The manager of a prestigious golf club has criticised England Golf’s inactive handicap system as being potentially damaging to the business of golf clubs.
Under the system, golfers that fail to return three qualifying scores in the same calendar year are given an ‘inactive handicap’ status for the following year, preventing them from entering events that require an active handicap to participate until they submit the three cards in.
However, David O’Sullivan, manager of China Fleet Country Club in Cornwall, has said that the system can create problems for busy and experienced golfers who generally want to play social golf but want to keep their active handicaps, who make up a significant proportion of golf club members.
David lost his active handicap status last month and found the process he embarked on to regain it was too cumbersome.
“Due to work, I was unable to commit to playing in a competition three to four weeks in advance in 2011, and the start sheets subsequently became full. I often ended up following the competition field in a friendly fourball but this meant on January 1 I lost my active handicap status,” he said.
“So, despite it being January, I duly asked my fellow players if they would mind marking a card and signing a book and so on in order for me to serve my sentence. Needless to say, the very time you need an electric trolley containing all matter of waterproofing gear, arctic survival equipment and rations and so on, trolleys are banned! So I compensated for this by carrying half a set of clubs in winter to save the old back from aching.
“I completed my three rounds, played in miserable conditions, with half a set of clubs, on a couple of temporary greens, complete with winter rules and preferred lies and guess what? My playing handicap is exactly the same as it was before!”
David stated that 164 members at China Fleet had an inactive handicap last month, and the figure was 144 for his home club, Yelverton Golf Club.
“If my sums are right in that maybe there are 150 inactives at each club, there may be 300,000 inactive golfers who will have to play 900,000 supplementary rounds just to remove an inactive tag that may prevent them from playing in open competitions and from being allowed to win prizes at their own club, even though they have paid their annual subscription.
“To take it a stage further, this would mean, on an average of four hours per round, 3,600,000 hours of valuable tee time is required just to remove the letter ‘I’ from club members’ handicaps!
“Don’t get me wrong, I do understand the need for a handicap to reflect the ability of the holder, and can quite understand how this system would be required for ‘Category 1’ players.
“But I am not sure that to put doddering old fogies like myself through this process is actually achieving anything apart from upsetting those members who have not yet resigned, causing more administration and taking up valuable tee times at clubs.
“And what I found really insulting was that I was being treated the same as a complete beginner in having to submit three cards.”
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