Dear Member,
Further to the Golf Newsletter published and distributed in November, we have had further communications with the RFEG and EGA.
In summary these discussions confirm our recommendation that Members should retain their membership of all handicap organisations that they held in 2021 and play off the handicap relevant to the handicap organisation in which they are playing i.e. have an RFEG handicap to play in Desert Springs Competitions.
The reason for this is solely down to the fact that while WHI has been introduced in most countries worldwide there is still not a system to automatically update a handicap after a qualifying score has been recorded in a different country to the “Home Club”.
This is not a situation imposed by the RFEG, EGA or any other National Organisation but due solely to the fact the WHI is not fully implemented and should be seen as being in Phase 1, and there are still more phases to be implemented before handicap updating worldwide becomes seamless.
Should you have decided not to follow the Committees recommendation and are relying on returning your card to your home club, and wait for them to apply this and update your handicap, here is the information that England Golf have provided (and we assume will be the same for other countries), which you need to follow:
- General play scores from outside of England must be returned to your home club within 3 weeks of the round being played.
- Where possible, scores must be countersigned by an official of the course being played (Professional / Manager)
- Scores must be attested (marked) by a golfer who holds a WHS handicap index.
When submitting score cards, you must provide the following information:
- Date of Round
- Country
- Venue
- Tee/Marker used
- Course Rating
- Slope Rating
- Par
- A copy of your scorecard, signed by club official and attester.
- Name and Local Id number of the attester.
- The PCC (Playing Course Conditions) should be returned with the score, an adjustment is made by the club here (UK) as the score is entered.
The PCC can determine an adjustment of -1.0, 0.0, +1.0, +2.0 or +3.0 and is applied in the calculation of Score Differentials for all players. (The PCC cannot be provided until the day after the competition)
Therefore, for Desert Springs Competitions if you are a member, but not a member of the RFEG you will need to copy the handicap committee when you return this information, and receive a response and also make a note that you have done this on the next Competition Entry form that you complete, along with your new handicap. You also need to inform the handicap committee before your arrival at Desert Springs in 2022 that you are following this procedure. It is your responsibility to ensure all this information is processed correctly and you will not have a valid handicap for a subsequent competition until this has been done.
The committee therefore continues to recommend that Members should retain their membership of all handicap organisations that they currently hold, and play off their RFEG handicap if they want to be assured of a valid entry into a Desert Springs competition.
Please note the following points which have arisen in the discussions regarding handicaps:
- It is not illegal to hold two or more handicaps, and you should always play off the handicap in the jurisdiction you are playing
- If your handicap is higher in one country compared with another, then remember that your lower handicap would be higher if all the higher handicap cards had been returned from the higher handicap jurisdiction
- Another Spanish Club, La Manga, is requiring its members to bring out their last twenty cards for input into the RFEG system so that the RFEG handicap can be adjusted (implicitly requiring membership of the RFEG before this can happen) and then take their last 20 RFEG cards back to their other club to update their other handicap. If we were to implement this at Desert Springs and 50 members came out at Easter this would mean 1000 cards would need to be entered in a short space of time
- The current competition system would have to be updated to allow for a 3rd type of competitor – a Desert Springs member without RFEG – at present this means that non-RFEG member competitors scores would have to be checked manually, further delaying the results of a competition being announced after play
- The RFEG system would not process non-RFEG competitor scores and this could affect the PCC
Therefore, to restate the Club Committees position:
The committee recommends that Members should retain their membership of all handicap organisations that they currently hold, and play off their RFEG handicap if they want to be assured of a valid entry in a Desert Springs Golf Club competition.
Desert Springs Golf Club Committee.
