Hello, Hope anyone can help me out please. me and the wife are looking to play golf abroad next year. We have been playing for 12 months now and are slowly getting better. neither of us have handicap certificates and looking around courses abroad they all require one.

 We played in florida in May and did not need to show one there, so was wondering which country/resort would anyone suggest in europe that will except us without certificates?

 On that subject we are also looking at either Tunisia or Turkey (belek) as we would love to include a beach break too, If you can think of anywhere better that would be fantastic.

Sorry for waffling on, any help or advice would be superb. Thank you in advance for your info.

Matt (broke 100 twice on trot now..woohoo)

only time ever been asked to provide a handicap certificate was at Villamartin in Spain - I have a handicap, but forgot to take certificate - offered to get club to fax through - no, tried to show them on the web, not interested - then said - how about you watch me hit a few balls on the range - if you think i can play, let me on - eventually agreed - guess my Spanish may have helped out there a bit....fortunately striped 3 tee shots to the end of the range - one after the other.  (yeah BoB it was a short range!!!)

Really cannot offer you any advice other then maybe getting a local pro at the range where you play write a note to say you're not going to chop up the course - but then again, if you've only broken 100 twice - you may well do - just joking - we all started somewhere......

I guess whats more important is being able to demonstrate appropriate etiquette - ie repairing divots, letting faster groups through - however previous experience of european (spanish) rounds is allow 5 1/2 hours!!!!  Without causing a riot, got stuck behind 3 germans last year whose knowledge of golf, the etiquette of the game, the rules and consideration for other players was about par to my ability to crochet. Hwever they had a little bit of paper to say they had a handicap (not suggesting anything..... )

As for golf abroad - most of Costa Blanca / Costa del Sol / Costa De Luz, will have good golf  nearby, but generally at Euros60+ a round which given current exchange rate makes it expensive (sorry assuming you live in UK!)

cheers for the quick reply (fengibbon) Golf abroad is very expensive and some of the reviews and reports are no better than local municipal courses back here in the UK, so really confused on what to do!

 My golf score is not a true reflection of my game, i can hit most greens with 3 shots now (par 4) but my putting is very poor (2 or 3 putts..sigh) which shows in my high 90's card at the mo'

 However as you said got to start somewhere you should of seen me 12 months a go, lol If i could bend a football the way my Golf Ball did from the tee. i would be up there with the Bechams of this world!

 ta again for your info

Matt

I was in exactely the same position some weeks back when we had a week in Spain so asked a mate if I could photocopy his, which we did. Didn't get asked to produce it while we were there (although their website stated they required one) and had a great week (and still haven't broken the magic 100)! I really think if you turn up looking the part you stand a great chance of getting away with it and anyway we all have to start somewhere.  

As a nomad, I don't have an official h/c certificate and I keep track of my own handicap with software (golf score recorder) which also has an option to buy a certified h/c based on all the rounds you've entered.  Most people will probably have seen somthing similar offered by many online round tracker services etc, I expect?

Has anyone ever bought or used one of these, either in the UK or abroad?  I haven't bothered yet, but it would be interesting to know if it's a viable option in the future.  May be an option for the OP too.

im just back from spain

played La cala twice, rio real and torrequebrada and none of them asked me to prove my handicap