A brief history of handicapping

Some kind of equalising system is essential at club level, but what were the origins of golf handicapping, how did it evolve and which has been the best method?

- Fergus Bisset Photography Kevin Murray, Tom Miles, Getty Images

The handicap system in golf is what makes ours such a universally enjoyable sport. Elite golfers can play with, and compete against, relative novices thanks to their golf handicaps. Players of all standards can win club tournaments when the handicap system is being used. With the World Handicap System (WHS) now in operation, players from all over the globe should be able to compete against one another on a fair footing. The WHS is the culmination of a centuries-long evolution in golf handicapping, as individuals, clubs and then governing bodies have sought to introduce, adapt and improve various systems to deliver the most equitable method of levelling the playing field.

Here, we trace a brief history of handicapping and ponder which system has been the best. Surely it's today's WHS? Well, perhaps...

The beginnings

Some sort of golf handicapping system must have been in place from the earliest days the sport was played. As wealthy Scots started to play matches against one another (almost certainly with money involved) from the middle of the 15th century onwards, there would surely have been a method of giving and receiving strokes to ensure the matches were competitive.

That we can only speculate on. What we do know is the first written mention of the golf handicap comes from the diary of an Edinburgh University medical student called Thomas Kincaid.

In January 1687, he wrote about games on Bruntsfield and Leith Links and the best way to give strokes to prevent an opponent gaining too much advantage. He wrote: “At golf, whether it is better to give a man two holes of three, laying equal strokes, or to lay three strokes to his one and play equal for so much every hole.”