HGS Carden Park Trip
(22nd to 24th June 2025)

Specific Rules for the Trip & Competitions

Daily Individual Stableford competitions

• Each round is an individual Stableford competition, with prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places, and usual Countback method used to separate tied scores
• players will start round 1 using their current WHS Handicap Index, and this will then apply to all 3 rounds of the Trip's competitions (regardless of whether a player submits their card(s) into the England Golf system and receives a WHS Handicap Index change mid-trip)
• each round will be played off a Playing Handicap, which will be 95% of the player's Course Handicap for that course less any Trip Handicap Adjustments that apply
• Trip Handicap Adjustments will be applied to the winner and runner-up of each round, and will affect their Playing Handicap for the rest of the Trip:
  • Winner receives an adjustment of -2
  • Runner-Up receives an adjustment of -1
• each player will be allocated a number in the range 1-24 which will assign them to a slot in the pre-determined Order of Play for the 3 rounds which ensures that the same two players do not play together more than once during the trip
• please Putt Out on each hole
• please keep individual cards for each player, and ensure that you record your individual birdies, pars and lost balls on your card
• please hand your signed card to Peter Bollands/Darren Priest on completion of your round (this will be returned on request for submission for handicap purposes, if desired).

Trip Individual competition

• The total of the Stableford scores for the three rounds count as the player's Trip score
• in the event of a tie Round 3 will be used for Countback

Trip Team competition

• There will be 4 teams of 6 players (one team will have a Ghost), blind drawn on a seeded basis in advance of the trip
• the Team score for a particular round will be the best 4 scores out of the 6 players in the team 
• in the event of a tie for the Team Scores totalled over 3 rounds, the team Stableford points scored in round 3 will be used for Countback.

Virtual Knockout

• A draw will be made before the trip to identify the 8 virtual threesomes in the first round, with the 8 winners qualifying for the semi-final (round 2) along with the highest scoring non-winner; the 3 winners from the semi-finals qualify for the virtual final in round 3
• the winner of each virtual game will be the highest Stableford score of the three, using usual Countback rules in the event of a tie

Sweepstake Competitions

• Darren Priest is organising this, and this year's 7 sweepstakes are:

1) Lost Balls: guess the total number of lost balls over 3 rounds; nearest the number (+/-) wins (multiple winners share the total prize)

• a ball is 'lost' if it goes out of bounds (even if retrieved) or is physically lost within the course
• only 'live' balls can be lost; eg a missing provisional is not counted if the first ball is subsequently found

2) Birdies: guess the total number of birdies over 3 rounds; nearest the number (+/-) wins (multiple winners share the total prize)

3) Gross Pars: As the number of Birdies scored is dropping as we all get older, we will also have a sweepstake on the total number of Gross Pars over 3 rounds; nearest number (+/-) wins (multiple winners share the total prize)

4) Rounds of 30 Stableford points and Over: guess the total number of individual rounds of 30 or more points over the 3 rounds played throughout the trip; nearest the number (+/-) wins (multiple winners share the total prize)

5) - 7) Daily Stableford Winner: predict the winner of each daily Stableford (multiple winners share the total prize)

• It would be helpful if you could pay £10 for entry into all seven sweepstakes in advance of the Trip by electronic transfer to the HGS account and submit your entries to Darren via Whatsapp or email by no later than the 1st Tee Time on Sunday and (for the other 2 daily winners) by midnight the night before.

Updated: 29th May 2025