GHSC News Item: December 5, 2022 – GHSC Handicap Chair Report (2022)

Reported by: Barbara Allen, GHSC Handicap Chair

2023 was the second year that the Golf Historical Society of Canada members were able to post their scores to the Golf Canada Score Centre to obtain a nationally recognized hickory handicap.

Here’s a few statistics from our second year of establishing handicaps. We had 18 Ontario GHSC members (17 males & 1 female) sign up as Golf Canada/Golf Ontario Hickory members, enabling them to post their hickory scores. This is one more member than we had in 2021. Hopefully, next year we can continue to encourage more Ontario GHSC members to keep official hickory handicaps.

The top 4 members who posted the most hickory scores this year are: Lorne Emery, who posted 93 scores, Gerald Achtymichuk who posted 58 scores. Vaughn Perusse posted 35 scores followed closely by Mike Stephenson who posted 40 scores. We had two players who are able to post scores however did not post any scores this year.

As this was our second year to post handicaps we were able to determine the “Most Improved Golfer”, with the greatest handicap reduction. Barbara Allan went from a 37.3 to a 27.6, an improvement factor of 1.245 and Vaughan Perusse went from an 8.6 to a 5.3, an improvement factor of 1.191.

We had 5 members who had not played 5 games last year so were unable to establish a handicap but now have done so and have established an official Golf Canada handicap index: Chris Cade (20.6), Frank Collis (40.0), Gerald Achtymichuk (15.8), Bill Southall (14.3) and Christopher Hawes (18.4)

Vaughn Perusse has our lowest Handicap Index of 5.3. Bill Southall has a 14.3 index, Jeff Rodgers has a 14.6 index and Lorne Emery, along with Gerald Achtymichuk have a 15.8 index. Bob West has a 15.9 index.

Again, I hope that more Ontario GHS members will sign up to become Golf Canada members, enabling them to establish Hickory handicaps. Hopefully, if we can get a significant number of Ontario GHSC members with Hickory handicaps, we can work with the other provinces to roll out this program across the country.

The active season for posting of scores in Ontario is from April 15 to October 31, so any scores from games played in Ontario this November while we still had beautiful weather are not eligible to be posted. However, should you travel to warmer climates and play in another location’s active season you are required to post those scores for handicap purposes. All courses in North America that have a valid slope and course rating can be found in the Golf Canada Score Centre.

If anyone has any questions about handicapping, whether you are playing with modern or hickory clubs, I am always happy to answer your questions.

Your GHS Handicap Chair,

Barbara Allan
ballan1052@gmail.com