text: CONGU Unified Handicapping System Following a meeting of the four men's golf unions of Great Britain and Ireland in York arranged by The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in 1924, the British Golf Unions Joint Advisory Committee (later Council of National Golf Unions) was formed. The organization was tasked with creating a handicapping system that would be equitable to golfers of varying ability, and as a result the Standard Scratch Score and Handicapping Scheme was devised. The system was introduced in 1926, and used a "scratch score" system to rate courses, taking account that courses may play easier or more difficult than par.
  A new system was introduced in 1983, which incorporated features of the Australian system. This was further revised in 1989 with the introduction of the Competition Scratch Score (CSS), an adjustment to the Standard Scratch Score (SSS), to take account of variances in course conditions (setup, weather, etc.) on a given day. Further significant changes came in 1993 (buffer zones) and 1997 (Stableford Points Adjustment). In 2002, the Council of National Golf Unions (CONGU) and the Ladies' Golf Union (LGU) began working together (the LGU had adopted a system similar to that of CONGU in 1998) and in February 2004 the Unified Handicapping System (UHS) came into force.
  The Unified Handicapping System is used to manage handicaps for both men and women who are members of affiliated golf clubs in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. The system is published by CONGU and administered by each of the individual unions on behalf of their members, with handicaps being managed locally by someone at each club; this person normally holds the position of competitions or handicap secretary.