Dear All 

The Section is attempting to get a fair grasp on handicapping within the events we hold. As you can imagine it would be an enormous task to govern the UK Fire Service Golf Sections player’s handicaps. The National Committee are currently in the process of finding a possible solution to this and a trial is being carried out within Mid & West Wales Golf Section. Until we find out if the trial would be feasible for the FSUK Golf Section I have put together some guidance for handicapping and how events and players handicaps should be recorded. 

                                                                                               Handicapping 

All Fire Service Golf Sections shall keep up to date records of member’s handicaps. Each local/district and national events played will have a CSS calculated and player’s handicaps must be adjusted accordingly. 

The person responsible for organising the event will be responsible for calculating the CSS. Handicapping must roll over from year to year and not be reset at the start of a new year, just as a golf club handicap would work. Consideration should be given to the Annual Review here where the handicap secretary can adjust a handicap depending on ability evidence. 

In the event of a FRS Golf Society member using their society handicap at a National event and winning a prize or trophy, the event organiser will be entitled to see the player’s society handicap records making sure that they are accurate and current. 
Any active golf club handicap will supersede a society handicap. If the Society handicap information is not correct and a club handicap is inactive, this will mean that player will play the full competition off a handicap of scratch (zero). 

For Non-Golf Club members 
An active society handicap certificate will be required on registration. This will be issued by their FRS Golf Section Secretary who will sign and date no less than 2 weeks prior to the event. This certificate shall include the player’s previous events scores dating back over a period of 12 months. These events will be local, regional and national events where the handicap will have been calculated by a CSS. Failure to provide a valid handicap certificate will mean that player will play the full competition off a handicap of scratch (zero). This is stated in all FSUK Golf Section Event Rules. 

As a FRS Golf Section society handicap member all FRS Service competition scores will be handed back to their Golf Section Secretary. 

For Members of Golf Clubs. ​
An active handicap certificate is required on registration. This is shown by a (c) next to the handicap figure. Failure to provide a valid handicap certificate will mean that player will play the full competition off a handicap of scratch (zero). This is stated in all FSUK Golf Section Event Rules. 

All competitors playing in FSUK Events are to return their scores to their Golf Clubs. 

Kind Regards 

Matt Thompson 
Secretary