Oddball Question - Retired Pro Golfers / Handicaps

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Darlophil

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A bit of an odd question here but I'd be interested if anyone knew the answer.

If a professional golfer retires do they ever return to the handicapping system or would they carry on as 'scratch'?
 
They return to the HC system - what they start at I'm not sure but I guess it will be via the three cards ?
 
We had a kid who gave up being a pro, and put 3 cards in.

I think there is a delay period when they play off scratch, but can't compete in amateur events.

He was given a 6 handicap, and promptly put in some other rubbish scores to get up to 7. There is no way on earth a kid who turned pro off plus 2 can get to 7 a year ish after being a pro.
 
pbrown7582 said:
Isn't there a period they have to seve to regain amateur status?
Click to expand...

It seems to differ from country to country. In Germany the waiting period is a minimum of two years for players who played six years or longer as professionals (one year for shorter durations).

The R&A ruling on this can be found here.

My aunt (an average player with a handicap around -20 at the time) did hold professional status in Spain for a year sometime in the early 90s, because she had won a Rolex watch at a competition :D True story. Afaik, she just resumed the handicap she held before after the year was over.
 
murphthemog said:
We had a kid who gave up being a pro, and put 3 cards in.

I think there is a delay period when they play off scratch, but can't compete in amateur events.

He was given a 6 handicap, and promptly put in some other rubbish scores to get up to 7. There is no way on earth a kid who turned pro off plus 2 can get to 7 a year ish after being a pro.
Click to expand...

We have a guy who was a pro and gave it up. Think it was a year or eighteen months that he kept the pro status for and then put three cards in and now off five and won one of our recent comps
 
Darlophil said:
A bit of an odd question here but I'd be interested if anyone knew the answer.

If a professional golfer retires do they ever return to the handicapping system or would they carry on as 'scratch'?
Click to expand...
Some professional's stay professional so they don't revert back to the handicap system.

As other have posted, some that choose to regain their amateur status then have a period to wait before been given a handicap again.
 
There is a guy just returned to amateur status at my place, put in 3 cards and they gave him +4 and he is playing to it yet he struggled even on the lower tours.

How good does that make the top guys?? :confused:
 
Know someone who gave up his pro status, and has to wait 2 years before returning amateur. Has to put three cards in to get a card. All I know is, he is pencilled in for a few pro-ams once amateur status returns and he will clean up in any club comps! From what I believe, he can't be given a Cat 1 handicap either!
 
Wabinez said:
Know someone who gave up his pro status, and has to wait 2 years before returning amateur. Has to put three cards in to get a card. All I know is, he is pencilled in for a few pro-ams once amateur status returns and he will clean up in any club comps! From what I believe, he can't be given a Cat 1 handicap either!
Click to expand...

Others have posted the link to the rules on amateur status, but if you've been pro for 6 or more years, then you'd normally have to wait 2 years to get amateur status back. Under 6years it's just a 1 year wait.
 
Wabinez said:
Know someone who gave up his pro status, and has to wait 2 years before returning amateur. Has to put three cards in to get a card. All I know is, he is pencilled in for a few pro-ams once amateur status returns and he will clean up in any club comps! From what I believe, he can't be given a Cat 1 handicap either!
Click to expand...

poppycock, can and should be given a cat 1 handicap
 
Almost all of these guys will comfortably get a Cat 1 handicap. We have several former pros, Europro Tour or club pro, who regained amateur status and now carry handicaps around scratch or 1.
 
Wabinez said:
Know someone who gave up his pro status, and has to wait 2 years before returning amateur. Has to put three cards in to get a card. All I know is, he is pencilled in for a few pro-ams once amateur status returns and he will clean up in any club comps! From what I believe, he can't be given a Cat 1 handicap either!
Click to expand...
I think you might have heard that the club can't give him a Cat 1 handicap, they need to talk it through with the county Union before they give any 1st handicap cat 1 status.
 
I played at a corporate event with a guy off 10. He looked like he had a pretty good swing so I asked him what was the lowest he ever played off. +2 he said. Turned out he had played college golf in the US and was going to turn pro before he decided he wasn't quite good enough.

I think if I had been a +2 and my handicap had gone out to 10 I would probably give up.
 
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