The lowest handicap I have ever been to is 27. I had this amazing round after which I was cut from 32 to 27. Since then I have been creeping up to 30. Since the new golf world handicap system has come in I have gone up pretty rapidly, and I am currently on 33.7 handicap index! Yet I know that my shot making has improved and I can hit further than I used to. However, the scorecard just doesn’t show good results. Every golfer knows that the key to playing well is to be consistent, and we are all chasing after this golden key that seems always to be just out of reach to most of us.
The way the new golf handicap system works
This is the way the new golf world handicap system works – your last 20 recorded scores are considered, and the average is taken of your best eight scores. That produces your “handicap index” which is your basic handicap. Every time you record a new score on the system the earliest of the 20 scores drops off the bottom. This sometimes causes your handicap to go up or down.
My current handicap index
The image above shows a snapshot of some of my best eight scores taken from the WHS My England Golf app, going back to last year. If I don’t put in any lower scores than these in the next few competitions that I play, they will soon drop off and my handicap index will go up.
The aim of my handicap journey
So the aim of my handicap journey is to put in some good scores so that my average goes down, giving me a lower handicap index. This is going to be tough and I am not going to set myself any time limits at this point. But I would hope to be seeing an improvement in a few months.