Isn't a handicap an official thing maintained by your local club? And i'm sure i've seen courses which insist that you must have a handicap even to play them. Maybe i'm making that up . . . .

I believe that as of this year CONGU are making changes to the handicap allowance for both men and women. New club handicaps of up to 54. I think the general 36 for women and 28 for men still applies if you were to go play in a competition at a club other than where you are a member.

You're not making it up.
But finances now often dictate they turn a blind eye.
You're more likely to be refused for shoddy dress code old boy !

I'm only off 24 - 28 three years ago - but recently I thought I was going to break 90.
I went out in 42!!
Then I strung three 7's and finished on 91.
Last year I won a prestigious club comp with 40 points (ok it was a Seniors) but it was an Open with 120+ players and I got £100.
The year before I was runner up with £70.
In between, meantime, I've scored 120+ and even watched my h'cap go back up one.
I love social golf but I enter all Summer comps off the White tees.

Yes, in conjunction with an appropriate body. It does matter if you play in competitions, especially if the players come from different clubs. But for your average friendly get together no-one much cares.
Yes, there's a few like that but not very many. Even my local snooty club doesn't have a handicap requirement. Golf is struggling at the moment and most courses can't afford to be picky. I've played on a lot of courses now and the only one that had a handicap requirement was happy to waive it for a group of us visiting.

As long as you turn up looking like you know what you're doing nearly everywhere will let you play. The only thing they'll ask to see is your money

So I don't think not having a handicap is a significant bar to an amateur that just wants to play golf now and again. It could be if you intend to take it seriously and want to get involved in competitions but then that's reasonable. I've been playing five years now and have only taken part in one competition and that was only a Texas Scramble

Andrue, sign up for comps.
Play off whites.
It improves your game and confidence.

I played squash for years with a few mates.
Then I moved away and joined a squash club.
I joined the leagues and improved dramatically within a year.
I then played team squash and that's another way to improve.

In comps I play team golf (for the Seniors) or with an assigned partner in Club comps or one on one in others.
It really helps but always remains sociable.

I think this is good advice.

When I was a member at my club and playing regularly I kept thinking about playing in one of the regular competitions as I thought it would force me to focus more and stop playing stupid shots. However I never built up the courage; I just kept thinking of all the times I duff the ball 2 yards in front of me and how embarrassing it would be doing that in front of strangers. Should have just took the leap and done it.

As a club member, what do competitions involve exactly? I know nothing about the process!

Are they held most weekends?
Are they usually members only?
What format do they usually take?
Are you grouped up with people, or can you sign up to play with your regular playing partner(s)/friend(s)?
Is there usually a prize?!

The ones at my club tended to be midweek (hence another reason why I didn't partake).

- Members only
- Mainly stableford
- Grouped on arrival
- No prize

Similar at my club. I think they maintain a running kitty that periodically buys a prize for a winner. Some comps are at the weekend but only major ones.

Another problem with comps is that some people take them too seriously. You get people who insist on spending precisely 300 seconds looking for their lost ball. People who do everything except get a theodolite and ground penetrating radar out before putting.

That's all very well for inter-club matches and regional competitions but if you've just turned up to spend a few hours on the golf course it gets old. I play golf to enjoy myself. My target has always been just to be able to play a course without looking like a numpty or being thrown off.

can only speak for my club but we basically play all year round

from april through october there is a competition every saturday, first saturday of the month is the monthly medal, then the others are a random mix of pairs competitions, qualifying rounds for matchplay events and sponsored events

in between october and april there is still a monthly medal the first saturday of the month, every other saturday there is a league type event where your best 16 scores over the 5-6 months are counted

sundays - these tend to be when clubs hold their open competitions, most clubs in my area have an 18 and a 36 hole open, and also whats called an invitation greensome where members invite someone from another club to partner them. at our club we had another league type competition held on sundays. one for the summer months, one for the winter months. this was matchplay tho and you would just turn up, get drawn into groups and you got 2 points for a win. whoever got most points over the period won the league.

on top of all that we had team competitions against other clubs, these were usually held on thursday evenings or sundays. some were fairly social events, some were three-way or four-way matches for a cup. lastly we had a county-wide team competition over the winter months and this was quite a prestige thing, people were really desperate to get into the winter league team. this got played most sundays between october and march.

for the official club competitions on saturdays we just had a sign-up sheet broken down into time-slots and you just put your name down around the time you wanted to play. the draw for your actual groups would be made on a thursday night and posted so you know the time and who you were playing with on the saturday.

the league type events you basically just turned up on the saturday or sunday, paid your entry and put your name in the hat, and it would be drawn on the day.

team events - everyone would put their name on a sign-up sheet and the club captain and handicap secretary would pick what they thought was the best team. the more social matches would sometimes be just first come, first served sort of thing. the more competitive matches would be picked based on handicap and/or reputation.

sorry for the long post

^^
This
Very similar to ours.

Andrue,
The guys I play with are very competitive but it's good natured.
Anyone who behaved as you describe would eventually have trouble finding a partner.
We have about two players at our club who would cause others to scratch on being drawn with them,
Even our social games become comps for the pleasure of taking a quid of your mates.
The first question in the clubhouse is "Who took the quid?".
In one of my first comps I played a 5 handicapper against my 28.
He was brilliant to watch and brilliant to play with.
Last year he was 74 and shot his age for 18 holes!

As for being embarrassed at cuffing shots in front of others we often have newcomers join us who struggle so badly we all feel for them but we simply encourage them and wait for the one great shot that we applaud with exaggeration.
I played off the whites some years back for the first time.
I hit the clubhouse off the tee with my ball coming to rest on the patio, then I played TWO air shots followed by a scuff of 30 yds.
All this with eight guys waiting for the tee and a shout of "For f***s sake, calm down!" from my partner.
Three holes later my pulse was back to normal and I recovered

I took my new set to the driving range and the local 9 hole park course at the weekend.

