Which state has the lowest handicap index? The highest? Here’s a complete list

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 ready to replace this 12 months. GOLF’s Josh Sens lately detailed the modifications in a story printed final Thursday, and you may click on right here to learn that piece, or proceed to scroll. 

***

Happy (virtually) New Year!

Now that we’ve acquired your consideration, an necessary reminder: Though your golf sport may not get extra correct in 2024, your handicap will.

On Jan. 1, the World Handicap System, which was established in 2020 to unify golfers round the globe by way of a commonplace measure of enjoying means, shall be up to date. 

The modifications, applied by the USGA and R&A, are supposed to create a system that extra precisely displays how the sport is performed right now.

And how is the sport performed right now?

Increasingly, in nine-hole rounds, on shorter programs. 

The up to date system will accommodate that new actuality.

Here’s a refresher on the modifications.

Posting scores for 9-hole rounds

If you’re like a lot of golfers, you play a lot of nine-hole rounds. And no surprise. They’re enjoyable. They’re quick. They match properly along with your go-go way of life. Problem is, in lots of international locations, the United States included, a single nine-hole spherical can’t be counted towards your handicap index. Under the present system, it’s a must to wait till you play one other 9, after which mix these two scores into an 18-hole complete.

As of the new 12 months, that may change. Rather than make you wait till you play one other 9 on one other day, and possibly even on one other course (elements that may introduce every kind of variables), the up to date system will permit you to publish your rating instantly, which it is going to use to provide an 18-hole tally that mixes your rating for the holes you accomplished along with your “expected score” on the relaxation — 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: Playing 10 to 17 holes is a lot much less widespread than enjoying 9. But it occurs, often when darkness or climate intervenes. The new system could have a higher means of dealing with these rounds, too. For starters, you received’t should play 13 holes to make it official; beneath the present system, for those who don’t make it by way of 13, your scores on holes 10, 11 and 12 don’t rely. What’s extra, as a substitute of utilizing web par to calculate an 18-hole rating, as the system presently 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 is, briefly, a extra correct means 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 rage as of late. But as a result of many of those programs had not beforehand been assigned a course score and slope score, the scores you posted on them couldn’t be counted towards your handicap, both. On Jan. 1, that, too, will change. Under the new system, the size necessities for inclusion in the WHS shall 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 put together for it, the USGA — with assist from its allied golf associations round the nation — has been busy dispatching raters to brief programs from coast to coast. That work remains to be in progress. As it stands, 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 relaxation accomplished by the finish of the 12 months.

Handicap changes primarily based on irregular situations

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

Additional steering for handicap committees

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

Golf Magazine

Subscribe To The Magazine

Subscribe

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his function, he’s accountable for modifying, writing and growing 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 enjoying the sport, hitting the ball left, proper and brief, and ingesting a chilly beer to clean away his rating. You can attain out to him about any of those subjects — his tales, his sport or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.