The Golfer's Handicap

If you are going to be a golfer, you must get yourself a handicap. Period, end of story. It is your passport to the world of golf. And in spite of what you see online with the overwhelming number of handicap services, to be taken seriously in the United States you must have a handicap from a United States Golf Association sanctioned club. 

Now as ominous as that sounds it is really quite easy to find a USGA sanctioned club  and getting a handicap through it is equally easy to obtain. Odds are that the muni or public course you've been playing at has some type of inner-club league and for a small fee they will set you up and let you know what steps are necessary for you to take to get a legitimate golfing handicap. It they don't, ask around there anyway because some one knows where in your area to go. Just make sure that the course or club or whatever is sanctioned by either your state's golf association or the United States Golf Association.

But in a nutshell it's the system we've got, somehow it works out perfectly most of the time, and it will be changed, manipulated and re-done from now until doomsday. 

So do not consider that handicapping can be set right. Golf is an uncertain game and the play of the day for most amateur golfers depends as much upon moods and conditions as it depends on one's golfing skills.

Official USGA Handicap card