We recently received a letter in the Golf Monthly offices about the World Handicap System (WHS) in relation to golf's four-ball better-ball format that had us all scratching our heads and saying, “That can’t possibly be true... can it?”
I’m not quite as up on all things Rules and handicapping as I was, having passed that particular baton on to someone else a year or so ago, but I had a vague recollection that my colleague Rob Smith had mentioned something about this very subject, although I couldn’t remember the details.
Before we go any further, here is the content of that letter that had us all a little bemused.
The reader's letter
Why, in the bewildering world of the WHS, can a player’s handicap index be directly influenced by the performance of their playing partner?
Implausible, but happening. Since 2024, if you score 42 Stableford points or more in a better-ball competition, your scores can count towards your handicap and that tricky four-footer your partner rolls in on the 18th green can have a very real impact on your index.
I’ll elaborate. The putt is for two points. It drops and, by WHS calculation, you are awarded one and a half points for that hole instead of the one point you’d have received had it missed. That tipped your individual total past 35.5 points, and your better-ball score up to 42 points. You’re on the card nine times or more and your score now counts for handicap.
I appreciate the theory. The WHS is trying to estimate individual performance in a team format. The reality is that your score is the product of your own good golf and holes where your partner has unwittingly donated 1.5 points. It seems to me that the system is measuring shared outcomes, not individual performance.
The fun starts when the new ‘counting’ score replaces the 20th score on your WHS record and, because your best eight scores are now worse, your handicap goes up. So, your partner’s great putting on the last has just altered your handicap index upwards. That’s bonkers, isn’t it?
The mere fact that it ‘could’ happen should surely prompt those clever WHS people at The R&A and USGA to consider whether they got it right back in ’24 and if a partner’s Stableford points should ever have been allowed to affect a player’s handicap in the first place.
Was he correct?
It does seem bonkers, but after a bit of research, I can confirm that it is true. You may already have known this, but I have to confess, I did not and still can’t quite believe it.
But confirmation that it is just as our reader said can be found in Rule 5.10 of The R&A’s Rules of Handicapping, entitled ‘Accepting Individual Scores From Four-ball Formats’ (pages 68-69).
Although such a score has to be a good one of at least 36 points (in line with the requirements of Rule 5.10), if it means that your best score, or another really good one better than 36 points, is the one to drop off, your handicap index could, indeed, go up.
It seems that my colleague Rob does have one such counting score on his current record and it is actually his second-best score differential. But he’s unable to now recall if any of his individual scores that day would have been enhanced by his playing partner’s scores, thus affecting that score differential (if you click on that round it says “hole-by-hole scores unavailable”).
You could also get cut...
Given how odd I find all this, I ran this article past a couple of trusted colleagues before publication, just to make sure I wasn’t getting hold of the wrong end of the stick.
Fergus Bisset reassured me, while also pointing out that it is highly unlikely to come into play very often as several specific scoring requirements have to be met to trigger a counting four-ball score under Rule 5.10.
But he went on to say that it could, of course, equally trigger an undeserved handicap reduction, citing this theoretical example:
“If you had 12 solid holes that counted for the team - say 27 points on them – then blobbed five more where your partner contributed 13 points, the team would get 13 on those five holes (say three three-pointers and two two-pointers), while you are awarded 1.5 for each of them, so 7.5 points personally. You're now on the equivalent of 34.5 and team is on 40 with one hole to play.
“Your playing partner makes a putt on the final green to score two points, so the team goes to 42. You had made one point but now get 1.5 as your playing partner’s score counts, which means your score goes up from 35.5 to 36 points... and your performance is now counting for handicap. In reality, you only made 28 points personally over 18 holes but have been ‘given’ 36!
“Your (fabricated) 36 points becomes one of your best eight scores and if it knocks out something pretty shoddy, you could receive a decent handicap reduction. That is really ridiculous! I think that could happen... that's more ridiculous than possibly going up. Imagine actually only scoring 28 points and receiving a score of 36 for handicap purposes! Insane.”
I know there is a very keen desire on the part of the handicapping authorities for as many scores as possible to count, but golf handicaps are individual handicaps and it’s hard to fathom how there should be any way in which someone else’s golf and scores can affect your index. But it seems there are.
In addition to the desire for as many scores as possible to count, I also suspect that some of the intention here will have been to try to prevent bandit pairs from going round cleaning up on the local four-ball better-ball circuit, while never putting in any individual cards.
Such local reputations can lead to others not entering (or returning next year) if they suspect that a notorious pair’s horses will be tied up in the car park that day.
That makes it perhaps more understandable but I still think it’s fundamentally wrong that another player’s scores can affect your handicap, and I would take some persuading otherwise.
What do you think? Good, bad or outrageous? Let us know in the comments section below...
