Policies

INTRODUCTION

In England, for the last 10 years or so, golf courses have been rated differently for men and women.

For men the rating was performed on the basis of a system developed by the now defunct England Golf Union while for women ratings were performed on the basis of the universally accepted standard system – namely the USGA Course Rating System.

Late in 2012 the newly merged England Golf, as a result of strong lobbying by a majority of county organizations, decided to stop using the former EGU rating system and, with effect from 1st January 2014, to adopt the USGA Course Rating System for both men and women.

Over the last 10 years our women have rated all the courses in the County and, under the USGA 10 year cycle rule, will now commence re-rating in approximate date sequence but jointly with the men to keep the interruption to our Clubs and their courses to a minimum.

For the men, all courses will need to be re-rated using the USGA system and this will occur progressively over the next 10 years with priority being given to new courses, courses which have significantly changed since they were last rated and courses which have not been rated for men since 2006.

Course ratings for men using the EGU system in use from 2007 through 2012 are considered still valid and will remain in use until their scheduled reassessment under the 10 year cycle requirement.

On 2nd November, 2020 the new World Handicapping System (WHS) came into operation in the UK. This system marks a fundamental change in handicapping and course rating across the world. It is designed to welcome more players, to make golf easier to understand and to give all golfers a handicap which is portable all around the globe.

It  replaces the six different systems previously used by over 15 million golfers in more than 80 countries.

It has been developed by The R&A and The United States Golf Association (USGA), supported by the world’s handicapping authorities, including CONGU, which represents the four home countries of Great Britain and Ireland.

Club member handicaps are administered centrally by England Golf.

The Central Database of Handicaps (CDH) was introduced in 2009 to assist Golf Clubs in the administration of their member’s handicaps and in particular in the transfer of qualifying scores back to the player’s home golf club.

The CDH has in excess of 1800 golf clubs and approx 750,000 men and women registered on the system.

One of the key principles in the operation of the system is that each home club member, with a CONGU handicap, is assigned a CDH ID number. This number will allow other clubs to confirm the individual’s membership of a golf club as well as their exact playing handicap. This is particularly useful in terms of entry into Open competitions and the increasing number of clubs operating online entries. 

The England Golf  CDH User Guide provides help to clubs and handicapping committees in the operation of the CDH. Provided key principles are followed the CDH will save administration time for all concerned with the administration of competitions and handicapping.