10. Georgia (14.3)

9. Texas (13.8)

8. North Dakota (13.5)

7. Tennessee (13.5)

6. Washington, D.C. (13.2)

5. Alabama (13.1)

4. Oklahoma (13.0)

3. Louisiana (12.9)

2. Arkansas (12.8)

1. Mississippi (11.6)

The rating comes whereas the world handicap system is about to replace this yr. GOLF’s Josh Sens lately detailed the adjustments in a narrative revealed final Thursday, and you may click on right here to learn that piece, or proceed to scroll. 

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Joyful (virtually) New 12 months!

Now that we’ve obtained your consideration, an vital reminder: Although your golf recreation won’t get extra correct in 2024, your handicap will.

On Jan. 1, the World Handicap System, which was established in 2020 to unify golfers across the globe by an ordinary measure of taking part in means, might be up to date. 

The adjustments, carried out by the USGA and R&A, are supposed to create a system that extra precisely displays how the sport is performed immediately.

And the way is the sport performed immediately?

More and more, in nine-hole rounds, on shorter programs. 

The up to date system will accommodate that new actuality.

Right here’s a refresher on the adjustments.

Posting scores for 9-hole rounds

If you happen to’re like a variety of golfers, you play a variety of nine-hole rounds. And no surprise. They’re enjoyable. They’re quick. They match properly together with your go-go way of life. Downside is, in lots of nations, america included, a single nine-hole spherical can’t be counted towards your handicap index. Underneath the present system, you need to wait till you play one other 9, after which mix these two scores into an 18-hole complete.

As of the brand new yr, that can change. Relatively than make you wait till you play one other 9 on one other day, and perhaps even on one other course (components that may introduce every kind of variables), the up to date system will will let you put up your rating instantly, which it should use to supply an 18-hole tally that mixes your rating for the holes you accomplished together with your “anticipated rating” on the remainder — your anticipated rating being what a participant of your means can be anticipated to shoot on a course of normal problem.

Posting scores for rounds of 10-17 holes

Yeah, we all know: Enjoying 10 to 17 holes is quite a bit much less frequent than taking part in 9. However it occurs, often when darkness or climate intervenes. The brand new system may have a greater approach of dealing with these rounds, too. For starters, you gained’t must play 13 holes to make it official; beneath the present system, if you happen to don’t make it by 13, your scores on holes 10, 11 and 12 don’t rely. What’s extra, as a substitute of utilizing internet par to calculate an 18-hole rating, because the system at the moment does, the up to date WHS will add the participant’s rating differential from holes performed to the participant’s anticipated rating differential for holes not performed. It’s, in brief, a extra correct approach of accounting for the holes you didn’t get to.

Posting scores for rounds on brief programs

Par-3 and government programs are all the craze today. However as a result of many of those programs had not beforehand been assigned a course ranking and slope ranking, the scores you posted on them couldn’t be counted towards your handicap, both. On Jan. 1, that, too, will change. Underneath the brand new system, the size necessities for inclusion within the WHS might be considerably diminished, with programs as brief as 750 yards for 9 holes and 1,500 yards for 18 holes introduced into the fold.

As you’ll be able to most likely think about, this isn’t a change that has occurred in a single day. To organize for it, the USGA — with assist from its allied golf associations across the nation — has been busy dispatching raters to brief programs from coast to coast. That work remains to be in progress. Because it stands, just a little greater than one-third of eligible brief programs have been assigned course and slope rankings. Plans name for half of them to be rated by the spring of 2024, and the remainder accomplished by the tip of the yr.

Handicap changes based mostly on irregular situations

Golf is performed in variable situations. That’s one of many beauties of the sport. However it additionally makes it difficult on handicapping. The present WHS makes computerized changes for irregular course situations (issues like excessive winds and standing water and floor beneath restore). However it may very well be extra exact. As of Jan. 1, the up to date system might be extra delicate to irregular situations, and thus higher capable of precisely regulate for them. 

Further steerage for handicap committees

Final however not least (properly, really, it’s the least related to the non-tournament rounds of golf most of us play), the up to date system will present extra steerage to handicap committees conducting handicap critiques, with new instruments to assist type by the potential headache of outlier scores and different inconsistencies.  

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Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Journal. In his position, he’s chargeable for modifying, writing and creating tales throughout the golf area. And when he’s not writing about methods to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native might be taking part in the sport, hitting the ball left, proper and brief, and ingesting a chilly beer to clean away his rating. You possibly can attain out to him about any of those subjects — his tales, his recreation or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.