The do’s and don’ts of score cards

By Robert D. Thomas
SCGA Senior Director of Communications
Although Tiger Woods was the big story in last month’s PGA Championship, an incident involving Sergio Garcia spotlighted the importance of correctly handling your score card at the end of each and every tournament round.

Sergio was disqualified when he handed in his score card and, after he had left the scoring area, it was determined that the score on one hole was one shot lower than it should have been. If it had been one shot higher, he would simply have received the higher score, but because it was one shot lower, he was disqualified.

Although disqualification penalties are relatively rare in a competition, most of them involve score card mistakes.

The Rules of Golf are quite specific about score cards when it comes to stroke play. Technically, score cards are not required in match play, although many tournaments do ask players to use them for live scoring or posting purposes. However, when it comes to stroke play, the four sections of Rule 6-6a are detailed in their instructions and the penalty for violating sec­tions b and d is disqualification.

As almost everyone is aware, players should not keep their own score cards in a competition. In nearly all cases, a player serves as a marker for a fellow competitor. Rule 6-6a says, “After each hole, the marker should check the score with the competitor and record it. On completion of the round, the marker must sign the score card and hand it to the competitor.” If a player has to withdraw partway through a round, he or she should initial or sign for the holes entered and then hand the score card to another competitor or a committee official.

When players come to the scoring table, there are two things that they need to be sure to check. The first is to have two signatures on their score card — their own and their marker’s. More players are disqualified for not having two signatures on a score card than for any other reason. No matter how bad the round was, the first thing a player should do is check to make sure he has signed his own card and the card of the player for whom he has served as a marker.

The other requirement for the player is to verify that the score recorded for each hole is correct. Players are not responsible for addition errors; they are only required to insure that the correct score is written down for each hole. (We had a plaintive request from a club whose members are apparently arithmetically challenged as to whether its Committee could write a local rule to disqualify anyone who hadn’t added the score correctly. The answer is no; Rule 33-1 states, “The Committee has no power to waive a Rule of Golf.”)

At every SCGA tournament, we provide score cards that include a perforated strip at the bottom that allows players to keep their own scores. At the end of the round, you detach the strip and lay it down below the scores on your score card; the numbers line up exactly, so it’s a foolproof way to verify your hole-by-hole scores — foolproof, that is, if you use it. It’s amazing how many players hand in score cards with the strip still attached.

Everytime a player is disqualified at a PGA Tour or similar-level tournament, at least one announcer will wonder petulantly why this procedure is followed. “After all,” he will say, “we’ve got all of these electronic scoreboards on the course so why do we need score cards?”

The answer is simple: only you know what score you made on a hole. You may have called a penalty on yourself of which a walking scorer was not aware. Or the walking scorer may have made an error in entering the scores. Or, as was the case with Sergio, the marker may have made a mistake. Only you — the player — knows exactly what score you made on each hole and it is solely your responsibility to verify that each hole’s score is accurate.

Having verified your hole-by-hole scores and checked for two signatures, you then hand your score card to someone at the scoring table. Rule 6-6c says, “No alteration may be made on a score card after the competitor has returned it to The Committee.”

The question of when a player has completed the above has been the subject of much debate, and Decision 6-6c/1 deals with the issue: “This is a matter for the Committee and it will vary depending on the nature of the competition . . .”

As is the case with many tournaments, the SCGA designates a specific scoring area (usually a table and chairs) and many players wait until the score card is verified by someone at the scoring table. If a mistake is made (and, again, it’s usually a case of not having both the player’s and marker’s signature on the card), we allow the mistake to be corrected. However, once you’ve left the area, the card has then been submitted and cannot be changed.

The entire score card procedure is not lengthy but too many players are in such a hurry to hit the road that they fail to follow the simple rules. When that happens, the penalties can be severe, something which neither players nor tournament officials desire. So, take those extra few minutes and do it right.

Have a Rules question? E-mail info@scga.org