Under the World Handicap System™, should there be an additional adjustment in four-ball stroke play when partners have a large difference in Course Handicap™?

Quick Answer: In Four-Ball Stroke Play under the World Handicap System (WHS™), each player's Playing Handicap™ is calculated by multiplying their unrounded Course Handicap by 85% and rounding the result to the nearest whole number. No additional reduction is applied when partners' Course Handicaps differ by more than 8 strokes.

In Four-Ball Stroke Play, the recommended handicap allowance is 85%. Assuming there are no other Terms of the competition that might impact a player’s Playing Handicap™, it equals the unrounded Course Handicap multiplied by 85%, then rounded to the nearest whole number. For example, a player with an unrounded Course Handicap of 14.0 would calculate: 14.0 × 0.85 = 11.9, which rounds to a Playing Handicap™ of 12.

One of the recommendations under the previous USGA Handicap System™ (superseded by the WHS™ on January 1, 2020) was to keep the difference between partners’ Course Handicaps to 8 strokes or less. If this difference could not be avoided, then an additional 10% reduction for both partners was encouraged.

However, with Four-Ball Stroke Play having a lower handicap allowance under the WHS™ (85% for all players) as compared to the previous USGA Handicap System (90% for men and 95% for women), the 8-stroke limit between partners is no longer needed to ensure fair competition across teams of varying handicap levels. As a result, it is no longer recommended to assign an additional reduction if partners have more than an 8-stroke difference in their Course Handicaps. Note that competition organizers retain the authority to apply Terms of the Competition that may further modify Playing Handicaps™ at their discretion.