common reference for all our EGA handicaps, why not translate the raw scores on each course to an equivalent score on Perfect Valley?

That's exactly what the World Handicap System will do: once a player has a score, it will calculate an equivalent score at Perfect Valley, and in that way all their scores will be comparable regardless of whether they have played on more or less difficult courses.

To do this, obviously, the Course Value and the Slope Value of the bar from which the game was played must be used, and the formula is the inverse of the previous one for the Playing Handicap:

Level Played = (Adjusted Gross Result – Course Value) x 113/Slope Value

The Adjusted Gross Score is the player's gross score but with a maximum hole-by-hole score of Double Net Bogey, which has the same effect as the Stableford system: limiting a poor score on a hole that doesn't reflect the player's true skill level. We now see that with a higher Course Rating and a higher Slope Rating, the player's skill level is lower, obviously, since with the same score, a round played on a more difficult course is better.

This formula will give us the EGA handicap we achieved on that particular round. Thus, if we played better than our EGA handicap, the Playing Level will be lower than our EGA handicap; if we met our EGA handicap, the Playing Level will be similar to or equal to our EGA handicap (similar because it may differ by a few tenths); and if we played worse, the Playing Level will be lower than our EGA handicap.

Some examples to clarify things

Let's look at some examples again. A player with a 33.4 handicap plays at El Saler from the red tees (Course Rating 74.3, Slope Rating 138, and Par 72) and takes 112 strokes. According to the formula above, her Playing Level for that round would be 30.87 (no need to round now), which means that, on that particular day, she played as if she had an EGA handicap of 30.9.

Another way to look at it would be to say that if the player had been an EGA handicap of 30.9, her net result would have been even (she would have met that handicap).

If the following week he plays at Pedreña from the Red tees (Course Rating 70.3, Slope Rating 124, and Par 70) and scores 109, his Playing Level is 35.26 (that day he played with an EGA handicap of 35.3). Despite scoring 3 strokes less at Pedreña, his round was worse than at El Saler, since at Pedreña he achieved a handicap of 35.26 and at El Saler a 30.87 (almost a 5-point difference).

World Handicap Calculation

All these calculations form the basis of the averaging system upon which the World Handicap System will be based. To calculate each player's handicap, the 8 lowest-scoring results from the last 20 submitted scores will be averaged. Subsequently, a series of adjustments will be made for exceptional results (additional reductions in the case of exceptional scores) and limitations will be placed on handicap increases (to prevent malicious manipulation of handicaps).

For those players who do not yet have 20 results, the average will be calculated based on a smaller number of rounds, for example if the player has 10 rounds, the 3 best rounds will be averaged; if they only have 5, the best round will be taken as the player's handicap.

We see that it does not maintain the same ratio of 8 out of 20, which is the general formula, and this is so that these handicaps based on few rounds are somewhat lower and thus maintain fairness in competitions, since when you start playing competitions the dispersion in the results is very large, and surprising results can occur.

The big difference between our current EGA Handicap System based on increments (a player's handicap is increased or decreased depending on the result to obtain the new handicap) and the future World Handicap System's average system is that the latter is a much more dynamic system and will therefore better reflect changes in players' form, especially when the level of play starts to decline, so that the Handicap Review currently carried out at the beginning of the year, which is an integral part of the EGA Handicap System, will not be necessary.

This difference will make playing at our handicap level easier than it is now, allowing us to know at all times what level we are at and to compete on a fairer basis, making it more fun for players.

SOURCE: RFEG Courses and Handicap Committee

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