Handicap Indexes to be revised on the 1st and 15th of every month starting in 2011

December 28, 2010 – Beginning in January 2011, the Metropolitan Golf Association will join several other regional and state golf associations and adopt a national revision schedule for issuing Handicap Indexes to its more than 140,000 member golfers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The new schedule calls for revisions to take place on the 1st and 15th of each month, year-round, as opposed to the current schedule of every other Wednesday during the active season and once a month during the inactive season.

There will now be 24 revisions throughout the year, with 14 active season revisions and 10 inactive season revisions, beginning with the first inactive season revision on January 1, 2011. This change in schedule does not change the MGA’s inactive season score posting policy, which states that any score made in the Met Area during the inactive season (October 26, 2010 - March 31, 2011) should not be posted for Handicap purposes. The MGA will continue to be responsible for establishing the active score posting season in the Met Area.

After an extensive study by the USGA Handicap Procedure Committee, the USGA voted to adopt a standardized Handicap revision schedule. It was determined that revisions always made on the 1st and 15th of the month were easier to remember than specific days of the week. Having all associations update Handicap Indexes on the same calendar days will ensure that members of multiple associations will have their scoring records updated at concurrent times. The MGA chose to implement this schedule in 2011 rather than delay action until the mandatory date of January 1, 2012.

The MGA will notify all MGA Club Representatives, Handicap Chairpersons, Club Presidents and Head Professionals to inform them of this change. If you have any questions regarding the new Handicap Index revision schedule, please contact the MGA’s Director of Handicapping, Kevin Kline, at 914-347-4653 or kkline@mgagolf.org.