What is an Active Posting Season?
Written by Taylor Tracey
The leaves are changing in Alberta as the fall is in full effect, but the golf season is still very much upon us as golfers in the province continue to enjoy the nice weather that we’ve continued to enjoy over the last few years.
October is often the time that courses are getting ready to close and golfers are still trying to squeeze their final few rounds in, the question must be asked when are you supposed to stop posting scores? The answer to this is never, but there are limitations to every province that stops scores from being a part of the handicap index calculations and these limitations are known as the “Active Posting Season”.
What is an Active Season
An “Active Season” is the set period when acceptable scores from that specific geographical region can be submitted for their handicap purposes. It is the responsibility of each provincial golf association to declare the active and inactive seasons, and the Rules of Handicapping then stipulates that it’s the players job to submit all their scores from courses that were played during their active season.
In Alberta, the active season is defined as March 1st to October 31st of every year. This is because some clubs in the province can open and close later than the other courses in the province. These courses are often found in the south of the province including Desert Blume, Paradise Canyon, and a handful of others.
The rest of Canada observes the following active season dates:
BC = Mar.1 – Nov.15
SK = Apr.15 – Oct.31
MB = Apr.15 – Oct.31
ON = Apr.15 – Oct.31
QC = Apr.15 – Oct.31
NS = Apr.15 – Oct.31
NB = May.1 – Oct.31
PE = Apr.16 – Nov.14
NL = Apr.1 – Nov. 30
Posting Outside of Active Season
The reason for having these active posting seasons is because if a player plays a round at a course that falls inside the “Inactive Season” the course conditions likely will not be consistent with the Course Rating and Slope Rating that were determined for the golf course. This can then impact a players Handicap Index and ultimately would be an inaccurate representation of the golfer. This is why scores posted to a course during the “Inactive Season” are not used in handicap calculations.
What are you supposed to do if you travel somewhere else that is still in their active posting season and your club is not? Players are still responsible for posting their scores from their travels if the course played is in their active season and their home club is not.
A prime example of this would be the lucky snowbirds that travel down south to places like Florida, which has a year-round active season. Players that do travel and play these courses are still responsible for posting this round to their Golf Canada Score Centre account to be included in their scoring record.
For those that also have memberships at a year-round facility, they’re additionally responsible for posting their scores to their USGA accounts as well as their Golf Canada accounts. The Golf Canada Score Centre has tools that allow the Canadian and USGA accounts to link together to ensure scores posted to one account are automatically posted to the other. For more information on this please contact stephen@albertagolf.org or members@golfcanada.ca.
For a complete list of the inactive and active posting schedule for the United States, click here.
To learn more about Course Rating, click here. For more information on Handicapping, click here.
As the season winds down, make sure you’re still taking advantage of your active posting season, and when the winter comes make sure your account is set up for any travels you might take!
