Society Handicap Rules

Your official WHS Handicap Index is held by your national golf union. The Society Manager never changes it.

Your Society Handicap is a separate competition handicap managed by each society you belong to. You have a different one in every society. It is not an official handicap.

When you join a society you enter your current official handicap (0.0–54.0). It becomes your starting Society Handicap and is marked unverified until an organiser checks it.

Provisional period: your first 2 accepted rounds are recorded without changing your handicap. Automatic adjustments begin with your third accepted round.

H is your Society Handicap before the round. The result is rounded to the nearest whole number (halves round away from zero). Shots are given on holes by stroke index; above 18 you receive two on the hardest holes, and a plus handicap gives shots back on the easiest holes.

Each hole counts for no more than its cap, so one disaster hole can't distort your handicap. Only complete 18-hole Stableford or stroke-play rounds count. Stableford points are recorded, but your handicap is always worked out from gross hole scores.

A positive residual means you played better than your handicap suggested. A negative one means you played worse.

Why handicaps fall: consistently better-than-expected rounds give a positive signal, which lowers your handicap. Why they rise: consistently higher scores give a negative signal. The median stops one freak round from dominating; the 3-round average keeps it responsive.

Your handicap can move by at most 0.5 per round and always stays between 0.0 and 54.0. If the adjustment rounds to zero, your handicap stays the same.

Your scorecard stays pending until a playing partner or organiser confirms it. Disputed or incomplete cards never change a handicap until resolved. Each card is processed exactly once. Unusual results are flagged for an organiser to review — a flag is not an accusation.

Pending cards can be corrected. Once a card has been processed, a correction is applied by an organiser as a recorded override; past competition results are never rewritten.

Permanent override: an organiser sets a new ongoing Society Handicap with a reason and written explanation. Future calculations start from it. The original automatic calculation is kept.

Temporary adjustment: applies to one named competition only and does not change your ongoing handicap.

Players cannot edit their own Society Handicap. Every change is permanently recorded in your history, which you can view at any time from your society page.

Aoife plays the White tees (CR 72.4, Slope 131, Par 72) and scores 92 gross, including a 9 on hole 5.

With earlier residuals of 1.8, 0.9, 2.4 and −0.6: M5 = 1.8, A3 = 1.553, B = 1.726. New handicap: 17.6.

“Your Society Handicap decreased from 18.0 to 17.6 because your recent performances were better than your previous handicap indicated.”

Declan's last three residuals are −3.1, −2.2 and −4.0. M5 = -3.1, A3 = -3.1, B = -3.1. The raw adjustment exceeds the cap, so it is limited to +0.5.

New handicap: 12.5. “Your Society Handicap increased from 12.0 to 12.5 because your recent performances were higher-scoring than your previous handicap indicated.”