I’ve Been Told To ‘Put Up And Shut Up’ For 6 Years, But The WHS Is Still Ruining Golf

When it comes to my opinion about the World Handicap System (WHS) I feel a little like my voice has been swept under the carpet somewhat. The ‘not that same old argument again’ opposition. I feel like a right-wing politician whose opinion on the effect the WHS has had on destroying the great traditions of the game is so controversial, and against the majority vote, that I’m rarely allowed to voice it.

I’ve been told to ‘put up and shut up’ countless times over the last six years, but the truth is that nothing has changed. Everything that was wrong about the introduction of the WHS right from its global inception in 2020 is still wrong. Our golf clubs are even more full of over-handicapped bandits who win all the competitions.

Single-figure golfers, like me, are still only competing for one or two opportunities to win a year, usually in a scratch event. Opens are still being won with ridiculously good scores. Scores that before the WHS were inconceivable - they just didn’t exist. These crazy high scores have even filtered down into our county and club competitions now, the ‘major’ pieces of silverware are nearly always won by players who were formerly off a semi-decent low-to-mid handicap (like a 12) who are now playing off something as much as 10 digits higher in the twenties.

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The result is they only need one or two good games a year, when they tap into all those former good player skills they still have in their armoury, to record a remarkable points score in the high forties and fifties. Just writing those numbers makes me angry. It’s a complete farce.

In effect, to have any hope of contending in the same competitions as these players, I’d have to shoot 10-under my handicap. I play off a handicap index of 1.3, so what you’re asking me to do is shoot sixty! It’s totally ludicrous. If I was that good I’d be out on tour!

Players who share the same sentiment as me have started to boycott the Opens this year by refusing to enter them. I heard from one of the most wonderful local clubs (where a full-price green fee would be over £100 a round) that they had to cancel their Open this year due to low entry take-up. How very sad.

Personally, I’ve still carried on taking part and putting my entry money in the pot, marking competition cards twice a week at the two courses I play, and yes I’ll play in Opens if I’m asked to join a team for a fun away day out. In the last nine months alone I’ve recorded 20 competition rounds. My handicap index has barely fluctuated because my scores have been steady, rather than spectacular, and I have won one piece of silverware.

I’m not a pot hunter, but I am competitive. The point of golf is that it’s a sport that we are taking part in to try to win. Yes, it’s fun and sociable, but if you’re a single-figure player then part of the fun of competition is trying to win. And the sad truth is that the game is now rewarding the mediocre players who don’t put in the work.

The ones who only mark the occasional scorecard because they mainly play social golf. Those who, on paper, are protecting their handicap (some deliberately but most accidentally.) The ones who aren’t really following the WHS rules of the system by marking enough cards. They hardly submit cards at all.

According to WHS guidance these “regular informal” rounds, such as roll-ups, should be classed as “organised competitions” with scores returned by players. I never, ever see this happening.

As a result the new WHS system rarely rewards the players who are actively trying their very hardest to improve. Those players who spend time on the range, work on their short game skills, take lessons and practice. We are now like the forgotten players at our clubs. The ones who formerly used to win multiple board competitions every year due to our consistency, back when a score of 37, 38, 39 points was enough. Even carding the odd 40 points, which was occasionally achievable.

But now the winning scores are seldom less than 40 points. And with a hundred players in the field on trophy days there’s almost no chance of winning, as quite a few of them will be playing off falsely high handicaps. Don’t even get me started on society handicaps - they are even more wildly wrong!

I had a long conversation with England Golf on this subject two years ago, after I wrote about the WHS for the second time. They were adamant that it was each golf club’s individual responsibility to ensure that the bandits had their handicaps cut on general play. Sure, there are probably a few examples of golfers who have been cut on general play by handicap committees if they still exist or club managers if they don’t, but most of the time the crazy good scores get ignored, or even worse, applauded. They are just seen as the new ‘norm’.

In fact, the majority of golfers I speak to don’t want a handicap cut - they want to go up! Where has the pride in a low handicap gone? I know of several women who I play golf with who have gone into the club office and asked for their handicaps to be put up! I'd love to hear your comments on WHS in the comments box below.

They’re the ones who’ve simply realised that they can no longer compete. Yet they are also the ones who can’t be bothered to mark countless scorecards, especially extra day cards that count for nothing, to help their handicap go up. I suppose you could call them lazy but these players really do exist and it makes a mockery of the game.

Naturally, many of you reading this will be thinking, well if she has such strong opinions of the WHS system why doesn’t she suggest a solution? Quite frankly, I’ve gone over this time and time again in my head and I just can’t find one, other than to go back to the way things were. The world simply doesn’t work like that - we never go back.

The trouble is that the WHS and handicaps are self-regulating. It requires us to be honest enough about our ability level and say if we think we are over-handicapped. To do something about it. Personally, I’d be totally embarrassed if I used to play off a half decent handicap and had gone wildly up, but was now winning club competitions and opens with outrageous scores. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to be the case. Because the problem is so widespread and has penetrated every ability level now that it’s virtually impossible to change, unless the governing bodies intervene.

As for me, I’m having to find new ways of making the game fun. The lure of winning the ‘one division’ competition has long gone. I accept that when I enter these tournaments I’m not going to stand a chance of winning. So instead, I’m competing for my own personal pride of shooting a good score.

Our wonderful Lady Captain, who writes a weekly e-newsletter to the section, has taken to adding in the ‘lowest gross score’ as a mention. Not because that player wins any prize money, a trophy or gets on a competition board for acclaim, but simply because she acknowledges that if we shoot a level par round of golf and get 36 points, then it should be applauded. That, along with my continued pursuit of getting down to a scratch handicap, for the time being is enough satisfaction for me until something might be done.