In theory the WHS was a good idea, however in the stark reality its all a bit wishy washy! Guys that might have been a 4 on the previous handicap system may well be 1 or lower when WHS came into effect, of course it can be said that a 4 chap of old could also be a 6 it just depends on handicap history. A newcomer to golf might get a handicap after a few rounds of golf, play in a competition (particularly in summer with kind weather and lots of run on the fairway) shoot a net 60 off a handicap of 27 and with minimal handicap rounds existing suddenly find himself off 12, as happened at a local course.
But the smoothing effect will make handicaps more accurate........well provided you play every week and 52 weeks of the year, if you are a summer golfer only you might struggle. Also and this is the real kicker some clubs will run multi tee competitions whereby depending on what tees you decide to play off you might receive courtesty shots for playing off the back tees for instance. so a Net 70 off a 5 handicap played off the back tees has a further two shots brought into consideration so in theory would be a net 68. Playing off the back Tess can be very rewarding if you are a low handicapper. So you can see that a golfer originally off 5 can unintentionally reach a scratch handicap with regular consistency and playing from the back tees. But are they a real scratch golfer of old? Well probably not if the truth be known, its not as if their striking or course management has improved but just the "advantage" of playing off the back tees. Certainly if they rock up at another golf course even with a generous slope rating in Gross standards they might potentially struggle to break 80.
When Sergio Garcia turned professional he was plus 5 or plus 6 and look at his talent.
I think there's scope for golfers to use their pre.WHS handicaps in regular roll ups and avoid playing in the Saturday medal but having their own mini comp off their pre WHS handicap.