Minnesota Golfer - Travel 2022 - 9

" Everyone wants the quick
response on their handicap
rather than waiting for
a scheduled revision. "
-Stacy Sazama,
MGA member services director
Hard Cap/Soft Cap
New to the WHS are the hard and soft
caps, which can be applied automatically to
a golfer's handicap. They are covered under
Rule 5.8 (Limit on Upward Movement
of a Handicap Index) of The Rules of
Handicapping manual:
The soft cap is triggered when the difference
between a player's newly calculated
Handicap Index and their Low Handicap
Index is greater than 3.0 strokes. The hard
cap triggers to restrict the amount by which
a player's Handicap Index can increase, after
application of a soft cap, to no more than 5.0
strokes above their Low Handicap Index.
" It's a safeguard for those whose index
might increase significantly, quickly, to kind
of keep them closer to what their consistent
playing ability is, " Sazama says.
Exceptional Score
The WHS also
in
safeguards
uniquely exceptional
against
a
score. The WHS
looks at all posted scores and if they are
exceptional
handicap index, a reduction is applied to
the score differentials in the player's scoring
record.
Playing Conditions Calculation
Another innovation was Rule 5.6 Playing
Conditions Calculation (PCC), which
" determines whether playing conditions
on the day differed from normal conditions
to the extent that adjustment is
mngolf.org
relation to the player's
needed to compensate. "
This does not mean bad weather or
course set-up automatically lowers your
handicap on a day when you played poorly.
Rather, the calculation looks at all the scores
on a course during a day and compares
them to the expected scores to determine
how many players scored better or worse
than anticipated. If enough players fall into
these categories then a PCC adjustment is
applied. You can't just blame your 93 on a
blustery day.
" We don't have to rely on the daily
weather report, " says Sazama. " It's based on
what the scores are. It could be a beautiful
day, but the course might be set up more
difficult than when it was rated. "
Net Double Bogey Adjustment-
For those posting hole-by-hole scores,
you may notice a unique adjustment to
your final score. Rule 3: Adjustment of
Hole Scores permits an adjustment for
Net Double Bogey, to ensure that posted
scores are not " overly influenced by one or
two bad scores that are not reflective of a
player's demonstrated ability. " Therefore,
the system formula is par for the hole + 2
strokes + any handicap stoke(s) a player
receives on that hole.
As Sazama says, the two-year-old WHS
has worked well, but golf's governing bodies
continue to monitor its performance. The
next updated Rules of Handicapping manual
comes out in 2024, but expect only minor
tweaks. " If it ain't broke . . . . "
Mobile App Updates
The GHIN Mobile App (launched in 2012) has
been instrumental to the success of the
WHS. Golfers use it for their overnight index
updates and employ the hole-by-hole scoreposting
feature, which provides useful data
for the WHS.
" Folks monitoring the WHS are analyzing
all the data coming in, " says Stacy Sazama,
member services director for the MGA. " And
with hole-by-hole score posting, they can
access more data than when golfers were
simply posting a total score. "
According to Sazama, the GHIN Mobile
App is the primary preference for golfers
posting scores due to the ease and immediacy
of posting on your phone. And this
past Fall, the app got a little better.
" In September, a new function for
keeping score of your entire foursome was
released, " Sazama says. " Plus, you now can
set up a game between the foursome that
could be match play or stroke play. "
In addition, the app, which also
includes an enhanced GPS feature,
became available on the Apple Watch. So,
anyone with GHIN Mobile app on an Apple
Watch can access GPS technology and
post scores from their watch.
What's more, the app is free.
Travel 2022 MINNESOTAGOLFER 9
http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Travel 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Minnesota Golfer - Travel 2022
