Playing Tournaments in Which Category?

[Tico]

Hi everyone,

First of all i want to apologize for my writing, its been a long time since i write in english. (I’m a spanish speaker).

Some context, i play in a Bolivian course, (La Vittoria Golf Club - Tarija, Bolivia). Under the USGA rules. I’m HDC 17, and according to the categories we use in my country (maybe in all countries under usga?) i should play in the 3rd A category.

0-9 first category, 10-16 second category, 17-24 third A category, 25-36 third B.

So the question is, if i decide to i want to play in tournaments in the second category, taking the maximum hdc allowed for the category, in this case 16. Can I do it? And it is possible to change again to 3rd in other tournament?

Thanks in advance for your responses and once again sorry for my bad english.

And if you travel to Tarija, take the time and play in my course, its an amazing one.

Walter.

[dennyjones]

Welcome to TST.    I'm sure somebody will come along soon and give you some helpful information.   

BTW...your English is very acceptable, don't apologize...

[Rulesman]

It really isn't anything to do with the handicap system. It will depend on the conditions set out by the organising committee.

Most handicap systems work on the premise that players are expected/entitled to play off the handicap they have earned. What is the point of a system otherwise?

However, there are situations permitted under at least one handicap system where handicap limits can be reduced for prize winning purposes but the official handicap must be used for handicap adjustment calculations.

But I haven't seen that in the USGA manual

 

[Club Rat]

At our club level, a player may choose to move to lower handicap flights.
I've moved to Championship flights a couple of times in past years when I felt I was playing well enough to merit the possibilities of playing well.
I've also moved to a lower handicap flight a few times, simply because I wanted to compete against friends in that flight.