The Club organises a handicap system under the terms and conditions laid down by The Council of National Golf Unions. The current version is the "CONGU Unified Handicapping System, 2012-2015". It is the only handicap that is officially recognised by the National Unions, their affiliated golf clubs and other worldwide handicapping authorities.

The complete rules can be viewed online - click here.

Members seeking a Handicap Certificate should post a request in the Club letter box - certificates will be left in the locker room for collection. Please allow plenty of time as Committee Members might not be in attendance for as much as a week!

New members with an existing handicap transferring to the Club should ensure that they include their Central Database of Handicaps (CDH) number on the application form.

Handicap Lists are available in:

• The Results section - click here.

• The Central Database of Handicaps Details of the scores and handicaps of every player are held centrally by English Golf Union Golf Central that can be accessed by every club and player. Click Golf Central for details.

• How Did i Do website run by Club2000 who provide our handicapping and competitions software. Members can check their playing records and receive the results by email after playing in a competition - and much more. Click here to see how to register as a user.

• On the Club Notice Boards

Supplementary Scores

The Handicapping System is based on the expectation that every player will return a sufficient number of competition scores to provide reasonable evidence of current ability. Supplementary Scores provide another way to submit scores.

A Member may return a Supplementary Score for handicapping purposes:

• At the player's Home Club.

• Over 18 holes of Stroke Play or Stableford under Competition Play Conditions.

• Be limited to the return of one per week and of ten per calendar year.

• Must declare the intention to do so before playing:

  • For Men By entering his name on the competition entry sheet hanging outside the door to the Committee Room.

  • For Ladies By recording her name in the red sign-in book in the locker room.

For Men, New Members without a handicap will receive guidance on how to obtain one when they attend a New Members' Meeting as part of the application process.

• They will need to submit three completed cards played from the tees of the day and marked by a Club Member. At least one card must be marked by a club member of more than two years standing.

• In assessing a handicap, the Handicap Committee will count any score of more than 2 over par at any hole as 2 over par. The Standard Scratch Score (66 for the White tees, 65 for the Yellow) is subtracted from the resultant total to obtain the handicap. The lowest handicap so calculated is the one to be allotted. The maximum handicap for Men is 28 and for Juniors is 54. Some of the rules are modified for Juniors.

For Ladies, New Members without a handicap will receive guidance on how to obtain one when they attend a New Members' Meeting as part of the application process.

• They will need to submit three completed cards marked by a Club Member acceptable to the Ladies Committee. At least one card must be marked by a member of the Ladies Committee.

• In assessing a handicap, the Ladies Committee will count any score of more than 3 over par at any hole as 3 over par. The Standard Scratch Score (69) is subtracted from the resultant total to obtain the handicap. The resultant score must not exceed 114. The lowest handicap so calculated is the one to be allotted. The maximum handicap is 36.

Players may have only one handicap which shall be allotted and adjusted by their Home Club. If they are members of more than one club, they must notify each club of the name of their Home Club. They should seek the permission of each club for any intended change.

Official Handicaps are automatically void when a player ceases to be a member of an affiliated club.

On all Cards, players should enter

• Name
• Date
• Competition
• Tees Used
• Current handicap
• All 18 Gross Scores

All cards for qualifying competitions, whether or not complete, must be returned.

Scores (preferably a copy of the card) for rounds away from a player’s Home Club must be returned as soon as possible to the Home Club and must include: date, venue, CSS, and gross score or stableford points.

The Standard Scratch Score (SSS)

This is the score allotted to an 18 hole golf course and is the score that a scratch player is expected to return in ideal conditions.

The Competition Scratch Score (CSS)

This is an adjustment that may be necessary to the SSS to take account of weather and course conditions and is calculated for all Qualifying Competitions from the entered scores from players with handicaps up to 20 (28 for Ladies).

• Handicaps are adjusted, if necessary, after each completed round. For this purpose only, the score for any hole which is more than 2 strokes above a nett par, or where no score is entered, is counted as 2 over nett par - the resulting total nett score is referred to as a Stableford Adjustment.

  • The Stableford adjusted score is then compared with the CSS to see whether it falls within the Buffer Zone: if so, no adjustment will be made.

  • Above the Buffer Zone, the exact handicap is increased by 0.1.

  • For every stroke below the Buffer Zone, the exact handicap is reduced by an amount which depends on the handicap of the player: 0.1 up to handicap 5; 0.2 handicaps 6 to 12; 0.3 handicaps 13 to 20; 0.4 handicaps 21 to 28; 0.5 handicaps 29 to 36.

  • The size of the Buffer Zone also depends on the player's handicap. For the four groups listed above, the Buffer Zones are 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively. The higher your handicap, the faster it is likely to come down! In some circumstances, for Juniors, the handicap reduction can be greater than 0.5 per stroke.

  • The Handicap Committee must review any case of a player returning two scores in a single year that, after all the adjustments above, are 4 or more strokes below CSS.

Active/Inactive

All players who have returned at least three qualifying scores each year (or in the previous year) will have an an Active Handicap. For players who have less than three qualifying scores at the end of one year, the counter will be reset to zero and they will need three further scores to achieve the Active status. Those members not meeting the minimum number of scores are identified with an "i" (Inactive) on their CONGU certificate and on handicap lists.  The "i" is removed from the player’s handicap as soon as three qualifying scores have been returned. An Inactive Handicap may still be used for social golf and in competitions not stipulating an Active Handicap as entry criteria.

At Beauchief, for our Major Men’s Competitions, entries will only be accepted if the player has an Active Handicap and has returned at least 4 Beauchief individual competition cards since 1^st January of the previous year.

For Ladies Trophy Competitions in any one year, entries will only be accepted if the player has returned at least 6 Beauchief individual competition cards in the 12 calendar months ending on 31^st March of that year.

There will be no other Beauchief events where this condition will be applied as we wish to give players with inactive handicaps every opportunity to return the three qualifying scores they need to gain active status.

At Open Events elsewhere, players with an Inactive Handicap are highly likely to be excluded. So, if your handicap now is Inactive and you intend to play in any of these, you must first complete three qualifying competitions to gain an Active handicap status.

See the England Golf and The Council of National Golf Unions websites for more on handicaps.