how to work out handicap

the club that i have joined is brand new and doesn't have all the normal things in place yet that you may take for granted, we have just got our standard scratch score of 74, my question is this, if we tell our members that they have to put in 3 cards for handicaping how do we then get them a handicap from those 3 cards, is it the lowest score or an average of the 3 played to the 74?

It used to be an average, Alan, but I think that the new thinking is that the best round is taken using the SSS.

Allan, the new aspiration seems to be that they want to play to their handicaps everytime they play.

You will find that the 5 handicap will focus the mind and you will probably benefit from it in a noted improvement in your overall game.