Amateur Championship

I'm sat here watching this year's amateur championship from Muirfield.

It's on Sky Sports 2 (I think!)

Both of the finalists play off +5, one can only dream.

Russ

The amateurs of today.

I'm not watching, but I bet they are Teenagers too.

TheLyth

Yes, correct!  Both of them we under twenty years of age.

Played some very nice golf and the winner is from South Korea.

Russ

OHHHHHHHHHH!

They are now making a Male version of there World Beating Women Golfer.

TheLyth

An amateur can play off any handicap (up to the maximum).  The rules defining a professional are related to money, not handicap. 

Wasn't McIlroy off about -6 as an amateur?

Tim,

It goes to "plus" after scratch, so thats +6 for Rory. It is easy to remember because you ADD shots to the Gross Score.

US Hcp's are much lower than ours, you'd be single figures over there. I'm about +2.6 in the US I think.

TheLyth

Ray, if you are a plus golfer then this means that you would play a golf course under par.

These two finalists were both +5 which means that they should play any golf course five shots under the SSS.

At my course this means off the white tees they would record a score of 66, Par 72, SSS 71

Professional golfers aren't bothered about their handicaps as they play all the tournaments off scratch.

You can be any handicap you want, but it does cost money to turn pro so that might be why they don't/can't do it.

Russ