Soft and Hard Index Cap -- 12 Month Rule

[Frank Smith]

I understand the soft and hard caps and agree with it in principle.  However, the 12 month timeline needs revisiting.  A player with a cap who plays 175 rounds per year has the same 12 month cap as someone who plays 25 rounds per year.  This is unreasonable.  There should be a month and rounds criteria for the cap.  For example, a rule of 100 rounds (pick a number) or 12 months which ever comes first is a more reasonable rule.

[Syks7]

Good lord.  Who plays 175 rounds a year.  In principle I somewhat agree, but there just aren't going to be many people out there who play 100+ rounds a year.  Given that fact they're probably not going to make an adjustment to accommodate a 'small' relatively speaking group of players. 

We're also only talking about upward movement with the hard and soft caps.  I would hope that if you're playing 100+ rounds a year this doesn't really come into play, otherwise you either need to find a new hobby or go get a good teacher. 

[DaveP043]

15 hours ago, Frank Smith said:

I understand the soft and hard caps and agree with it in principle.  However, the 12 month timeline needs revisiting.  A player with a cap who plays 175 rounds per year has the same 12 month cap as someone who plays 25 rounds per year.  This is unreasonable.  There should be a month and rounds criteria for the cap.  For example, a rule of 100 rounds (pick a number) or 12 months which ever comes first is a more reasonable rule.

Please explain why you think its unreasonable.  Does playing 100+ rounds over the past 12 months somehow invalidate the HI you had a year ago?  Can you truly not play anywhere close to the way you played back then?  Please remember, there is a mechanism for the Handicap Committee to adjust your HI if there's a specific reason for your changed playing level, an injury or illness or something similar.  For reference, this provision is one of two in the WHS intended to minimize the opportunity for sandbagging, along with the Exceptional Score Adjustment, essentially replacing the USGA's old Exceptional Tournament Score adjustment.  Under the pre-2020 USGA system, the "look-back" period was also one full year.  

To me this is one of the places where the rulemakers had to essentially draw a line.  The specific location of that line is necessarily arbitrary, there isn't a single "right" spot.  I think it makes perfect sense to continue to use a "line" that has been in use for quite a while in the USGA regions.  12 months also makes sense to me in that includes a full year's worth of weather variations, completely appropriate for areas that post all year round, where many players see a consistent cyclical pattern to handicap variations.

[CarlH]

I'm currently soft capped because my handicap has gone from its low of 6.8 to the current 10.5.  The 6.8 was just 6 months ago.  It was slowly rising while still at my old course, but was still <7.5 ... In December, I moved to a new course, much harder, longer, and with different style grass, tight lies, and dormant conditions.  As I'm adjusting to the new course, my scores are understandably higher than my previous course.  Couple that with the winter conditions making the fairways and green side areas very unforgiving, and ... well ... right now, I'm having adjustment issues.   

Having said all of that, I know that my game will turn in short order and I will begin to post scores more appropriate to my ability.  Now, I could complain about being soft capped and the rise in handicap being restricted to 50%, but I've seen enough sand bagging from too many people over the course of my playing days that I have no heartburn with putting up with the mild inconvenience.  Unfortunately, if my game does not return as I suspect it will, then I'll be struggling to shoot at or near my handicap until those low index numbers disappear toward the end of this year....but, c'est la vie! 

[Golf2Much]

Given the average golfer will play between 8 and 24 rounds (18.2 rounds in 2019 per National Golf Foundation) a year, the 12 months seems about right.  GHIN's general policies are rightfully focused on the majority of players, not necessarily the extreme tails of the rounds played distribution.  I understand your argument as I posted over 130 rounds in 2021.  However, having to set policies for 20 plus million golfers has to be based on the majority and has to be simple so they can easily be followed.  In the grand scheme of things, the cap safeguards are price we pay to at least minimize handicap abuse. 

If your rising and capped index is based on special circumstances like an injury, your club's Handicap Committee can override both soft and hard caps.  

[DaveP043]

14 hours ago, Golf2Much said:

GHIN's general policies are rightfully focused on the majority of players

Just to be clear, this isn't GHIN policy, its not even the USGA policy, this is an integral part of the World Handicap System, which involved discussions and negotiations among all six of the previously existing handicap systems in the world.  And before anyone else says it, I know that the system isn't exactly the same all around the world, but we're a whole lot closer than we were previously.