![\"world](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/golfscorecard-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhere do you rank if you\u2019re a scratch golfer in England? How many players really hold a huge handicap?<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re interested in where you stand on the handicap scales, England Golf have released new figures \u2013 and they make very interesting reading.<\/p>\n
There are more than 780,000 golfers in the country with a handicap index, with around 720,000 of those in club membership and the rest subscribing to iGolf, England Golf\u2019s independent golfer programme.<\/p>\n
Stats chiefs at the governing body have analysed those players and revealed percentiles by handicap category.<\/p>\n
Overall, the numbers show just 1 in 100 golfers have a handicap below 0.4, while 18 in 100 can boast a handicap of 10.4 or better. The most populated category is players with a handicap of 16 to 20, who make up 23.4% of the total.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re closely followed by golfers with handicaps of 11 to 15 (20.6%), while those with handicaps of 21 to 25 account for 17.5%. Just 2.7% of golfers have a handicap of 36 to 40 and only 2.2% have an index of 41 or more.<\/p>\n
England Golf have further broken down the percentages into separate men\u2019s and women\u2019s tables.<\/p>\n
How do you rank on England Golf\u2019s World Handicap System scale?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Male<\/p>\n
Around a quarter of men \u2013 24.8% \u2013 have a handicap of 16 to 20, closely followed by those with indexes of 11 to 15, who make up 22.5% of the golfing population in England.<\/p>\n
Handicaps of 21 to 25 make up 17.6% of the total, which means around 65% of all male golfers have a handicap between 11 and 25, with 42% of those between 16 and 25.<\/p>\n
Only 1.5% have a WHS index of 36 to 40 and just 1% have a handicap of 41 or more. In fact, just 6.2% of all male players have a handicap of 31 or higher.<\/p>\n
At the top end, scratch or better golfers make up 1.1% of the golfing population. Nearly 5% of men (4.8%) have handicaps of 1 to 5 and 13.5% fall between 6 and 10. A player in these three bands is in the top 20% of all male golfers in England. <\/p>\n
Female<\/p>\n
Female handicaps are much more widely spread across all categories. Those with a handicap of 10 or below are in the top 4.3% overall (0 or below 0.5%; 1-5 1.1%; 6-10 2.7%).<\/p>\n
Just under three quarters of players (74.8%) have a World Handicap Index of 21 or higher, with the biggest single group \u2013 18.8% \u2013 holding marks of 26 to 30.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s closely followed by 21 to 25 (17%) and 31 to 35 (16%). At the higher ranges, 11.6% are between 36 and 40 and 11.4% are 41 or above.<\/p>\n
What can we learn from these figures?<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re a golfer with a handicap of 10 or better, you\u2019re in good company in England \u2013 making up the top 20% of males and the top 4% of females.<\/p>\n
Scratch golfers or better represent the top 1% of all players, reminding us that very low-handicap golfers are rare.<\/p>\n
Overall, most golfers in England are clustered between 11 and 25, with male handicaps concentrated tightly in the middle range. Female handicaps are spread more widely.<\/p>\n
You can check out the full tables on England Golf\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now have your say on the World Handicap System<\/p>\n What do you make of these percentages and where do you fit into the picture? Let me know in the comments, email me at s.carroll@nationalclubgolfer.com<\/a>, or get in touch on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Where do you rank if you\u2019re a scratch golfer in England? How many players really hold a huge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-294452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}