#PhillingtheGAP: Establishing a Handicap

| Get a Handicap |

It’s not as hard, or even as expensive, as you may think. Establishing a Handicap Index in the GAP region is now easier than ever.

A Handicap Index provides every golfer – regardless of age, gender or skill level – with a universal measure of playing ability under the World Handicap System™. Establishing a Handicap allows you to play with any golfer on a fair and equitable basis, track your personal progress and gain insights into your game, compete in events requiring a Handicap Index, creates additional playing opportunities, and allows players to see updates to your Handicap Index by posting scores from any course around the world with a Course Rating™ and Slope Rating®.

In order to establish and maintain a Handicap Index, a player must be a member of an authorized golf club. Golfers in the GAP region have a number of affordable options when it comes to establishing that Index. Players can join a GAP Member Club directly, by contacting a course they regularly play and asking about membership. Costs and club specific benefits vary. If a player does not have a direct affiliation with a club, they can join the USGA/GAP GC for $45 at this link: https://getahandicap.usga.org. Regardless of how a player joins, their GAP benefits are identical.

For help in establishing a handicap or general handicapping inquiries, contact Brad Jewett, Manager of GHIN Technical Support, via phone (ext. 0020) or email (bjewett@gapgolf.org).

Quick facts:

• A golfer needs just 54 holes to establish a handicap index in WHS.
• Prior to playing you can use your Handicap Index to determine your Target Score, which is a score you are reasonably capable of achieving, to help choose the best set of tees to play.
• The active handicap-posting season — and the official golf season — in the GAP region begins April 1, 2023 and ends Nov. 14, 2023.
• In the beginning of 2020, the World Handicap System was introduced. Handicap revisions now occur on a daily basis. The WHS brings six different handicap systems together into a single set of Rules for Handicapping, enabling golfers of different abilities to play and compete on a fair and equal basis. For more resources, visit GAP’s World Handicap System page.

GAP

Celebrating Amateur Golf since 1897, GAP, also known as the Golf Association of Philadelphia, is the oldest regional or state golf association in the United States. It serves as the principal ruling body of amateur golf in its region. The organization’s 340 Member Clubs and 100,000 individual members are spread across Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland. The GAP’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect the game of golf.