Birdie Transition to the New World Handicap

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT 

We are pleased to announce that Birdie will be changing over to the New World Handicap this evening. If you log into your account you will see your New World Handicap.

Please note the following:

86 of you will have a handicap decrease of more than 1 shot

8226 of you will have a handicap change less than 1 shot 

491 of you will have an handicap increase of more than 1 shot 

(This is almost entirely due to bad data entries) 

YOU SHOULD ALSO NOTE THAT 

Some of you will have had a very slight increase in handicap. This is down to the following:

Previous Birdie Handicap: When a score is submitted, it is converted to a Handicap

Differential based on the Course Rating and Slope Rating of the tees that were played.

A Handicap Index is then calculated by averaging a player’s 10 best Handicap Differentials out

of their most recent 20. The resulting average is then multiplied by .96 – also referred to as the “bonus for excellence.”

New World Handicap: When a score is submitted, it is converted to a Handicap

Differential based on the Course Rating and Slope Rating of the tees that were played.

A Handicap Index is then calculated by averaging a player’s 8 best Handicap Differentials out

of their most recent 20.

Therefore if the average of your 10 differentials happens to be the same or very similar to the average of your new 8 differentials the difference will be the  multiplied by .96 for example

Differentials

Birdie Handicap

18.9 + 21.7 + 22.2 + 22.6 + 23.4 + 24.4 + 24.4 + 24.8 + 24.8 + 24.9 = 233.1 / 10 = 23.3 

23.3 * 0.96 = 22.4

New World Handicap

18.9 + 21.7 + 22.2 + 22.6 + 23.4 + 24.4 + 24.4 + 24.8 = 182.8 / 8 = 22.9 

A summary of all the new changes to you handicap calculation are as follows:

Handicap Calculation 

Before: Handicap was calculated based on an average of differentials using 10 scores from your last 20 scores with an added bonus for excellence a 0.96 multiplier 

Now: Handicap is calculated based on an average of differentials using 8 scores from your last 20 scores

Limit on upward movement of a handicap

Before: There was no restriction on the upward movement of a handicap 

Now: a “soft cap” and “hard cap” will be included within the calculation to limit upward movement of the handicap over a rolling 12 month period 

Exceptional Scores

Before: There was no additional reduction for exceptional scores 

Now: When a player submits a score that produces a Score Differential of 7.0

strokes or more below their Handicap, they will be subject to an additional 1 stroke reduction.

When a player submits a score that produces a Score Differential of 10.0

strokes or more below their Handicap, they will be subject to an additional 2 stroke reduction.

Daily Playing Conditions 

Before: There was no calculation or adjustment for daily course and weather conditions 

Now: When abnormal course or weather conditions cause scores to be

unusually high or low on a given day, a “Daily Playing Conditions Calculation” will adjust the  Score Differentials to better reflect a player’s actual performance

We purposely tried to keep this short as the whole handicap calculation thing can be a little overwhelming, rest assured that months of work have gone into updating the Birdie site to align with the New World Handicap and that the system will take care of all the calculations so you don’t have too, we will be adding further features in the coming months

 If anyone has any issues after the change please use the help button on the App to reach out or email [email protected]

Many thanks for your continued support

Shane and Team