Unity is strength as new handicap system looms
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NICK RODGER
REMEMBER all the doommongering about the Millennium Bug’s impact on technology when sombre soothsayers warned that planes would drop from the sky, kettles would go on the rampage and hoovers would terrorise neighbourhoods as the year 2000 birled in?
In some ways, this sense of nail-nibbling trepidation is being felt as the golfing fraternity prepares to usher in the World Handicap System (WHS) during a roll out in 2020.
In a very small nutshell, the six different handicap systems that are currently employed throughout the globe have been flung into the pot, stirred around a bit and dished up as one unified measurement of playing ability. Or inability in this scribe’s case.
In Scotland, of course, things never go swimmingly. The WHS will be implemented here, as with the rest of GB&I, on November 2, 2020. By that stage, officials at Scottish Golf will be hoping that everybody has jumped on board with the governing body’s own unifying programme.
In an effort to help clubs take control of their online booking fees, and keep the revenue for themselves instead of paying a fee to a third party provider, Scottish Golf unveiled plans last year to give every club a hightech venue management system free of charge and an accompanying app that will be the centre point for this onestop-shop.
Many clubs, of course,
STUART WILSON has been named the captain of GB&I and will lead the side in next year’s St Andrews Trophy and the 2021 Walker Cup. The Forfar man, who was a Walker Cup winner at Ganton in 2003, succeeds fellow Scot, Craig Watson.
In 2004, Wilson won the Amateur Championship and the silver medal in The Open and has spent the last four years on the R&A boys’ selection committee.
He said: “I have fond memories of my time as a player representing GB&I in these prestigious matches and I am determined to make a valuable contribution to the team as its leader and in helping the players.” already have long-established Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) for tee-time bookings and, amid much grumbling and scepticism, some have felt the Scottish Golf top brass are forcing clubs to use the newlydeveloped model.
The onset of the new handicap system, and the way it will be administered, has added to the general concerns but Iain Forsyth, the commercial officer at Scottish Golf, is keen to ease the worries.
“We are not trying to exclude people,” he said. “There’s talk of ‘The System’ and I think people are being confused by the venue management system that we are offering and what WHS is. People are confusing that as one thing, when in fact it is two. People think we are making them use our system or they won’t get a handicap. It’s not.”
One of the areas the new WHS will focus on is making it easier for casual golfers, and those nomadic players who are not members of clubs, to obtain a handicap.
Both competitive and recreational rounds will now count towards a handicap and it is the latter, the casual hit about or “general play”, that is being viewed as something of a potential game changer in terms of getting more people through the golf club door.
“The percentage of competition cards and general play will certainly shift,” said Forsyth.
David Kernohan, the handicapping and course rating officer, added: “A lot of members in Scotland love competitions. But the general play function, I think, could increase membership.
“A lot of golfers don’t play a competition on a Saturday because they don’t have the time but if they could submit a card any time through the week it may help.
“In other countries, general play is the vessel to get a handicap as opposed to competition play like in GB&I. It will be a massive cultural change.
“Australia adopted this system back in 2014. Around one million extra rounds were completed for a handicap in the first year. A lot of clubs there are now offering competitions every day of the week.”