Do you have to have a certain handicap to compete in the Texas Amateur qualifying rounds, or can anyone with a handicap compete? I looked at the website, and it says you have to be a member of a club and have a handicap. So can you not compete if you only play public courses and are not a member of a club?

The website doesn't mention anything about a handicap cutoff, so I'm assuming there isn't one? Alot of the scores are high, so I'm guessing that's correct.

I have been wanting to play competitive golf again, so I was thinking it may be fun to play in one or two of the qualifying tournaments next year.

Eligibility: Entries are open to male amateur golfers with a cerfified GHIN Handicap
Index of 6.4 or less. Please reference "TGA Policies and Procedures"
for further details.

Thanks. Where are you seeing that? I was looking at the below Policies and Procedures page, and I couldn't find anything mentioning the handicap cutoff.

http://www.txga.org/competition-policies.html

Also, do you know if you can "belong to a TGA member course" without being an actual member? In other words, is it possible to belong to a TGA member public course (assuming there are TGA member public courses)?

I agree that It's not very transparent. I suggest that when you go to their website, you look under the Club Services tab, then choose "Memberships." Read the page on how to be a TGA member, and go from there. It's pretty easy from that point. You can just sign up online.

I doubt you have to belong to a club. My guess is they just want you to have a verifiable handicap index, so as long as you're a "member" of a club's GHIN system you should be good to go.

A lot of public courses will let you pay $25-35 per year for handicap tracking services without being any kind of member. This will get you a verifiable handicap through GHIN, and access to all of the tournaments the TXGA puts on. Shameless brag, I qualified for the Texas Am this year, and am excited about playing Bent Tree. Anyone know anything about it? Looks to be a pretty exclusive club.

Thanks guys. I'm going to try and use a club's handicap tracking services next year and hopefully play a few events.

Congrats Jack Daniels. Bent Tree should be awesome.

I may know a little about Bent Tree. PM me if you have any questions.