Festive Golf

A Happy New Year to all Tee Setters and best wishes to you and your families for a healthy, prosperous and golf filled 2020. Before moving onto a couple of messages about handicaps, just a quick announcement that some games have been arranged by Divya Ahuja and Chris Lever over the next 2-3 days and anyone interested to join should please contact Divya directly on +6281931888666. For those on Deemples, the games are posted there too under the T-Drivers account.

Handicaps: New E-mail Address for Scorecards

In 2019 we merged our handicap process with D.O.G.S. and this has been a positive development in getting more of the rounds played by the respective memberships entered into a single handicap system, largely thanks to the efforts and coordination of the Committees of both Societies. We have also seen an uptick in the number of scorecards being submitted, as they all should be, for games played outside of the regular events hosted by the 2 societies. Thank you all for this effort to ensure we have the most accurate and up to date handicaps available for both sets of members.

It has of course also meant an increase in the number of emails being received to the regular Tee Set email account. To better manage those related solely to scorecards being submitted, we have set up a dedicated email for this purpose: teesetcards@gmail.com.

Please can future scorecards you are sending be submitted to this account going forward. Scorecards submitted to the Tee Set account or handed over to the Secretary/Committee on a Sunday afternoon will still be processed but it may not be as quick.

Whilst on the subject of handicaps…. As many of you are aware, the new global “World Handicap System” is being rolled out in 2020. It is not a one-shot exercise but a progressive roll-out where-by those unions, USGA and Australia Golf notably, which are already broadly in line with the new system will change over early in 2020 and those for which it is a more extensive process of change, notably the UK unions under the current CONGU system, will change over later in the year – around November from the latest announcements by the R&A. Once done it will make it easier to enjoy your golf on your travels as all clubs should recognize the handicaps produced under the new system.

Our handicap system provider, which follows the USGA guidelines, has advised that the 2020 module will be compliant to the World Handicap System and so when we roll over to the new module, usually January each year, our handicaps will be recalculated under the new rules. The only major change which will be notable for us is that the handicap will become the average of the best 8 cards versus best 10 presently (for those with 20 cards counting cards) and handicaps will tighten slightly as a result.

There are also administrative caps on how quickly a handicap can rise and adjustments for the daily playing conditions which may impact the overall results of the group on a particular day versus the standard ratings for the course. These will be handled within the system and therefore require no additional work on our part. For those passionate to understand more, please search on World Handicap System to find more materials explaining these changes.

We do not presently know when other local Societies and Clubs will change over but we expect it to be sooner rather than later since all largely follow the USGA process for which the January transition is slated.