Handicap Certificates

How many of you carry around with you an up to date Handicap Certificate?
Obviously they are required by certain clubs before you play and for open comps they are usually asked for. I can't help thinking though that the paper/card copy has had it's day. After all for regular players it is only a snapshot at a given time. I think the time has come when your hcp cert should only have you Congu ID on it. The club you're visiting or competion officials can look online for your guaranteed up to date exact handicap. It would save us continually bugging our Club Secretaries for up to date Certs.

My club has recently introduced on it's members' page, the ability to generate a PDF of your handicap certificate that you can print off yourself. It includes your Congu ID so that it can be verified by anyone who needs to (or if they think it looks too artificial)

I've only been asked once and obviously didn't have one. Still got on the course however.

I've only ever been asked when playing the Old course or at open comps. I hope more people do simply look it up online in future as it's a faff getting a printed signed copy from the handicap sec!

LJ, I notice your from Epping. Have you played Blakes recently? I played it a couple of times when it first opened, I notice they've lowered their membership fees recently.

I have played Blakes Jockney. Not a fan to be honest. The layout is fine but the whole place is built on a tip and it shows. Take a deep enough divot and you'll find things like tarmac pieces and old fridges. Doesn't help that I think the whole thing is setup for corporates rather than players.

I'm going to be joining a course not far from there this weekend. North Weald. Better track I think.

Yeah North Weald are only charging £680 a year, a lot less than I'm currently paying. I've only played there once, it's not bad. I notice they've been moving a lot of earth over there, I don't know if they've been changing the layout or just earning a few quid from landfill?

The layout is the same... what they've done is built up some of the surrounds to each hole creating more mounding and run offs around the fairways.

They've also built an academy on the old grass range and extended the putting and chipping greens whilst providing much higher quality practice facilities.

The pro there is a top bloke as well... and an excellent coach.

For the fees they have two options. Pay it all up front for 680 or pay quarterly for a bit more.

Cheers for the info!

I take it you're fairly local to that area then?

Thinking of joining a club or are you already a member somewhere?

Just seen that Nick Moncur is at North Weald now as well. His brother John is a top bloke and excellent golfer as well.

I live in Chelmsford, play at Channels, it's £1300 a year and they're planning to build houses on it in a few years time. I've been looking around to see what other courses are offering. Channels is really convenient for where I live & there's a good bunch of people there but when I see what other clubs are charging I can't help feeling like we're being mugged!

If I lived closer Channels is where I'd be a member... But now that the course is being torn up it won't be the same.

There are other options close to Chelmsford however. Crondon Park where Smithers is a member... Chelmsford itself if you can get in there... Gosfield isn't too bad but a bit of a trek...

Without going too far away NW might be a decent bet. Particularly at that price.

At that price you could have also a country membership somewhere like Felixstowe Ferry or Princes and still be quids in! We'll see, got minimum of one year until the bulldozers move in.

Felixstowe is another good course. Must get up there for the Open event this year....

And hopefully the Bulldozers will be kept away. Would be a shame for that course to be plowed up.

Davie wrote:My club has recently introduced on it's members' page, the ability to generate a PDF of your handicap certificate that you can print off yourself. It includes your Congu ID so that it can be verified by anyone who needs to (or if they think it looks too artificial)

I've only ever been asked once in this country, and have been informed 'You do have a h/c certificate with you, don't you' when playing in the Algarve. never had to show it though.

Last year I contacted my 'away' club to ask if I could enter QC's and have the card entered onto the CONGU system. The reason being that as I spend most weekends away from my 'home club', I struggle to get 3 QC's in, which means fannying about the next season to keep current. The answer was 'no problem' and then he went on to confirm my name, CONGU reference number, handicap - all this from just looking at the system whilst on the phone to me. So certificates are outdated, so if a club are keen enough to request one, they should be able to spend a minute checking themselves.

I know a couple of people who have not bothered re-joining clubs over the last couple of years. They always carry a current certificate with them!! All they do is cut and paste a club logo or letterhead with a certificate they've created. As far as they're concerned they carry it just in case. So this obviously works and if clubs were that keen, it should follow that they also check.

My club can print them off in the golf shop and the pro or assistant pro certifys it with his name and signature. It also has the unique ID number so that should suffice for any comp I would have thought

Davie wrote:My club has recently introduced on it's members' page, the ability to generate a PDF of your handicap certificate that you can print off yourself. It includes your Congu ID so that it can be verified by anyone who needs to (or if they think it looks too artificial)

That sounds like it could be an Intelligent Golf operating system?

I think when the CDH is fully up and running it will do away with the need to carry certificates in this country. Obviously it will still be different abroad.