TOURNAMENT HANDICAP POLICIES
As a licensed state/regional golf association required to administrator the World Handicap System™ on behalf of the USGA, it is understood that the SNGA must be diligent in ensuring an equitable playing field in its competitions.
ALL Competitors agree to maintain their Handicap Index® in accordance with the rules set forth in the Rules of Handicapping. They agree to follow the two basic premises that underlie the World Handicap System, namely that they will try to make the best score at every hole in every round and that they will post every acceptable round for peer review.
HANDICAP INDEX – Competitors in net events shall have Playing Handicaps calculated using their 3-month low Handicap Index.
PLAYING HANDICAP CALCULATION: Playing handicaps will be calculated using a player's 3-month low handicap index and a 100% handicap allowance for stroke play competitions. The handicap allowance for other formats such as stableford, four-ball, team events, will be determined by the committee in charge of the competition. For these events, handicap allowances will be relayed to the players in advance.
MAXIMUM PLAYING HANDICAP - The maximum playing handicap that a player can receive for any SNGA Tour or 2-day SNGA Championship is 18. Any player who has a playing handicap of more than 18, will have their handicap reduced to the maximum playing handicap of 18. There are some tournament formats where the SNGA will limit a playing handicap to a number below 18. For any tournaments where these special circumstances come in to play, the exact handicap stipulations for those events will be available to view on the tournament registration page.
MAXIMUM PLAYING HANDICAP FOR SKINS GAMES - For our tournaments where we run optional buy-in skins games, there will be a maximum playing handicap of 18. This is to ensure that no player receive more than 1 stroke on any one hole for purposes of the skins competition.
PERFORMANCE ADJUSTMENTS – The SNGA Tournament Handicap Committee reserves the right to adjust the Tournament Handicap Index of any competitor in current or future competitions.
A reduction of a competitor’s SNGA tournament handicap index can happen for number of reasons including but not limited to; consistent wins and/or top 5 finishes in your division, low net scores and differentials in tournament play, evidence brought to the committee of a player not doing everything required of them to maintain an accurate handicap index, etc....
The SNGA Tournament Handicap Committee meets regularly to review results from recent tournaments. The Tournament Handicap Committee will determine if a player should have their tournament handicap index reduced, by how much, and for how long. Any player who the Tournament Handicap Committee has determined deserves a tournament handicap index adjustment will be notified. Typically a handicap adjustment will remain in effect for a minimum of the next 5 tournament rounds the player competes in. The Tournament Director and/or Tournament Handicap Committee have the authority to amend that to include more rounds if they feel warranted in doing so.
Mid Tournament Adjustments: In some cases, the tournament committee may adjust a player's playing handicap mid-tournament. If a player posts one or more scoring differentials that are lower lower than their handicap index, the tournament committee will review a potential adjustment. The adjustment will be for the next round. In some cases, the tournament committee may deem that is warranted to apply an adjustment to ALL rounds, including rounds already played. If the committee deems there is enough evidence that a player represented a false handicap in order to manipulate their score to gain an unfair advantage, that player will be disqualified from the competition immediately.
NEW PLAYERS - Players who are new to SNGA tournaments will play to their 3-month low handicap index, provided they have at least 10 scores on their GHIN scoring history. A player with no active handicap will not be eligible to compete in any divisions where net scores are used to calculate results. A player with an active handicap, but less than 10 scores on their scoring record will play to 50% of their handicap until they have 10 scores, or they can be reviewed by the tournament committee.
If a new tournament player shoots a score of 70 net or lower, or a score differential significantly lower than other differentials on their scoring record, the tournament handicap committee will assess their handicap. The differential of the score they shot in the tournament, or a combination of their tournament differential + the low differentials in their most recent 20 rounds, or only SNGA tournament scores will be used to calculate a tournament handicap for their next event(s). Moving forward, the differentials of the first 5 tournament rounds will be considered for a possible adjustment to that tournament handicap. Once a player has played at least 5 SNGA tournament rounds, their handicap will be reassessed by the tournament committee to determine what if any action is needed.