England Golf will this year trial a new entry policy system designed to weed out golfers who are taking advantage of the World Handicap System by keeping their handicaps unnaturally low.
The governing body has responded to concerns raised last year that certain players were unfairly missing out on competing in oversubscribed elite-level championships because other entrants were manipulating the new system.
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Since 2020 the best eight out of your most recent 20 rounds have been taken into account when determining handicaps but, controversially, the new method allows ‘general play’ rounds to count as well as competition ones.
However now, when attempting to enter the 14 elite England Golf competitions (listed below), hopefuls who have more than four general play rounds counting in their ‘eight’ will come under further scrutiny and those who have a round score differential of two or more – the average for their competition rounds being at least two shots higher than general play ones – will be excluded.
The England Golf championships to be played under the new handicap regulations in 2023:
• English Men’s Amateur
• English Women’s Amateur
• English Men’s Mid-Am Open (Logan Trophy)
• English Women’s Stroke Play
• English Senior Men’s Stroke Play
• English Senior Men’s Amateur
• English Men’s U-25s
• English Boys (U-18s) – Carris Trophy
• English Girls U-18s
• English U-18s (Mixed)
• English Boys U-16s (McGregor Trophy)
• English Boys U-14s (Reid Trophy)
• English Girls U-16s
• English Girls U-14s
England Golf’s Director of Championships James Crampton said: “We were notified of players who, just a few years ago, had handicaps of three of four turning up with handicaps of plus three or four.
“And when we looked deeper into it, it was clear there was a lack of competition scores being submitted.”
All of England Golf’s major events will be played under the new system apart from the Brabazon Trophy (English Men’s Stroke Play Open). It has been deemed unnecessary because golfers get invited to take part or have to play their way in at one of three regional qualifiers.
At the back end of last year England Golf notified the counties of their intention to change their rules while Golf Ireland is also adopting the change for its leading events.