Driving range was very ropey but then i've never liked hitting off those mats.

The course was better, just about. Any illusions I had that I would suddenly be able to ping the ball down the fairway quickly evaporated But there was a noticeable reduction in how much I was slicing and hooking. A lot of poor contacts but everything was generally going in the right direction and (happily) in the air.

I just think that now I have some confidence in my clubs it will help me mentally on the course.

My neither. My club puts mats down on certain holes over winter and I hate them. If I'm playing well I'll be naughty and just play to one side, or slightly behind the mat. There used to be a local 9-hole course/range where the course had mats on platforms. That was truly horrible. The range was very good though as it had half a dozen grass bays during grass growing season.

Sadly the local council declined to renew its entertainment license which meant it couldn't hold wedding receptions or concerts which meant it was no longer viable. It's now having houses built on it. Even more annoying is that I now work only five minutes drive from it

My club has a reasonable range but no real grass bays and I'm 10 minutes away traffic allowing so not really practical to go there for lunch :-/

I didn't get any golf in this weekend (even though it was my birthday ) because I had to help my elderly father empty his loft prior to a house move.
I never suffer that illusion. I Callaway mine down the fairway

One of my favourite courses also ended up closing after the council refused to keep the club house open.

It was a different situation as the whole course was council owned; but basically they decided that it wasn't economical to have a separate club house in addition to a cafe they operated on the other side of the course. So they merged them into one, the golf society lost it's home, people could no longer get a drink straight after playing and the holes had to be reordered to allow for the different starting point.

The golf society subsequently decided to stop playing at the course, numbers fell off and a couple of years later after a 'health and safety' scare they decided just to close the course.

Shame as i really enjoyed it.

"The ball must be played from between the two tee markers and up to two club lengths back from an imaginary line running between them."
Penalty!

Meh. Especially if the rubber tee is broken and won't hold a ball. Or is just the wrong height for the club you want to use. Or..just meh.

Rules is rules

I think that another thing putting me off playing in competitions, I've never actually played in a group that followed the official rules to the letter. Most common 'infringement' is dropping the ball after losing it rather than rehitting.

An awful lot of regular club players have poor knowledge of the rules.
I'm not brilliant but I've started picking up a lot from playing comps.
I've heard "rules gurus" make wrong pronouncements quite a few times.
In the Autumn I played with a long standing member who declared, when his ball was lost in leaves, it was a club rule that you can simply play another in such conditions.
Nonsense. You might amicably agree beforehand but not in a comp where other players out on the course are playing by the rules.
Currently, in wet conditions, we agree that if a ball can't be found in really wet ground but we all saw it land you get a free drop. But not in a formal comp.

I've often got home and posted a scenario on the forum I mentioned earlier - Golf Monthly Forum - on the Rules of Golf thread. You always get a definitive answer to settle clubhouse arguments.

Are you talking about winter mats with built in rubber tees on a course - like they have on ranges?
Our winter mats are just that - you insert your own tee.

i might be wrong but i think you do get a free drop if you lose a ball in any area that you would be entitled to a free drop from had you found it

so if an area was deemed to be casual water on a fairway and your playing partners agree thats where it landed and you cant find it then you should get a free drop as the conditions are not normal

same applies to losing a ball in any area thats deemed ground under repair

one of the most broken rules is around practising on the course ahead of a competition in the first round of a 36 hole tournament

number of times i have seen people take practice putts after they complete the hole in their morning round but because they are due to play the same hole again later that day technically thats a DQ offence but its almost never enforced

http://www.golfmagic.com/forum/golf-...way/11403.html

Currently we are playing "lift, clean and replace" (within 6 inches) throughout the course which allows the ball to be tee'd up as best as possible, but that's a local rule for both preservation of the course and benefit of the golfers in poor conditions.

that doesn't cover an area being designated as "casual water" however

all i'm saying is i dont think you can lose a ball in any area where you would have been entitled to a free drop from, as long as your playing partners all agree thats where the ball landed as per the reference to GuR in that reply you linked

There are areas of our course that wouldn't be designated as casual water but where the trajectory of a ball will mean it's certainly going to plug.
If you can't find it then technically it's a lost ball.
I'm not suggesting that's fair, I'm suggesting it's the rule. Socially I'd allow flexibility or the game becomes arduous. It's meant to be enjoyable.
A comp is another matter - you can't have players deciding what areas are "GUR" unless there's a club "rule" for the comp.
Here's another discussion:
http://thesandtrap.com/forums/topic/...ay-disappears/

and i repeat i am not suggesting areas where a ball will just plug should result in something not being classed as a lost ball , i am saying that afaik you cannot lose a ball in any area where you would otherwise have received a free drop had you found it

i'm also not suggesting players are allowed to designate what is GuR and what isn't , but it does come down to a judgement call of players in wet conditions what is casual water and what isn't and when a free drop is allowed and when it isn't

I just wanted to give an update.

So after spending £485 on the irons, £140 on a 3 wood and £70 on a bag (got a bargain) I have since bought a driver for £140 and a 4 hybrid for £75. The irons were TaylorMade RSi 1s and the woods are all the TaylorMade Aeroburner series.

So that's £900 in total.

However I think the best money I spent was the £40 on my lesson yesterday where the pro explained to me that I've been gripping the club incorrectly all these years. He was saying that apart from that and a few small things my swing is almost perfect. Am hoping that after a bit of practice i'll be under 100.