Joining up with SBGS

If you are interested in how to become involved in blind golf in Scotland, either as a player or as a volunteer guide, you've come to the right area of our website.

Playing member

1: To become a member of this Society, you must be registered either as BLIND, or PARTIALLY SIGHTED with a local health authority or a Society for the Welfare of the Blind with your main residence address in Scotland. You will be asked to provide written evidence of this registration.

You can DOWNLOAD A MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FORM HERE

2: Next, we need to find out just how much vision you have, if any. We will ask you to visit your local optician or qualified opthalmologist for a short examination. We have found that most opthalmologists carry out this examination free of charge if you explain to them that this is for the purpose of disabled sports grading. The sight classification form will need to be completed and returned to us along with the membership application form.

The information on the form will be passed to our independent assessor, who will examine the details and award you the relevant B1, B2, B3 or B4 grading in relation to your level of vision. This then enables us to put you in to the appropriate maximum handicap bracket to which you apply.

For example, a B1, totally blind person can play to a maximum handicap of 54, a B2 has a ceiling of 45, B3 can go up to 36 and a B4, normally a partially sighted person, can only go up as far as 28. Ladies handicaps have the same cielings but are adjusted by the difference in course ratings from the ladies and gents tees.

you can RIGHT MOUSE CLICK THIS LINK TO DOWNLOAD A SIGHT CLASSIFICATION FORM IN PDF

3: When you have completed steps 1 and 2 and you've paid the relevant joining fee, you can come along and take part in our events, but to compete for trophies, prizes or earn merit points in our league system, we need to calculate an official blind golf handicap for you which can be done in two ways:

A: If you can provide written evidence of a CONGU handicap certificate of 27 or less, you can play and compete fully in our events right away. A review will be carried out after you have completed 4 of our recognised events and an official blind golf handicap will be calculated.

B: You can take part in 4 of our recognised events and an official playing handicap will be calculated based on the four completed cards returned. You should speak to our Handicap Secretary who will explain what is meant by a "recognised event."

4: Also, once your membership fee has been received, and your membership established, we will contact the nearest District Captin to your area and they will let you know of any additional local activities available to you.

If you are still unsure of any of the procedures and need more help, please fill out the form below and someone will get back to you as soon as possible.

Volunteer guides

We are always on the lookout for volunteer guides to help our players. Not only in setting them up on the golf course, lining up their putts, but sometimes in getting to and from their homes or public transport points to the event location.

There is absolutely no need for a guide to have golfing ability or experience, but it obviously does make a difference if the blind golfer is highly competitive! There is a wide range of attitudes at our events, from the competitive to the purely social and our objectives are to get as many blind or visually impaired people out into the community and improve their quality of life in our friendly social environment. We also often stage fun days where the blind golfer and their guide both play in greensome or Texas scramble events.

It is normally the case that the blind or visually impaired golfer would settle with their volunteer guides over out of pocket expenses such as petrol or other travelling costs.

If you are looking for a hobby to fill your time, getting involved in blind golf in Scotland can be so much fun and rewarding, so please get in touch. You can Click here for a short info sheet for some more facts about us, or ask us your questions by completing the form below.

Get in touch for more information

You can contact the Society through the Secretary and Website manager noted below:

  • Robin Clayden, 5 The Round, Dunfermline, Fife KY12 7YH
  • Tel: 01383 737717, E-mail: robin @ scottishblindgolf.com
  • NB: To send an email, remove the space between `robin' and the @ sign above. This is displayed this way to eliminate spammers and bots. Thanks