Starting in January, the WHS will use an “expected score” formula to take nine-hole scores and adjust them to 18-hole score differentials. Mining the data gathered from the 100 million scores posted yearly around the world under the WHS, a model scoring formula for every handicap index for males and females has been developed. The appropriate one will be applied to your index and create an expected score on any remaining holes you had for handicap purposes, taking the place of applying a score of net par for any missing holes. The new formula is built to account for a standard golf course, so the calculations are no longer course-dependent compared to the math applied in the past.

For decades in the U.S., golfers had been posting nine-hole scores but then needed to wait for an accompanying nine-hole score to be paired with to create an 18-hole number for handicap purposes. That system was good enough, said Steve Edmondson, managing director of Handicap and Course Rating for the USGA, but he acknowledged it did create inconsistencies.

“As you can imagine, I could be combining two low scores; a score that was really good for a day with a bad score, so you’re not getting a true reflection of how I played on that day; or two bad scores,” Edmondson said. “When you combined two low scores you might have an 18-hole differential that you’re really not capable of shooting if you were to play 18 holes.”

If you’re designing a new system from scratch, Edmondson said, you would want something that offered a more consistent and comparable approach, as well as something more responsive. “We want to be able to understand somebody’s true demonstrated ability, so you want to remove some of those outliers, and we feel like that has done so.”

Another benefit of the change is it will allow new golfers who primarily play and post nine-hole rounds to have their handicap index updated in the same timely manner as those posting 18-hole rounds. “It will be responsive,” Edmondson said. “The next day that score will be reflected, as it should, and it will be based off the play of the day rather than the play off two days. That goes back to the consistency and more comparable.”

The impact of the change comes in conjunction with another alteration the USGA and R&A have announced for the WHS in 2024: a reduction in the minimum yardage for a course to be included in the Course Rating System. Previously, 18-hole courses had to be at least 3,000 yards and nine-hole course had to be 1,500 yards. Now must be 1,500 and 750 yards respectively.

This change reflects the rise in short courses as a place for new golfers to be introduced and learn the game. The yardage reduction will translate to allowing these new players more opportunities to play rounds that can be posted for handicap purposes.

“Just over 700 par 3 courses in the United States alone are not part of the WHS today,” Edmondson said. “So somebody new coming into the game might not understand why they can’t get a handicap index based on that course, etc. This now brings them into the fold.”

According to USGA data, nine-hole rounds accounted for 21 per cent of scores posted by new male golfers in the US, and more than 45 per cent of scores posted by new female golfers. By providing more opportunities to utilize nine-hole rounds for handicap purposes, Edmondson says, “We are trying to make sure we are meeting the game where it is moving, meeting the golfers as they are playing it.”

Any lingering nine-hole scores will be recalculated under the new system in mid-January and any short-course score posted in the new year will show up around that time as well.

Another change to the WHS that will go into effect in 2024 comes in regard to the playing conditions calculation adjustments created in 2020. The PCC made sure the score you posted on a given day impacted your Index in relation to the average of all scores posted at that course that day. Say 20 mile-per-hour winds caused you to shoot in the high 80s when you normally post 78s and 79s. The WHS algorithm accounted for this to keep the score from negatively affecting your Index, particularly if all scores that day were high.

The PCC will continue to be in place, but will be applied more frequently as the statistical barrier on which an adjustment is triggered has been relaxed. According to Edmondson, the model in 2020 allowed for adjustments at a 5 to 10 per cent rate. It will now come into play in 10 to 15 percent rate.

Additionally, the USGA and R&A will be offering additional guidance to handicap committees at clubs and courses to assist with conducting regular handicap reviews. Included in this will be new reporting tools that national associations can incorporate into their handicapping software to assist Committees in conducting the review process effectively and consistently.

Since the launch of the WHS, the number of people in the U.S. who have a handicap index has grown from 2.59 million in 2020 to 3.03 million in 2022 with another 394,321 added year to date in 2023.

Main images: monkeybusinessimages

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By Mike Stachura
The National (U.S.) Golf Foundation hinted throughout the summer and fall that 2020 was showing a remarkable surge in both participation and rounds played despite the shutdowns and uncertainties of the Covid-19 pandemic. Its final report for the year might actually be more positive than even predicted, what the golf industry group called “a year of resurgence.”

How good was 2020 historically? Tiger Woods good.

Specifically, the growth numbers in many cases set all-time records in many categories, and the number of golfers coming to the game in 2020 were only benchmarked against some of the greatest moments in Woods’ career, including his debut major title in 1997 and his epic U.S. Open win on a broken leg in 2008.

“There hasn’t been this much optimism and new activity in the golf business since the turn of the century,” said Joe Beditz, NGF president and CEO, in a recent email to the golf industry group, noting “spring shutdowns gave way to an unprecedented summer and fall in terms of play, golfer introductions and reintroductions, and robust, late-season spending.”

The NGF count showed 24.8 million golfers in the U.S. in 2020, an increase of 500,000 and 2 percent over 2019. It is the largest net increase in 17 years. New players (both beginners playing their first round and lapsed golfers coming back to the game for the first time in years) numbered 6.2 million, the highest that number has ever been. Last year also saw the largest percentage increase in beginning golfers and the biggest gain in youth golfers coming to the game since Tiger’s 1997 Masters win.

Women golfers also were part of the 2020 surge, jumping 450,000 or 8 percent year over year and making up nearly a quarter of all golfers with a count of some six million. That is the highest number over the last five years.

