Tell us your gender, age and handicap. We'll show you only the events you're actually eligible for.
There are around 10,000 open competitions on Golf Empire at any time — but plenty of them have entry restrictions. Some are men-only or ladies-only. Some are juniors-only or seniors with a minimum age. Some have a maximum handicap. Clicking through to an entry form only to find you can't actually enter is frustrating. The Eligibility Filter in Search+ does the maths for you and shows only the events you're allowed to enter.
How it works
The Eligibility Filter sits in the Search+ sidebar under the heading "Find events I can enter". You tell it three things about yourself:
- Your gender — male or female
- Your age — in years
- Your handicap — your current Handicap Index
The filter only activates once all three are filled in — until then, results don't narrow. So you can take your time entering each one without seeing partial, incorrect results.
What gets filtered out
Once all three fields are set, Search+ hides events that you couldn't enter:
- Events restricted to the opposite gender (men-only events for a female golfer, ladies-only for a male golfer)
- Junior-only events if you're an adult
- Mid-Am events if you're under 35
- Senior events whose minimum age is higher than yours
- Events whose maximum handicap is lower than yours
Mixed-gender events, open-age events and events with no handicap restriction stay visible — you can enter all of those whatever your details.
"No more clicking through to discover an event is men-only off scratch."
Stronger matches for low-handicap players
Optional: Event maximum handicap
Below the three main fields, there's an optional "Max hcp limit for event" input. If you're a lower-handicap player looking for events with stronger fields, set this to your preferred ceiling.
For example: set 12 to see only events that won't let golfers above 12 enter. Useful for finding events where you'll be competing against players closer to your own standard rather than the full handicap range.
Leave it blank to see every event you're eligible for, regardless of its handicap range.
Why this isn't the same as the gender filter
Search+ has a separate gender filter in the sidebar (Men only, Ladies only, Mixed, Any combination). That filter answers a different question: "what kind of event do I want to enter?". A male golfer can use the gender filter to see only men's events, or only mixed events, or both.
The Eligibility Filter is about you, not about the event. It quietly hides events you couldn't enter even if you wanted to — without forcing you to think about every individual gender or age category.
You can use both filters together. Set the Eligibility Filter once for a "show me only events I qualify for" baseline, then use the gender filter on top of that to narrow further: "only men's events I qualify for", say.
One thing to know — we don't store your details
The Eligibility Filter is session-only. We don't save your gender, age or handicap between visits — you re-enter them each time. That's by design: it keeps the data minimal and means you can change the values freely (handicap moves around; "stronger matches" might be different next year).
If you find yourself wanting to re-enter the same eligibility settings often, the easiest workaround is to save the search — the saved search remembers all your filter settings, including eligibility, so one click restores everything.
Premium feature
The Eligibility Filter is a Premium feature, available alongside the rest of the advanced Search+ filters (date range, format, price, county, day of the week, course type, and more). It's not available on free accounts.
Try it now
Related guides
- Introducing Search+ — the full search experience with 15+ filters, calendar and map views
- Introducing Email Alerts — save searches and get notified about new matching opens
- Golf competition formats explained
- Why enter an open competition?