All players on the America’s Golf Tour must have a handicap to compete in a sanctioned tournament. America’s Golf Tour will use a handicap system similar to the USGA’s with a few exceptions. The easiest way to establish your AGT handicap is to have an existing USGA handicap. Players who do not have a USGA handicap may still participate provided they submit 5 scores attested by another player or by a PGA golf professional verifying your scores. Their names and a valid number must be given for the person attesting the score.

New Player Handicaps

1) New players are defined as those players yet to post 4 completed tournament scores within a rolling 18 month period. 1 day, 18 hole members are considered a “New Member” without regard to the number of scores in the player’s history.

2) New Players must submit a USGA index scoring history, association scoring history or a minimum of 5, 18 hole scores, established within the last 90 days, prior to registering for their first tournament. In northern areas we will except score from previous 90 from the end of last season.

3) Each score submitted should be attested by a verifiable source such as a Club Professional or Assistant Professional at the facility the score was shot, By an AGT member in good standing or playing partner that day. Telephone numbers must also be included for the attesting individual.

4) Submitted scores must be received by AGT management prior to registering for an AGT tournament. It is the player’s responsibility to verify by telephone their scores have been received by AGT management and are acceptable before registering for a tournament. Email and voicemail verification requests are not acceptable.

5) New players will be assigned a handicap prior to each of their first 4 tournaments based on the information furnished or in their current score history. The handicap is provided by AGT as a courtesy to New Players for informational purposes only.

6) In the event that a New Players posts a score lower than net 2 under par, the following provisions apply.

• Posted score of net 3 or 4 under par, the score will be entered into the player’s scoring history at the conclusion of their round. The New Players handicap will then be re-calculated and applied to the current score prior to the results being posted.
• Posted scores of net 5 under par or lower will result in the Exceptional Tournament Scoring Policy to take effect.

Establishing an AGT Handicap

There are three stages that every tour member will go through in their career with AGT.

First is a New Member which is defined as a player that has less than 4 completed AGT tournament rounds within the last 12 months. Players who are 1 day, 18 hole Members will always be considered a new member regardless of how many AGT tournament rounds they have completed.

A Qualifying Member is defined as someone who has at least 4 AGT tournament rounds completed but less than 10 AGT tournament rounds completed within the last 12 months.

A Qualified Member is defines as someone who has less than 20 completed AGT tournament rounds in their history with at least 10 of those rounds completed within the last 12 months.

An Exempt Member is defined as someone who has 20 or more AGT tournament rounds completed rounds with 10 of those rounds completed within the last 12 months.

Exceptional Tournament Score Adjustment Policy and Application

All players are subjected to the Exceptional Tournament Score handicap adjustment based on the number of completed AGT tournament rounds.

The first occurrence of an Exceptional Tournament Score within the last 10 rounds will activate scoring adjustments based on the total number of AGT tournament rounds a player has.

A New Member will have the Exceptional Tournament Score posted to their scoring history twice at the conclusion of their round. The player’s handicap will then be re-calculated and applied to the current tournament round before posting the results.

A Qualifying Member will have the Exceptional Tournament Score posted to their scoring history twice at the conclusion of the round. The player’s handicap will then be re-calculated and applied to the current tournament round before posting the results.

A Qualified Member will have the Exceptional Tournament Score posted to their scoring history once at the conclusion of the round. The player’s handicap will then be re-calculated and applied to the current tournament round before posting the results.

An Exempt Member shooting an Exceptional Tournament Score will not have their current tournament score adjusted before posting the results.