The NGF also counts total golf participants by factoring in off-course experiences as well, and that number swelled the overall count to 36.9 million, up 8 percent year-over-year and a near 20 percent gain in the last five years.

Of course, the pandemic’s challenges still took a toll with a larger-than-usual volume of players who opted out of the game for concerns over the pandemic or economic challenges. Still, 2020 marked the third straight year more golfers came to the game than left it, and the NGF’s study of those who opted out of golf in 2020 suggests they’re more eager than ever to opt back in. The number of what the NGF survey calls “very interested non-golfers” reached 17 million, a 1.5 million increase compared to 2019 and 4.2 million more than in 2016.

The net gain in golfers also contributed to a healthy boost in rounds played, despite many states restricting or even banning play for weeks or months. The NGF estimated a loss of 20 million rounds in the spring with course closures and restrictions, but by year’s end, 502 million rounds were recorded. That was 61 million more than in 2019, nearly a 14 percent increase and the largest one-year gain other than in 1997 when Tiger’s booming popularity saw a 63-million-round increase.

The NGF research indicates that the biggest driver of the rounds played surge wasn’t exclusively new golfers. Rather, it was the “core golfers” (more than eight rounds a year) who really upped their games. The report cites “a passionate cohort of existing players (roughly 20 percent of the core-golfer population)” who fueled the boost in the average rounds played per golfer to 20.2. It marked an all-time high since the statistic started being tracked in 1998. Despite being the age groups most at risk during the pandemic, older players still played the most golf. Those aged 60-69 logged an average of 29 rounds in 2020, while those golfers 70 and overplayed an average of 40 times last year. However, millennials (those aged 18-34) increased their rounds played by 13 percent compared to 2019, and 44 percent of all those who played golf at least once on a golf course in 2020 were under the age of 40—with as many under the age of 30 as over the age of 60.

Private clubs clearly were a beneficiary, despite having restrictions on revenue-generating external events like outings and weddings. According to the NGF, two thirds of private clubs said they were in good financial health in late 2020, and rounds at private clubs saw almost a 20 percent increase, greater than what was seen at public facilities, which were up 12 percent. Those gains came despite the reduced rounds at resorts after 2020 saw much less travel. In a way, the private club may have benefited as the stay-cation alternative.

“Private clubs were incredibly resilient in 2020,” said Henry Wallmeyer, president and CEO of the National Club Association, who noted that clubs that couldn’t rely on revenue from corporate events like the past, so they focused on engaging more members. “For an industry that has historically implemented change at an extremely measured pace, private clubs transformed incredibly quickly to serve their members in ways previously unimaginable. What we have learned is that by spending time and effort focusing on their members, clubs don’t necessarily need the non-member outings and events. The pandemic has steered clubs to getting back to why they were initially founded—as a place dedicated to serving members through unmatched service and experiences.”

There was undeniable but measured enthusiasm across the golf equipment industry, too. Equipment sales mirrored the energy in rounds played, recovering from a negative trendline in March and April that saw dollars dip by 31 percent. By year’s end, fueled by the biggest July in history and the second-highest quarter ever (behind only the quarter after Tiger’s riveting 2008 U.S. Open win), total sales of clubs and balls were at $2.9 billion in 2020, matching 2019’s numbers. David Maher, president and CEO of Acushnet, the parent company of the Titleist and FootJoy brands, noted in his recent summary of the company’s full-year earnings that the extraordinary gains might be an unrealistic standard for 2021, but the general direction is telling.

“We are still in a massive transition,” he said. “2020 was a massive transition year, 2021 will be a massive transition year. When the dust settles, hopefully sooner versus later, [the way] I tend to look at it is, ‘Okay, what’s the world going to look like, 2022 versus 2019?’ And I think the golf landscape is going to have more energy, more momentum, more golfers.”

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By Mike Stachura
For the first time in 14 years, the number of golfers in the U.S. as counted by the National Golf Foundation showed a measurable increase. While it’s technically within the margin of error for the NGF report’s methodology, the number of people in the U.S. age 6 and up who played at least one round of golf in 2018 increased to 24.2 million, up from 23.8 million in 2017.

The annual NGF Golf Participation Report also showed positive numbers for golf interest beyond the traditional on-course experience. The count of those who hit balls at a traditional driving range or entertainment venues like Topgolf or Drive Shack, or only played golf on an indoor simulator also grew to 23 million, a jump of 10 per cent. Counting on-course and off-course participation, the total golfer pool in the U.S. is 33.5 million people, a four-per cent increase from 2017. This off-course participation group was first highlighted in 2016.

The NGF report also showed the number of beginning golfers at 2.6 million, “a figure near historical highs,” according to the NGF.

One specific area of growth for the game is those at retirement age. While the number of golfers in the 18-34 age group held steady at 6.1 million, golfers who were 65 and older jumped from 3.6 million in 2017 to 4.2 million in 2018. Still, “those in the 18-to-34 age group represent 25 per cent of traditional golfers, and, even more significantly, 44 per cent of off-course only participants.”

The number of junior golfers dipped slightly to 2.5 million, but there is increasing interest among girls. In 2000, the number of girls playing golf accounted for 15 per cent of all juniors; now it’s more than one-third.

According to the NGF, the increase in the number of golfers came in a year that saw an almost five per cent decrease in rounds played in 2018. The report suggests the rounds played drop is directly tied to a difficult weather year. Last year was the third wettest in the U.S. since 1895, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

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