It’s a pivotal but controversial part of the World Handicap System. But has the ability to submit a handicap score at any time made the game better?
This article is part of GCMA Insights – topical content for golf industry professionals, discussing the things that matter to those who work in golf clubs.
There is some corner of the internet that is forever furious. In that echo chamber of discontent, everything has an ulterior motive and, similarly, everything is ruined.
For golf, that corridor is occupied by the World Handicap System. It’s coming up four years since the global unification of handicaps arrived in Great Britain & Ireland and yet there remains little to match it for debate and drama.
Much like Brexit, it splits opinion in tribal fashion. Either, as the R&A and USGA would like to see it, WHS opens the game up and makes it more accessible to anyone who wants to track their progress.
Or it has ruined club competitions and allowed golfers with nefarious aims – whether that’s to push their handicaps up or down – to flourish almost unchecked.
Nowhere has that view been crystallised more than the introduction of general play scores.
Arguably WHS’s defining characteristic, general play allows players to submit a score for handicap any time they want. Right from the start, it got some people’s backs up.
That’s because it immediately uncoupled handicaps from competitive play and in our culture, where events structure an entire club’s year, that concept is simply alien.
From the governing bodies’ point of view, though, general play is probably the most important part of WHS because it is what makes golf truly accessible to all.
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No matter where you are in GB&I, you can enter a score if you follow the rules. For those who want to maintain a handicap but find it difficult to play in competitions, this has been a liberator.
But it has also meant clubs previously used to tight control of their members’ numbers have ceded some authority – with players trusted to perform with integrity when scoring casual rounds.
There are plenty of examples where players have manipulated the system or just downright cheated it and that has certainly eroded trust in some quarters in handicapping.
Their doubts were only heightened last year when England Golf sought to limit the impact general play scores could have on some of its oversubscribed competitions.
They did not ban or restrict them, but players were denied entry where there was a significant gap between the differentials in their competition and general play cards.
When clubs got wind of this, some took the view it was a tacit admission general play was a cheat’s charter.
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So they took elements of England Golf’s scheme and mixed it with their own – either demanding increasing numbers of competitive scores over a year of play to enter events or restricting, and even banning in some cases, general play scores.
Such practices reportedly left the R&A and USGA displeased and saw England Golf demand clubs stop the curbs.
No handicap system is perfect. WHS, like any other, remains reliant on an unpredictable component: humans.
Sometimes we play well. Sometimes we play badly. Sometimes we just don’t want to be out there at all.
And, yes, people aren’t always honest. But there’s little any computer programme on its own can do about those determined to deceive.
To pin the perceived ills of general play on the mechanics rather misses the point. CONGU wasn’t without its faults either.
Another fly in the ointment for those who would rather rid themselves of it is its growing popularity. Figures show the number of rounds being submitted to the WHS portal in England are on the rise.
Last year, more than nine million were entered overall, with 2.3 million logged through the MyEG app and a 20 per cent increase in usage by women and girls.
General play scores rose by just over two per cent across the year, and more than 50,000 scores were put in by English golfers on courses in Wales, Ireland and Scotland.
With interoperability now in full flow, it’s likely that figure will increase significantly through 2024.
More people engaging and more people playing golf? Manna from heaven for those behind the WHS. Even its critics surely can’t complain this is a bad thing.
So how do we on the one hand embrace the concept, while also upholding the integrity of WHS? The answer lies with the club handicap committee.
Where there are suspicions general play scores might be used nefariously, they need to investigate and, where appropriate, act.
This is always difficult when it might provoke conflict, but the reality is it’s those who know their golfers best, and who are closer to the action, who must be the ones to step in.
Luckily, they’ve got far more tools through WHS than they’ve had under previous iterations – such as competition scores vs general play, which allows them to look at the way players perform between the two formats.
Other clues, such as time of submission, where golfers were when they did so, are revealed in a digital footprint which leaves little leeway when players are caught.
It’s easier than ever to catch a handicap cheat and more of them are getting collared.
If the intention was to give golfers flexibility in the way they approached the game, and how they viewed their handicap, then general play has certainly done that.
We sometimes forget that many of our members aren’t interested in playing competitions regularly – or even at all. The argument was always, ‘well, why do they need a handicap?’ Now it’s, ‘why shouldn’t they have one?’
Welcome to the new world, where general play is king.
This article is part of GCMA Insights – topical content for golf industry professionals, discussing the things that matter to those who work in golf clubs.
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