On Monday, England Golf announced a new ruling to stop rogue players manipulating the system to their advantage.

Everyone playing in non-qualifying competitions away from home must now return their scores to their home club with players who ignore this responsibility facing the possibility of having their handicap suspended.

We’ve not had the same level of issues reported to us

It followed a number of cases of players who protect inflated handicaps – but Scottish Golf says it has no plans to put a similar rule in place at the moment.

Read more -> Rules gaffe costs schoolboy hole-in-one

“We will monitor England Golf’s implementation of their new handicapping rule with interest,” a Scottish Golf spokesman told bunkered.co.uk.

“However, at this time, Scottish Golf will not be placing a similar requirement on players, as we’ve not had the same level of issues reported to us.

“We look forward to consulting with England Golf on their work on this matter.”

England Golf has introduced the clause of the CONGU handicapping system to provide clubs with evidence to support handicap reviews.

“It’s essential to do this to protect the integrity of the system,” said Gemma Hunter, England Golf’s handicap and course rating manager. “We can’t sit back and let people manipulate the system, but without evidence clubs can’t take any action.”