I have been playing golf for a long time but struggling to improve; I have been self taught in the main with only a few pointers and a few lessons as I have been focusing on trying to enjoy the game and didn’t want to rebuild my game in every way. to this end at 54 (just over two years ago) I joined a club at a course I had played a couple of times and found to be interesting and challenging; my handicap was set after submitting an appropriate number of cards but is higher than I would like and higher than I have managed to attain on previous rounds.
The constant debate in the clubhouse is always around how certain people allegedly ‘manipulate’ the system; as a high handicapper (23.2) who wants to get below 18 (which has been my goal since joining) the WHS system is a relatively clear system and does appear (on average, and that is the important piece) to level the playing field. However I have always contended that a high handicapper will always be more inconsistent than a lower handicapper and that is the only reason that the debate keeps on raging on. This fact is recognised as most competitions are played off 75% handicap; that means that a 4 handicapper loses 1 shot, where-as a 20 handicapper would lose 5 shots. The WHS merely resets the starting point.