As I grow deeper into my adult years and further from the youth that I desperately cling to, some sentences fill my ears with dread.
‘The mortgage is due tomorrow’
‘Is that the bin lorry I can hear in the road?’
‘The dishwasher hasn’t been emptied’
Since joining a new golf club, a new phrase has entered this realm, but it is an established part of my vocabulary now, as opposed to other people’s, and it has proven to cause equal dread and leaves me completely hesitant to utter the words again.
‘I think I’ll do a card today’.
Joining a new club has meant meeting new people, which is fine. Great, if anything. That is what is magical about golf. I have since met and played with people younger than me, and those the same age as my grandad. What other sport can do that?
But ultimately, they are strangers. And so, when I declare my intent to do a general play score on the first tee, one of them needs to attest to it at the end on the My England Golf app (MyEG). I am burdening them, no matter how light the burden feels.
A couple of weeks ago, I was somewhat scarred. I walked to the tee with my playing partners, who I had only met 10 minutes before, and plucked up the courage to ask if one of them could kindly attest to my score at the end. It was like I’d just read out Romeo and Juliet from back to front in Chinese.
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I was met with a response of utter confusion. One of my partners did eventually oblige, but did ask if I needed his CDH number to proceed, which MyEG app users know isn’t necessary at all.
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This isn’t a naming and shaming exercise. Far from it. These members were hardened, long-time servants of the club who I suspected played mostly competition golf, as opposed to ‘2025 general play’ golf.
The hostility towards the concept shocked me, but it also sets the tone for the round somewhat, and there is a wider point to be made here, beyond this specific instance that I was involved in with golfers I didn’t know.
The whole dynamic of a group can be changed, even if just one player declares that they’re doing a card.
I was the lone ranger in the fourball, focusing on two-footers, not being able to just pick my ball up and walk on. Do you go back to the tee if you can’t find your ball from a wayward drive? The pick-up option in the app looks inviting, but then I’m not trying to get my best score.
There are four of us. If I do a card, does this ruin everyone else’s experience? You’d usually do a better ball match with four people, wouldn’t you? But how can you when one person has to finish every hole?
‘That putt is good for the match,’ is a way around it. But it feels all wrong.
The general play card becomes the focus, and you are in the spotlight.
This is the same whether you know your playing partners or not. Before, I have played in a fourball with friends and family, and concurrently done a card while playing a better ball match. But it just isn’t the same. The dynamic is all over the place, and there is a tinge of selfishness to what I’m doing.
There isn’t anything the authorities can do about this. This is an intimate issue within the concept of general play that is hard to avoid.
Overall, I think general play scores are a good thing. If this were an option when I was a junior golfer, lord knows how many cards I would’ve entered given the time I spent at the golf club each weekend.
But for someone who wants to do a card outside of the competition atmosphere, I tread lightly now.
I need something to get my juices flowing during a round, a target to chase. If it’s too awkward to pop the general play question, then my handicap record might end up entirely restricted to competitions.
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What has been your experience of entering general play golf scores? Have you experienced anything like the above with a general play golf scorecard? Tell us on X!
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