Posting a Score from a Foreign Golf Course

With the British Open set to get underway this Thursday at Royal St. George’s, I thought it would be a good time to review the policies for posting scores from rounds played on foreign golf courses.

The first thing I’d recommend is contacting the club where you’re planning to play to see if they have a Course Rating and Slope Rating. The next thing to consider is the active posting season in that area. Just like here in the U.S., associations have active seasons and inactive seasons, and if the round was played in an inactive season, it wouldn’t be acceptable for posting whether the club had a USGA Course Rating or not. If no ratings are available (or if there is not a foreign golf association authorized by the USGA in the country), then this score is not acceptable for handicap posting purposes.

When trying to post a round from outside of the United States, an easy way to find out whether you’ll be able to post the score is to check and see whether the governing association in the area you played is licensed under the USGA Handicap System. Here’s a link to the USGA’s list of foreign golf associations authorized and licensed to use the system:

USGA Authorized Foreign Golf Association Listing

The Pope of Slope web site, run by former USGA handicapping guru Dean Knuth, has an easily searchable list of USGA ratings in Scotland courses.

A frequent question to us is whether or not we can convert a foreign association’s existing rating system over to a USGA rating. The answer is no. According to Section 5 of the USGA Handicap System, there is not a way to convert another rating system (i.e. the Standard Scratch Score “SSS” system) over to a USGA rating.

If you’re fortunate enough to be able to travel out of the country to play a round of golf, enjoy it, but remember when you come back home to see if you can post that round to your handicap record!

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