Looking for an open for low handicap players? Following a successful launch last year, enter Ludlow Golf Club's Ladies Scratch Open on Saturday 4 April open to players with handicaps of 15 and under.
Looking for an open for low handicap players? Following a successful launch last year, enter Ludlow Golf Club's Ladies Scratch Open on Saturday 4 April open to players with handicaps of 15 and under.
Last year Ludlow Golf Club in Shropshire inaugurated a Ladies Scratch Open, in recognition of the fact that low handicap lady golfers have very little opportunity to compete against one another in scratch Strokeplay - a pioneering event to help start redress this balance.
The competition will be an 18-hole stroke play, open to women with handicaps of 15 and under on Saturday 4 April. The winner will lift the Ludlow Golf Club Scratch Bowl and there will be gross and nett prizes.
Over recent years the number of women competing in individual ladies’ opens has dwindled. This is due in the most part to them being changed from reduction only competitions to meet with the change in the CONGU handicap system.
Those women who regularly play in opens but score outside their buffer zone (which is easy to do on an away course) have found their handicap going up each time so many have decided to stop entering these competitions.
As a result most golf clubs have changed their competitions to team events to attract players, but these tend to be higher handicap women, particularly as many clubs now use full handicap allowance rather than ¾ in a bid to boost numbers. Low handicappers find it very difficult to compete against teams of high handicappers playing Betterball competitions off full handicap.
Founded in 1889, Ludlow still retains many of its original features and charm. Based on sand and gravel this James Braid designed heathland course, often described as an inland links, is one of, if not the driest course in the counties of Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
