EDS rounds explained: improving your handicap without tournaments

A handicap only improves when cards are handed in. Many people believe that only works in a tournament and therefore play a whole year without submitting one. There is a second door, and it is called EDS: an ordinary private round, registered beforehand, that counts afterwards. Here is how it runs, who may play one, and what usually goes wrong.

What an EDS card is

EDS stands for extra day score, a result outside a tournament. It is not a special format and not an exam but your Saturday afternoon round, with two conditions: it has to be registered before the start, and the card has to be handed in the same day (Swiss Golf, WHS in six steps).

Both conditions exist for the same reason: a card registered only after the round would be a card handed in only when the score was good. The system wants to see every registered round, the good and the bad. Which is why registering beforehand is not a formality but the heart of the matter.

Who may play EDS cards

Who	Over 18 holes	Over 9 holes
All players	yes	yes
Juniors with an index under 12.0	no	no

Under the old EGA system it was different: EDS cards over 18 holes were open only to players with a handicap above 4.4, and over 9 holes only above 11.5. Since the WHS that restriction is gone, with the one exception for juniors below an index of 12.0.

The procedure in six steps

1. Register before you start. In the Swiss Golf app or at the course office, choosing the course and the tee.
2. Name a marker. Whoever keeps and signs your card needs a handicap of 36 or better themselves.
3. Choose the format. Individual Stableford, individual stroke play, individual par or bogey, or maximum score. Nothing else counts.
4. Play off the full course handicap. Swiss Golf recommends 100 per cent for handicap-relevant rounds and EDS cards, so course handicap and playing handicap are the same number.
5. Have the card signed and sign it yourself. If a hole shows a lower number than you took, the card is void.
6. Hand it in the same day. It is computed overnight, including the playing conditions calculation for that day, and the next morning your new index is in the app.

What counts and what does not

Format	Handicap-relevant
Individual Stableford	yes
Individual stroke play	yes
Individual par or bogey	yes
Maximum score	yes
Match play	no
Scramble, foursomes, greensome	no
A round in a simulator	no

The last row surprises some people: the WHS takes only scores from courses with a course rating and a slope rating, and a virtual course has neither. Why that is so is in Simulator score against course score.

What is on the card

It is the same scorecard as in a tournament. Before the round you write your name, the date, the tee and your course handicap at the top; course rating, slope and the stroke index are printed on it. During the round your marker keeps your card and you keep theirs, hole by hole with the gross number.

At the end you both sign. Adding it up and converting it into Stableford points is the committee's job, not yours; your responsibility is the number on each hole. If anywhere shows a lower number than you took, the card is void. Overnight the system computes the score differential, adjusted by the day's playing conditions calculation, and in the morning the new index is in the app.

The difference to a tournament

	Tournament	EDS round
Entry	in advance, with a start list	on the day, before you tee off
Cost	entry fee plus green fee	the green fee only
Playing partners	allocated	you choose them
Format	set by the committee	you choose from the four individual formats
Opportunities a year	few	as many as you play

Both cards are worth the same to the index. The one difference that remains is pressure: in a tournament you play in front of people who are counting, which is why one tournament a season is still a good idea.

Nine holes or eighteen

Both count. How a nine-hole card is processed is the system's business; for you nothing about the procedure changes: register, marker, play, sign, hand it in the same day.

In practice the nine-hole round is the more important half. It takes two hours instead of four, fits after work and can be played into the evening in summer. Play nine holes twice a month between April and October and register every time, and you end the season with fourteen cards and a handicap that matches your game.

Why ten EDS cards beat two tournaments

While you have fewer than twenty score differentials, the system counts the best few: with three cards the best minus 2, with five the best, with nine to eleven the average of the best three (R&A, Rule 5). Every extra card is therefore an extra chance that a good one is among them.

Play two tournaments a year and you have two such chances. Register ten private rounds and you have twelve. That is the whole difference between a handicap still sitting at 54 after a season and one sitting at 38. The way there is in From 54 to 36.

What to sort out the evening before

An EDS round almost never founders on the golf, it founders on the organisation. Four things that take five minutes the night before and save the next day:

• Book the tee time and check whether the course is playable for handicap purposes that day at all. Winter greens and temporary holes change that.
• Ask your marker whether they are coming and whether their handicap is 36 or better. No marker, no card.
• Open the app and make sure you are logged in. Hunting for a password on the first tee with no signal has cost plenty of cards.
• Settle your course handicap for the tee you are playing. It is in the app or on the chart by the first tee.

The six most common mistakes

• Registering afterwards. Not possible, and it is what most good rounds founder on.
• Handing the card in the next day. It has to reach the club or the organisation on the same day.
• A marker without a handicap. They need 36 or better; a guest without a licence cannot sign.
• The wrong format. Match play against a friend feels like competition and still does not count.
• A hole not played. Holes not played are handled in the adjusted gross score, but the rules for that are narrow; ask at the office before you stop.
• An unrated course. A round at a facility without a course and slope rating produces no differential.

How many cards are enough

Twenty, after which the system counts normally. Until then: one card per round. In practice that means making the registration a habit, like booking the tee time. It takes a minute in the app and costs nothing.

Nine-hole cards count in full, and for anyone with a job they are the realistic route: two hours after work, one card. Two such evenings a month from April to October is fourteen cards in a season.

And the winter

From November to March there are no cards, because hardly any course is open. That is no loss but the time to work on the numbers that show up on the card in April: carry distance per club, dispersion, strike. An hour in a bay is a median CHF 50 for up to four people; the venues are on the map, and what a winter can achieve is in the training plan.

Frequently asked questions

What is an EDS round?

An extra day score: an ordinary private round that counts towards your handicap because you register it before you start and hand the signed card in the same day. It replaces the tournament as a way of moving your index.

Do I have to register an EDS round in advance?

Yes, before the first tee shot, in the Swiss Golf app or at the office. A round registered afterwards does not count, because the system wants to see every registered round, the good and the bad.

Who may sign my EDS card?

A marker with a handicap of 36 or better themselves. You keep their card, they keep yours, and both of you sign. The numbers are your responsibility.

May anyone play EDS cards?

Since the WHS, yes, over 18 and over 9 holes. The only exception is juniors with a handicap index under 12.0. Under the old EGA system EDS cards were allowed only from handicap 4.5 and 11.6 respectively.

Does a round in a golf simulator count as an EDS?

No. The WHS takes only scores from courses with a course rating and a slope rating, and a virtual course has neither. The simulator is the practice side of a handicap, not its bookkeeping.

Sources

• Swiss Golf: WHS in 6 Schritten (PDF) (EDS-Karten, Anmeldung vor der Runde, Abgabe am selben Tag)
• ASGI: Handicap
• R&A: Rules of Handicapping, Regel 5