From April 1st, the way your Course and Playing Handicaps are calculated will change as England Golf introduce the first major change to WHS in the UK.
To date, off the Yellow tees at Downshire, your course handicap was:
(Course Handicap = CH, Handicap Index = HI) – so someone on 18 HI has a Course Handicap of 20.
From 1st April, a new factor will be added to this calculation: (Course Rating (CR) – Par):
On Yellows at Downshire, Course Rating is 68.4 and Par is 72, so (Course Rating – Par) is -3.6. From April therefore, a Course Handicap of 20 will instead be 16. The change for playing off Whites is not so large. See the effect in more detail by trying out the new Handicap Calculator.
There are some other changes which you can read about on the England Golf website. In addition the Course Information page on this website has been updated to provide more information on this change for the Downshire, including new look-up tables to help convert your Handicap Index to a Course Handicap.