'The Handicap System In Golf Has Ruined Club Competitions. It’s The Only Sport That Rewards Mediocrity'

The World Handicap System is the latest in a long line of handicap roll-outs that aim to make the game we all love fair and equitable for everyone who plays. However, there will never be a perfect system. 

The previous CONGU methodology wasn’t met with universal acclaim, and while the WHS – which was updated this year – is popular in some quarters, it also has its detractors.

A lot of the gripes with the current handicapping system seem to come from single-figure players and accomplished amateurs. Indeed, GM contributor Carly Frost recently penned an article on why the WHS has ruined golf for low-handicappers. It’s hard to argue against some of the points she makes. 

More recently, long-time GM reader and scratch player Sam Menzoda, age 37, put out a tweet that snowballed unexpectedly and received more than 150,000 views. It read:

“The handicap system in golf has ruined club competitions. You need over 40 Stableford points to compete. It’s the only sport where mediocrity is rewarded. No one should ever have more than one shot a hole.”

It’s a strong take, of that there’s no doubt, especially given one of the frequently touted selling points of the sport is that golfers of all ages and abilities can compete against each other on a level playing field. 

So why is Sam so passionate in arguing this isn’t actually the reality and what was the consensus response to the tweet? 

“The general consensus was the maximum handicap that someone can play off is too high, not in terms of getting into golf but rather winning events,” Sam says. “And it’s not just about events.

“I played with my dad at Wentworth the other week and we were off the yellows. He’s off 8 and before we teed off, he went up to 13 – more than a 50% increase. I’m +0.6 and I went up to 0. I’m never beating my dad off that. I played solidly but had to give him a shot on two thirds of the holes. It just felt mad to me.”

While he’s a fan of the WHS’s general play scores provision, he believes those who have handicaps higher than 18 shouldn’t be allowed to win competitions. He has no problem with them entering and winning prizes, but he believes it’s unfair for someone off, say, 25, who then gets numerous additional shots, to claim the overall trophy. 

“I played in the open competition at Cleeve Hill and on the Sunday I shot the lowest gross score and didn’t even get a pat on the back. It was playing really tough and two people came in with 44 points. 

“I might sound a bit bitter, and I know there are scratch events I can go and enter, but I’d beaten one of these people by 19 shots – averaging more than one shot a hole less than them – and they got to sit there and celebrate the win. 

“A couple of years back at the Players Club, I shot my best ever round – four-under-par gross. It was the lowest gross round by ten shots in the competition and I came 6th. It’s madness.

“You categorically can’t win handicap competitions if you have a really low handicap. I’m certainly not in the camp of no one should have a handicap, because that’s one of the beauties of golf, but it just doesn’t feel right to me as it is.”

Sam believes there could be mileage in splitting competitions and prizes up into different handicap ranges, but “at the end of the day you don’t put three names on a board.” Another touted suggestion is to reduce the number of additional shots higher-handicap players get because of the slope, perhaps via setting a cap or a maximum percentage increase relative to the existing handicap.

“Golf does reward mediocrity, and that’s the issue I have,” he continues. “There’s no reason for someone to look to improve their handicap, which is strange. We should all be striving to improve in everything we do.

“If someone did a detailed analysis of scoring and the average handicap of a winner since the implementation of the WHS, I’d be surprised if it hadn't gone up. I would also expect the average points score to win a competition to have gone up.”

While Sam acknowledges that many golf clubs do offer scratch prizes, he feels this should be the case in every competition. What’s more, sometimes he has to pay extra to enter the gross element – something he doesn’t think is right given he has no chance of scooping the handicap prize.

The natural riposte here is probably two-fold – sour grapes and ‘he’s really good at golf, why does it matter, especially when he can enter scratch competitions’ – but Sam does make some interesting points. You could certainly make the case that the WHS is disproportionately unfair to lower handicappers when it comes to competitions.