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golf of S E RUL
cial hling - Rules Offi By Gerhard Neet
Handicaps and Scoring
T
he South African Golf Handicapping System (updated February 2011) provides the guidelines to the Unions of the South African Golf Association (SAGA), Women’s Golf South Africa (WGSA) and their member clubs. Any player wishing to compete in a golf competition at an affiliated club must have an official handicap. A player can only obtain a handicap if the player is a registered member of a golf club. How is the handicap calculated? A handicap is calculated with the ten best adjusted gross scores of the last 20 rounds played. A nine hole score must now be entered for handicap purposes. A new member player may also obtain a handicap from the committee with five rounds of golf completed.
How do you score for a round?
Entering Score
56
sa woman golfer
The 18 holes on a golf course are rated 1 to 18 with the most difficult hole rated 1 on the course. The handicap of a player is allocated on the basis of the difficulty of the hole. A player with a 17 handicap will not receive a stroke on the stroke 18 hole of a golf course.
Any player wishing to compete in a golf competition at an affiliated club must have an official handicap. A player is entitled to enter a score of one more than the par of the hole plus the number of handicap strokes a player is entitled to on the hole. Let us look at the following examples; Three players handicapped 8, 24 and 36 are playing the par 4 ninth hole with a rating of 12. The maximum scores the respective players are entitled to is • 5 for the 8 handicap (no handicap stroke is received on this hole + 1) • 6 for the 24 handicap (one handicap stroke is received on this hole + 1) • 7 for the 36 handicap (two handicap stroke is received on this hole + 1)
Jun/Jul/Aug 2011
These maximum scores for handicapping purposes are referred to as the adjusted gross. This means that the score for the competition may be more (in the case of an individual stroke play competition) than the adjusted gross for handicapping purposes. A player is required to enter scores for all rounds played and not only for competition rounds, but the scores of match play rounds may not be entered for handicapping purposes. Competitions in which completion of every hole is not required, as for instance with a better ball stableford, a putt of a partner may be conceded because her partner already scored better points. In this instance, the score for the player whose putt has been conceded will be the number of strokes played plus one stroke for the concession. A player must enter a score for a round or nine holes played within 72 hours after the event. What is the course rating? The other factor required to compute a handicap is the course rating. The course rating is a comparison between courses of their lengths, altitude and the playability by a scratch golfer (0 handicap). The course rating is subtracted from the adjusted gross score to enter a score for handicapping purposes.