NR on scorecards | Golf Monthly

No Return (N/R) in a Qualifying Competition

It can happen. You knock three drives out of bounds on the 3rd in a monthly medal and can't face playing 7 off the tee, or you biff a huge slice down the 17th, only to find when you get down there that it has just gone onto the practice ground and can't face the walk of shame back to the tee for a reload. In either case, the result may well be an N/R and an extra 0.1 onto your handicap.

However, there are two things that all players need to be aware of. One you definitely know about, the other you may not:

Firstly, it is mandatory that you return your card, at the end of your round, to the committee. This is so that the competition can be closed off and the results declared. Missing cards cause considerable grief for the organisers who are trying to account for all entrants.

Secondly, and this is the bit you may not realise, although N/R'ing rules a player out of the competition (as the round has not been completed) it can have a different implication for handicapping purposes. Under rule 19 of the latest CONGU Unified Handicapping System (2008 - 2011), we are obliged, whether or not all 18 holes have been completed, to adjust scores returned in stroke play qualifying competitions to establish the nett differential that would have applied had the competition been run as a stableford.

Without going into the detail of how to do that (stableford/nett double bogey adjustment), what it means is that if a player has done well enough on the other holes, despite N/R'ing they can still be in the buffer zone (no handicap change) or can even achieve a handicap reduction. In my examples above, not completing the 3rd or 17th holes could still have enabled a player to protect or improve their handicap if they played ok on the other holes overall.

If you have any questions about this, please see George Parker