All Tour events will be played according to the official R and A Rules of Golf (click for details). This means ALL putts (that might contribute to a score) must be holed out, if a ball is picked up in a stableford/par event it is an automatic wipe/no score on that hole, in a stroke event you will be disqualified.

Lost balls/balls hit of out bounds must be treated with the proper ‘stroke and distance’ penalty whereby you play your next ball from the same spot as hitting your original ball under the penalty of one stroke.

While the focus on the Tour is fun, we are very serious about playing to the full rules of golf. Anyone deemed to be playing outside of the rules of golf or applying their own 'interpetation' to the rules will come under strict scrutiny from the Happy Bandit Tour organising committee.

Remember, if in doubt about a ruling first check your scorecrard for any local rules and if still unsure play two balls and record 2 scores for that hole and have the issue dealt with after your round - no one wants to be disqualified after winning an event.

Handicapping is a very important part of amateur and social golf hence at the Happy Bandit Tour we have implemented our own adjusted handicapping system to take into account scores only on the Happy Bandit Tour.

Your Tour starting handicap will be created When you register with the Happy Bandit Tour. If you have an officially provided AGU handicap, your AGU handicap 2 weeks before YOUR first event of the Tour will be your starting Happy Bandit Tour handicap. If you do not have an AGU handicap you will be allowed to nominate your starting handicap for the tour (subject to scrutiny by fellow Tour members - The Happy Bandit Tour Committee will have the final say on starting handicaps for players without an official AGU handicap).

The maximum starting handicap allowable on the Happy Bandit Tour is 27, no exceptions to this rule will be made.

The Happy Bandit Tour Handicap adjustment process has been put in place to re-handicap each player after every Tour event using an adjusted format of the AGU handicap process and allocated a new Tour handicap for use at the next Tour event. The handicap adjustment process works as follows with adjustments from a PAR score - currently the 5th placed score at an event.

For example, player A on a 9 handicap shoots 3 better than the par score at Tour Event #1, for the next tour event they will be playing on 8.7 (a deduction of 0.3) which rounds up to a 9 handicap, however if they then play 3 better than par at Tour Event #2 they will deduct another 0.3 and be playing off an 8.4 (rounded to 8) handicap at the next tour event.

At the beginning of each new Happy Bandit Tour Season a re-handicapping process will occur whereby AGU Handicaps will be reviewed to ensure a fair Tour for all players involved.