What is a "Soft Cap"

A "Soft Cap" is triggered when a player has 20 scores in place and is a way of preventing their handicap from increasing too quickly, to ensure that a temporary loss of form does not cause a player’s Handicap Index® to move too far from a level consistent with their demonstrated ability.

A cap also serves as anti-abuse mechanism and will aid in minimising the potential for handicap manipulation.

Key points to remember:

• This favour’s the consistent player. The volatile player will be impacted more often, which is a good feature for a handicap system to have.
• A temporary loss of form should not cause a player’s H.I.™ to move too far from a level which is consistent with their underlying potential.
• A Low Handicap Index™ (or anchor) is the part of the system used to set the Soft Cap value.

The soft cap is applied if the change in the players Handicap Index is greater than 3 from the Low Handicap Index. It will suppress any rise above 3 by 50%.

Example:

If player A has a Low Handicap Index of 14.8, and the average of their best 8 scores is 19.71, the difference is 4.91. The following calculation is used when updating their Handicap Index:

Further details are available via the WHS™  Rules of Handicapping and can be downloaded at THIS LINK.