2019 was the year that the USGA and the R&A, the self-proclaimed Supreme Commanders of Golf, decided to turn the world of golf upside down by allowing you to putt with the flagstick in (or out). This edict has created simmering feuds within foursomes that may never be resolved. Apparently unsatisfied with the level of disruption their rules changes were responsible for, the Lords of the Links now plan on messing with your handicaps. That’s right, your handicaps. Hardly ever a topic of conversation in 19th holes. They have unilaterally decided that all of the clandestine systems used around the world to determine golf handicaps should be the same. (somebody at the Royal and Ancient has too much time on their hands). The handicap system that is used in the US and Canada is based on a top-secret algorithm devised by Alan Turing in a Chelsea bomb shelter in 1944. The Lords have decreed that it match up with all the other handicapping systems in place around the world devised by other country’s mathematical geniuses.
We will all sleep much better at night secure in the knowledge that a sandbagging 7 from Sausalito will be able to compete fairly with a sandbagging 7 from Samoa. If your handicap drops by 3 due to implementation of the WORLD HANDICAPPING SYSTEM, do not call us, but DO contact the Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Society, Mr. Clive Edginton.
Mr. Edginton’s home club is St. Georges Hill, Weybridge Surrey, +44 1932 847758. I regret that we do not have his home number.