Handicap Without a Club

[slowhand]

How do I gain an official handicap if I am not a member of a club? Nomadic golf is becoming more and more prevalent due to family/work commitments and the cost of club membership, so there must surely be a way. I fancy entering an open competition or 2 this summer but need a handicap.

When I was a member of Moor Allerton I played off 23, but that was 20-odd years ago, so I'm not sure it counts anymore!

 

[Region3]

As far as I know, you can't have a handicap without being a member of a club.

The cheapest way would be to join a municipal as a pay and play member, you'd just need to play enough comps to keep your handicap active.

 

[rosecott]

Short answer - no club, no CONGU handicap.

There are still municipal clubs around which you can join without too much outlay to gain a handicap.

One of the important principles of the CONGU handicap system is that affiliated clubs have a duty to monitor the handicaps of their members to ensure their accuracy as a measure of playing ability. If you just give a nomad golfer a handicap so he can play in Opens, where does the monitoring come in?

 

[Russ_D]

I believe you can get online handicaps that are now recognised as official. http://www.golfscoretracker.co.uk/

Never tried it but may be worth a look?

 

[rosecott]

I believe you can get online handicaps that are now recognised as official. http://www.golfscoretracker.co.uk/

Never tried it but may be worth a look?

They would like you to believe they are official handicaps but they ain't.

 

[pbrown7582]

I believe you can get online handicaps that are now recognised as official. http://www.golfscoretracker.co.uk/

Never tried it but may be worth a look?

They would like you to believe they are official handicaps but they ain't.

this ^^^^

its clever wording in the ads but the online handicaps are not official

 

[Russ_D]

They would like you to believe they are official handicaps but they ain't.

ooh those crafty money grabbers!

 

[DCB]

If you eventually get to the bottom of the page, they actually state it's not "Official" and that Official handicaps are "only available to golf club members"

http://www.golfshake.com/golfhandicap/