How to Play Tournament Golf

Playing on Saturdays with your favorite foursome is fun, but playing competitive golf basically means playing in tournaments. There are two kinds of tournaments--match and medal. Match play tournaments are one on one competitions where each hole basically counts as a point, and the tournament competition is set up in brackets. Medal tournaments are total score tournaments that may be anywhere from 18 to even 90 holes (five rounds) in length. Both formats require consistent play and unbroken concentration.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Plan out a tournament schedule before the golf season begins. Some tournaments, like your club's championship, may be easy to enter. Others, however, may require submitting an early application and some planning.

2. Establish a United States Golf Association (USGA) handicap. This is necessary if you want to play in any tournament that uses handicaps. It is also necessary for some national tournaments--like U.S. Open Qualifying--that will only accept handicaps under a certain number.

3. Make sure that you do not plan to enter tournaments that will jeopardize your amateur standing. The USGA has an extended policy that deals with this issue.

4. Check with your local section of the USGA for the timing of tournaments and what's required to be eligible. Tournaments run the gamut from qualifiers for national championships to higher handicap local tournaments.

5. Check with the national sites that cover and catalogue amateur tournaments. There are a number of very interesting tournaments not run through the USGA.

6. Establish your practice routine such that your game is peaking at the times of your most important tournaments--just like "the big boys and girls."

Tips & Warnings

• A handicap is a rating based upon your last twenty scores and the degree of difficulty of the courses upon which the rounds were played. The lower the handicap, the better the player who owns it.

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Resources

• Describes the USGA handicap system
• USGA definition of amateur standing
• Example of USGA tournaments, in this case for Ohio and Columbus
• Website that covers amateur tournaments