Changes ahead for the World Handicap System in 2024 will make your index more reliable and timely

As golf’s popularity has surged since the COVID-19 pandemic—3.3 million people in the United States played on a course for the first time in 2022, according to the National Golf Foundation—so too has the popularity of playing nine-hole rounds. Now the first significant changes to the World Handicap System since the USGA and R&A launched it in 2020 will provide golfers playing only nine holes (or anything fewer than 18) the chance for their handicap index to more quickly and consistently account for those rounds.

Starting in January, the WHS will use an “expected score” formula to take nine-hole scores and adjust them to 18-hole score differentials. Mining the data gathered from the 100 million scores posted yearly around the world under the WHS, a model scoring formula for every handicap index for males and females has been developed. The appropriate one will be applied to your index and create an expected score on any remaining holes you had for handicap purposes, taking the place of applying a score of net par for any missing holes. The new formula is built to account for a standard golf course, so the calculations are no longer course dependent compared to the math applied in the past.

For decades in the U.S., golfers had been posting nine-hole scores but then needed to wait for an accompanying nine-hole score for it to be paired with to create an 18-hole number for handicap purposes. That system was good enough, said Steve Edmondson, managing director of Handicap and Course Rating for the USGA, but he acknowledged it did create inconsistencies.

“As you can imagine, I could be combining two low scores; a score that was really good for a day with a bad score, so you’re not getting a true reflection of how I played on that day; or two bad scores,” Edmondson said. “When you combined two low scores you might have an 18-hole differential that you’re really not capable of shooting if you were to play 18 holes.”

If you’re designing a new system from scratch, Edmondson said, you would want something that offered a more consistent and comparable approach, as well as something more responsive. “We want to be able to understand somebody’s true demonstrated ability, so you want to remove some of those outliers, and we feel like that has done so.”

Another benefit of the change is it will allow new golfers who primarily play and post nine-hole rounds to have their handicap index updated in the same timely manner as those posting 18-hole rounds. “It will be responsive,” Edmondson said. “The next day that score will be reflected, as it should, and it will be based off the play of the day rather than the play off two days. That goes back to the consistency and more comparable.”

The impact of the change comes in conjunction with another alteration the USGA and R&A have announced for the WHS in 2024: a reduction in the minimum yardage for a course to be included in the Course Rating System. Previously, 18-hole courses had to be at least 3,000 yards and nine-hole course had to be 1,500 yards. Now must be 1,500 and 750 yards respectively.

This change reflects the rise in short courses as a place for new golfers to be introduced to and learn the game. The yardage reduction will translate to allowing these new players more opportunities to play rounds that can be posted for handicap purposes.

“Just over 700 par-3 courses in the United States alone are not part of the WHS today,” Edmondson said. “So somebody new coming into the game might not understand why they can’t get a handicap index based on that course, etc. This now brings them into the fold.”

According to USGA data, nine-hole rounds accounted for 21 percent of scores posted by new male golfers in the U.S., and more than 45 percent of scores posted by new female golfers. By providing more opportunities to utilize nine-hole rounds for handicap purposes, Edmondson says, “We are trying to make sure we are meeting the game where it is moving, meeting the golfers as they are playing it.”

Any lingering nine-hole scores will be recalculated under the new system in mid-January and any short-course score posted in the new year will show up around that time as well.

Another change to the WHS that will go into effect in 2024 comes in regard to the playing conditions calculation adjustments created in 2020. The PCC made sure the score you posted on a given day impacted your Index in relation to the average of all scores posted at that course that day. Say 20 mile-per-hour winds caused you to shoot in the high 80s when you normally post 78s and 79s. The WHS algorithm accounted for this to keep the score from negatively affecting your Index, particularly if all scores that day were high.

The PCC will continue to be in place, but will be applied more frequently as the statistical barrier on which an adjustment is triggered has been relaxed. According to Edmondson, the model in 2020 allowed for adjustments at a 5 to 10 percent rate. It will now come into play in 10 to 15 percent rate.

Additionally, the USGA and R&A will be offering additional guidance to handicap committees at clubs and courses to assist with conducting regular handicap reviews. Included in this will be new reporting tools that national associations can incorporate into their handicapping software to assist Committees in conducting the review process effectively and consistently.

Since the launch of the WHS, the number of people in the U.S. who have a handicap index has grown from 2.59 million in 2020 to 3.03 million in 2022 with another 394,321 added year to date in 2023.