This has been kicked around before...the real difference between a handicap system and our scoring averages is how potential is measured. Here, a player that posts all his scores can move up and down quite rapidly. Although posting every score is admirable, a player can manipulate this to stay in a particular tier indefinitely...making the negative aspects of sandbagging more prevalent. And since this game allows one to quit at any time, as if the round never happened, averages can lower rapidly by simply posting your best rounds. This can have a negative aspect as well in that players may escape into new acounts to start over again after biting off more than they can chew...which, by the way, is against the rules.
I'd like to see the WGT develop a system that measures true potential with little or no weight given to poor play. Take into account incomplete rounds, course difficultly (including wind and green speeds), equipment used, 18 hole as opposed to 9 hole rounds, what tees we play from and even the number of times a particular course is played under the same conditions and the same hole locations.
Joey