gaining a handicap without joining a club?

[popeye]

well I think the tittle says it all!

I would like to get a Handicap in order to enter open compititions but I'm afraid that I imply don't have hundreds of pounds kicking around my bank account that I can spend on club memberships in order to gain one! Is anyone aware of a method that can enable me to get my hp without joining?

p.s-I don't know anyone who is member of any clubs so unable to ask if I can join them as a guest.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

You can only get an Official Handicap by becoming a member of an affiliated club.

 

[PIng]

Some municipals will let you join the associated club for a relatively small amount (one near me costs about £70) but you then have to pay green fees every time you play, discounted I believe.

 

[duncan mackie]

As Ping has outlined, you can join a golf club based at a pay & play course for relatively little - I was a member of one for over 20 years!

 

[rosecott]

p.s-I don't know anyone who is member of any clubs so unable to ask if I can join them as a guest.

Not quite sure what you mean by that. How would joining a member as a guest get you closer to an official handicap?

 

[Smiffy]

You can only get an Official Handicap by becoming a member of an affiliated club.

Is the correct answer.
Any other type of handicap (offered by some online tracking websites etc) might as well come off the back of a cornflake packet.....

 

[popeye]

mmm. I'm sure golf has it's reasons for it but to me it just smacks of money grabbing-a way of keeping the 'riff raff' away. Golf has got a reputation of being sport only for the rich and if this is what it's after then fine it is fully entitled but then I also hear complaints that it struggles to attract new players. think it needs to pick on or the other. you also need to wonder how much natural talent it been wasted because it belongs to someone who is unable to fork out £500+ a year for a membership.

 

[Smiffy]

mmm. I'm sure golf has it's reasons for it but to me it just smacks of money grabbing-a way of keeping the 'riff raff' away. Golf has got a reputation of being sport only for the rich and if this is what it's after then fine it is fully entitled but then I also hear complaints that it struggles to attract new players. think it needs to pick on or the other. you also need to wonder how much natural talent it been wasted because it belongs to someone who is unable to fork out £500+ a year for a membership.

As others have mentioned, you can get a handicap cheaper than £500.00 by joining a municipal course and paying a (reduced) green fee etc.
There has to be some way to keep an accurate record of handicaps to avoid cheating.
I could quite easily enrol in an "online tracking website" sling some stupidly high scores in and get a mickey mouse handicap. Enter a competition with it and clean up.

 

[popeye]

is there a way of finding courses in my area that offer this as a option?

 

[Smiffy]

is there a way of finding courses in my area that offer this as a option?

Where do you live?

 

[popeye]

Eat Lothian.

 

[Smiffy]

Eat Lothian.

Ahh. Don't know Scotland very well. Maybe doing a google search for courses in your area, or putting a post up on the forum asking anybody who lives in the area?
There must be a course fairly close that offers a cheaper type of membership than "full".

 

[DCB]

In East Lothian you have The Old Links at Musselburgh and Winterfield at Dunbar, both run by the local council. Both have clubs that play out of them.

http://www.mocgc.co.uk/members.html for Musselburgh and http://www.winterfieldgc.com/ for Winterfield.

 

[Duckster]

As well as the above answers, most clubs will accept either Direct Debit or Fairway credit so you aren't having to pay out one lump sum to play but spread it out over the year.

East Lothian has to be one of the best places to live golf wise, lots of courses at (in comparison to what a lot of others have to pay) a very reasonable price!

 

[patricks148]

mmm. I'm sure golf has it's reasons for it but to me it just smacks of money grabbing-a way of keeping the 'riff raff' away. Golf has got a reputation of being sport only for the rich and if this is what it's after then fine it is fully entitled but then I also hear complaints that it struggles to attract new players. think it needs to pick on or the other. you also need to wonder how much natural talent it been wasted because it belongs to someone who is unable to fork out £500+ a year for a membership.

what would happen to many clubs if all the members left and just had handicaps that didn't cost them anything and just relied on playing away comps??? wouldn't be long before many just went under.

Most talent is identified at Junior level and non of then are playing anything like that for membership. I'm sure as well that if the SGU cam across any outstanding talent that couldn't afford a membership they would sort something so they were not lost to the sport

 

[rosecott]

mmm. I'm sure golf has it's reasons for it but to me it just smacks of money grabbing-a way of keeping the 'riff raff' away. Golf has got a reputation of being sport only for the rich and if this is what it's after then fine it is fully entitled but then I also hear complaints that it struggles to attract new players. think it needs to pick on or the other. you also need to wonder how much natural talent it been wasted because it belongs to someone who is unable to fork out £500+ a year for a membership.

I cannot agree about money grabbing. You really should get some idea of how much it costs to run a golf club each year. Your standard golf club does not make a profit.

One of the main reasons that you need to be a golf club member to have an official handicap is that handicaps are monitored and controlled according to handicap rules and that they are subject to peer review i.e. you are not likely to get away with a falsely high handicap when other members can see what you can do (don't let us start on the bandit issue again).

 

[MrC]

So you want to play in competitions but don't want to pay to join a club. its not so much that golf is expensive it's what you are trying to do. Competition are regulated and designed to be for golfers prepared to invest in the game and keep courses open.

you could play a round for a tenner. 4 hours fun at roughly £2.50 per hour. That's not too shabby if you ask me. I did this for years

 

[popeye]

It's not so much to do with 'want' or 'don't want' nor am I being stingy-it is a simple fact that many people just simply can't afford to fork out that kind of money and the punishment for that is exclusion from compititons-I completely understand that courses have massive outlays to pay for and I understand that you need rules to prevent people from taking the perverbial-how ever surley there must be a way to make it more affordable for more people which in turn will attract more people to take it up. As Duckster pointed out I am lucky in the regard that East Lothian is a great place for Golf and I do have the option to 'shop around' as it where but what bout people who don't have that option?

p.s-before this gets quite heated I would like to say that I intended no offence with my post/posts. These are just the feelings of someone who is seeing the sport from a beginners view point and any offence or upset I have caused please know that it was unintended and I do apologise for it.

 

[duncan mackie]

It's not so much to do with 'want' or 'don't want' nor am I being stingy-it is a simple fact that many people just simply can't afford to fork out that kind of money and the punishment for that is exclusion from compititons-I completely understand that courses have massive outlays to pay for and I understand that you need rules to prevent people from taking the perverbial-how ever surley there must be a way to make it more affordable for more people which in turn will attract more people to take it up. As Duckster pointed out I am lucky in the regard that East Lothian is a great place for Golf and I do have the option to 'shop around' as it where but what bout people who don't have that option?

p.s-before this gets quite heated I would like to say that I intended no offence with my post/posts. These are just the feelings of someone who is seeing the sport from a beginners view point and any offence or upset I have caused please know that it was unintended and I do apologise for it.

No need for the apology, but you might be better served focusing on any issues you have as a beginner in East Lothian rather than highlighting the potential issues for other people in other (distant) places.
Clubs have been evolving solutions for decades; as already posted I was a club member with full handicap and the ability to play any opens I wanted for an average of £20 per annum over many years (recounting it would have been over 30) - and I live in the most expensive area in the country.