While keeping golf fun is our top priority, competition is becoming fierce in matchplay, in weekly net events, monthly medal stableford and in the eclectic.  We are seeing more mistakes in scoring which affect competitions and unnecessarily piss people off. With more players and more competitions coming up this year we need to get this right.

Our Secretaries to a great job in recording scores, but rely on what you give them on your score sheets.   So, here are some simple rules, we want to follow:

1. Check your handicap on your Tee Set score card before you start.  Handicaps change weekly depending on the course and any updates made to your USGA base handicap.  If your score card does not have a handicap marked then talk with one of the organisers, you may have registered late or may not been allocated a Tee Set handicap yet and we may be able to check your records and help you out.
2. Understand the scoring system: stableford is used for monthly medal whereby points are applied to your net score per hole as compared to par: 1 for a net bogey, 2 for a net par, 3 for a net birdie, etc. If you are not sure, ask before you play and before you sign your score cards.
3. Exchange score cards with your playing partner before you start play; you can keep your score separately if you want for checking – this protects against error and suspicion.  The official score card is the Tee Set score card signed by both player and marker.
4. Make your starting hole clear on the score sheet; prizes like first birdie, first par over 30, first sandy, most improved are calculated on holes as played.  So if you start on 10 and get a birdie on hole 2, then you mark 11 on your score card next to first birdie. Starting hole is also important in the event of a tie – a countback is based on the best score on the final nine holes as played.
5. Write scores clearly and try to keep the score sheet dry and neat.
6. Counting putts starts when on the green and continues even if your putt leaves the green; a chip from on the green (allowed but not encouraged) or after a putt (even less encouraged) is counted as a putt. Putts must be tallied at the end of the round.
7. Sign and submit your score cards after you have agreed your score with your marker and submit to the Tee Set Secretary immediately after the round (before showering).
8. Under the Rules of Golf signing a wrong score card is grounds for disqualification; we want to avoid that.

There will always be mistakes but these simple rules will make sure that they only happen at the scorer’s desk, and they can always be corrected :-).