Handicapping Update

Golf Australia continues to introduce and refine the new Australian Handicap System based on feed back from Clubs and an analysis of handicap changes.

Whereas the old system could be shown to be skewed in favour of of low Handicappers, results with the new system indicate it favours high Handicappers

As a result the following four priority amendments have been to the Golf Australia Handicap System:

	Alter ‘Best 10 of 20’ to ‘Best 8 of 20’
	Change the Bonus for Excellence multiplier from 0.96 to 0.93.
	Introduce an Anchor which will prevent a player’s handicap from increasing any more than 4 strokes beyond their best exact handicap from the previous 12 month rolling period
	Golf Link will cap the score that goes into a player’s handicap record at no more than the following amount over the course rating: - 50-women - 40-men

These four priority amendments came into effect on Wednesday 21 September 2011.

To view full details of these changes on the Golf Australia web site

For more details on the reason for these changes

Other Changes will continue be introduced over time,

Golf Australia have issued a summary of the Implementation Plan for the introduction of the compete system.

This covers the timing and status of each item in the new system.

To view this summary on the Golf Australia web site .

Probably of most interest to us at Mount Lofty with our summer/winter change is the decision on whether to revert to a daily course rating.

A decision was due in July 2011 but as yet there has been no announcement. If Golf Australia decided to proceed, regulations should be announced in Nov 2011 with implementation in April/May 2013

Golf Australia has also confirmed that the following will NOT be a part of the new system:

‘Most Likely Score’.
Required handicapping of novelty competitions.
Handicapping of ALL non-competition scores.
Handicapping of match play scores.
Handicapping of a score returned by a player who plays alone.