World Handicap System

Launching November 2nd, 2020, the World Handicap System (WHS) is a unified and more inclusive handicap system for golfers everywhere. The WHS will replace 6 different systems that are currently used by over 15 million golfers.

How to get a WHS Handicap index

To obtain an initial WHS Handicap Index (HI). You need to submit scores for 54 holes – either as 9-hole rounds, or 18-hole ones, or a mix of both.
There is no requirement for players to pre-register prior to playing a round that is used to determine the Initial Handicap Index.
Each scorecard must say it is ‘for handicap’ and show your name, the date, and the gross score for each hole.
Your card should be marked by a responsible person and both yourself and your marker should sign the card.
The course must be compliant for your scorecard to be acceptable, and you should abide by the Rules of Golf.
The completed cards should be placed in one of the card boxes (in the Lobby or in the Ladies Locker Room).

Once you have completed the 54 holes worth of handicap cards, you will be given a unique CDH (Central Database of Handicaps) number which will stay with you for life.

The WHS has been designed to:

How will it work?

For the World Handicap System to work, golfers will need to obtain a Handicap Index.

For regular golfers, this will be done by calculating the best eight scores from their previous 20 rounds. Whereas for new golfers, they will have to submit scorecards of 54 holes to their Handicap Committee. Handicap Index calculations are performed by the England Golf WHS software.

Understanding how Course Rating works

This will be used to measure the playing difficulty of a course. It measures how many strokes a Scratch Golfer should take on the given course. This is done by assessing two main types of challenge:

The playing length of the golf course
The obstacles that the player encounters

Understand how Slope Rating works

Slope Rating is the difficulty comparison between a Bogey Golfer and a Scratch golfer. The Slope Rating allows a player’s Handicap Index to be portable from course to course.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON WHS ENGLAND GOLF, CLICK HERE