Provisional Handicaps

Are you aware that if your partner in a 4BBB has a Provisional handicap you are both ineligible to win a prize?  Members with Provisional handicaps are not eligible to win any prizes.

What is a Provisional handicap?

When a player accrues five or more ‘No Score – Not Approved’ entries in their 20 most recent rounds, their handicap status will automatically be downgraded by Golflink to ‘Provisional’.

As per Golf Australia’s recommendation, players with Provisional handicaps are eligible to play in competition fields but are not eligible to win any prizes.

How do I regain Normal handicap status?

A player’s handicap status will automatically return to Normal when they no longer have five or more ‘No Score – Not Approved’ entries in their 20 most recent rounds.  This can be achieved by returning enough new competition scores to flush the ‘No Score – Not Approved’ entries out of the player’s most recent 20 rounds. 

In the event a play simply forgets to return their scorecard the Club may amend a ‘No Score – Not Approved’ entry in Golflink if the player subsequently reports the score they actually had.

What if I cannot finish my round for a legitimate reason?

If a player cannot complete a round due to injury, sickness or in the case of an emergency, the card should still be submitted with the annotation that they retired due to this reason.  Pro Shop staff can then record that the round was not completed due to legitimate reasons, this will be recorded as a ‘No Score – Approved’ which will not affect handicap status.

Please remember….

It is a fundamental obligation of all players to return their score card to the designated area.  If a player is not returning scores, their handicap will become distorted as a result of it being based on incomplete information.  As such Golf Australia and the handicapping system have little sympathy for players whose handicap status reverts to Provisional.