What do I need to put on my scorecard?

My email has been like a leaky tap recently. Drip. Drip. Drip. And when enough of you get in touch, all with the same kind of issue, it’s time to dive into the rule book to stem the flood.

Competition committees have a difficult job. They have to administer an event, gather up all the cards, check them, close a competition, and deal with any other myriad tasks – all while we’re impatiently waiting to see if we’re adding a few quid to our voucher collection.

It’s only natural they would try and speed up the task. But your rules guru has been contacted by various members asking if their clubs are taking a liberty in the information they’re asking them to provide – and what will happen if they don’t.

So what’s the, ahem, ‘score’ when it comes to filling out a scorecard? Let’s get stuck in…

How to fill out a golf scorecard

Forget whatever you’ve learned about this. The 2023 Rules of Golf brought in some significant changes that have really changed what went before.

It’s all set out now in Rule 3.3b. Your responsibilities as a player are to check the hole scores entered by your marker, make sure they are certified, and certify them yourself.

Prior to the start of 2023, you were also responsible for ensuring your handicap was correctly shown but that has been swept away in the latest edition and is now down to the competition committee.

Make sure you’re up to date with your club’s Local Rules, though, as they can bring one in which puts that responsibility for handicaps back on your shoulders.

That’s it. The committee has responsibility for your name, the date, and for adding up your score and applying your handicap.

If your club is trying to take action against you using Rule 3.3b for not including any of those other details, get out your Rule Book and show them the diagram setting out exactly how the responsibilities are shared out.

Now, does that mean you can just crack on as you like, leaving your committee to unravel the mysteries of your scorecard each time you enter a competition?

Not quite. A committee can request players help them by completing scorecard-related tasks that are their responsibility.

To figure out how that works, we need to turn to the Committee Procedures that are contained in the 500-page Official Guide to the Rules of Golf.

Section 5A (5b), under Competitions, says that a committee “must not apply a penalty to a player under the Rules of Golf” if they fail to comply with these requests, or make a mistake in doing so.

However, they may “provide a disciplinary sanction for a player who fails repeatedly to comply with such a request”.

The use of the word “repeatedly” is instructive here. We’re not talking about one-offs. If you’re a serial offender, though, you could face action and you’d need to look at your club’s individual Codes of Conduct to see what those penalties could be.

Got a question for our expert?

Despite the changes to the Rules of Golf in 2019 and 2023, there are still some that leave us scratching our heads. I’ll try to help by featuring the best of your queries in this column.

Did you know all these rules on how to fill out a golf scorecard? Let me know by leaving a comment on X.

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