The Indian Golf Union (IGU) today announced the launch of the landmark National Handicapping Service (NHS) on November 3 to bring Indian golfers on par with their counterparts in other major golfing nations.
The Handicap card will be based on the United States Golf Association's GHIN (Golf Handicap and Information Network) software, which is used in over 60 countries around the world.
It will issue all Indian golfers with a globally recognised NHS handicap card.
It is a wonderful development in the history of Indian golf. NHS will open the doors of golf for people as they won't need to worry about the difficulty of obtaining a membership of any golf course," former Asian number one Arjun Atwal said.
"There is no secret that in countries, who are turning out top class young players, they have a large base of players to find talent within - I hope that the NHS will enable more talent to emerge in the future."
Rishi Narain said: "NHS will allow golfers of varying abilities and playing at various clubs around the world to compete on an equitable basis, on any golf course and in any competition format."
Such handicap ratings are maintained by the national governing body of the sport in all other countries including neighbouring Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia etc besides the more developed nations such as USA, UK, Australia, South Africa and others.
Handicap ratings of individual golfers are maintained all over the world by the national governing body of the sport in that country based on a uniform software and rules while in India, individual clubs have been using inconsistent and arbitrary rules so far.
