How do I get someone to mark my card?

I purely mean from a procedural level.

I've recently joined a club and I have to get 3 cards signed by members, and I've never played anything approaching an 'official' round, and I don't want to come across as a chimp.

So - on my card, I list myself as Player A. Do I list them as Player B? Or is that a separate thing to them being a marker?

At the end of each hole, do I explain my score to them shot by shot, or only if they disagree with my gross for the hole?

Do I give them my card to sign their mark for me in the marker's column hole by hole, or do we both record Player A & B scores individually, then fill in each other's Marker's Score columns in the 19th?

Sorry to be so dumb. I'm sure it's comedy easy, but I feel a bit intimidated anyway, never mind with the possibility of looking like an idiot from filling it in wrong

I think that it is great that you are taking your handicap seriously, unfortunately not many people do. I can't count the golfers that I have golfed with that claim to be an 8 handicap who don't play anywhere near it and then don't turn in their card after the round.
They are only hurting themselves, it must be bragging rights or something, but I think its pretty funny when I play to my handicap (which is nowhere near an 8) and beat them off the stick.

At the end of the day, remain honest with yourself, and get your playing partner to sign the card (member or not). It would be a shock if your club actually checks the signiture.

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SumoSid
"Moments of Greatness followed by Moments of horror."

As long as your marker is a member,he does not have to put in a card as well.They do not even have to play,but they have to walk the course with you.

Hi Bulldog mate,

Like you I had the same problem when I first joined my club. As most of my mates where not part of a club and I wanted to get into comps so decided to join a club. It can be quite nervous at first to get those 3 cards as you dont know members that well, but lucky for me all of them are very accomadating to new members. I even played with the captin to get a card. My advice is try and ask to join someone teeing off on thier own or in a pair and tell them that you need them to mark a card for you for your handicap. Most people will be more than willing to do this.

Here is the format for filling out cards at my club

1) On the Comp Title write Handicap and state the card (ie 1st 2nd or 3rd)

2) Insert date
3) Tick the tees your playing off (Usually they are yellow for these cards as whites are for comps)
4) Insert your name in Player A
5) Now hand that card to the marker (He has to be a member with a club handicap). He will fill out your scores watching you and you just play n enjoy.

Also dont worry if you get the odd 10 on a hole if it goes wrong on the day. As handicaps are only marked to only 2 over par (Ie If you shoot a 9 on a par 4 this score will be ignored by the handicap secretary and he will give you a 6)

6) Once you have finished the marker will sign in his box with adding up the totals and his score is on the left hand side of the card.
7) Then you sign it in front of him and place it in the box or hand it in to the secretary.

Hope it helps
Cheers
Mark

totally agree with you , even on this site there are a huge number of golfers who have no official h/cap.even if you dont belong to a club there is nothing to stop you recording your proper score ( no gimmes ) at least you will have an idea of your likely h/cap . when submitting three cards to get a h/cap i was always under the impression it had to be off the comp tees, that is the case at my club, intersted to know if this is the norm.

Thanks Mark and all, that's really helpful and just what I was hoping for. Sumosid, yeah - it is something I take seriously. I've been logging all my scores in Wireless18 which has assigned a handicap of 25 but obviously this doesn't really make any difference other for my knwoledge and as a target to try to improve.

What will really count is the 3 rounds for handicap. Yikes!

Also, thereafter, which cards then count towards my handicap? Everythime I play with a member? Or designated competitions? All competitions? Club days, etc?

Sorry guys - but thanks for the help

Nah the 3 rounds will not really count towards your real handicap as this is just to give you a starting figure. Comps is when your true handicap will come into play. As every time your card is submitted for the comp to try and win a prize place, they will take its score and adjust your handicap. My advice is play all the comps you can, submit your card and you will see what your true handicap is as not to mention you will be teeing off the whites.

Cheers
Mark

Understood, and thanks again, Mark.

It seems kind of strange to me, that only competition days affect your handicap. It seems like a system that, if not set up to create bandits, doesn't exactly minimise their occurence. Surely if every card played with a member was submitted, it would give a much fairer and clearer indicator of current playing form?

Ah well - ours not to reason why, I guess...

What if it all goes to hell in a handcart and I shoot 140 when I'm aiming for 90? Do I have to (morally) hand the member-marked card in anyway or do I store it in my dustbin and shoot another round with a different member?

In a perfect golfing world every golfer would hand in every card for every round played... Then and only then would we all know our real numbers.

And it isn't too difficult to hypothesise on the many reasons why so many individuals actively try to dodge the system to maintain artificial (either higher or lower) playing handicaps.

There is a (not so small) ambition in me to become the single figure marker I feel is inside me, but, as has been well documented in this forum since my joining, a lack of time to dedicate to practice means reality may remain a little different from ambition for a little while yet.

Personally, I see it as me against me and as such each round I play, the card goes in. I want my cap (17.3 last time I checked) to be an acurate reflection of my ability and results.

Bottom line in all of this for me is I play golf to enjoy myself, when I stop enjoying it, I'll stop doing it.

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Every time a golfer makes a birdie, he must subsequently make two triple bogeys to restore the fundamental equilibrium of the universe....

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. The only thing for me is - practice time isn't an issue (have played every day since I joined my club 9 days ago - today will only be 4 holes as I have to drive the missus to work, but I'd rather play 4 than none, even if it means a 6am start!) - but I rarely play against anyone and therefore it's hard to hand in marked cards. I log every round for my own information, but then I also know that only 'competition days' are logged by the club for handicap changes, which to me seems kind of inefficient? But there it is...