History
The GVB was introduced because there are few golf courses in relation to the number of golfers. Because there was no requirement previous to the GVB, anyone could play on a public course. This led to situations which were hazardous or undesirable to other players. In the 1980s the GVB was introduced (in Belgium in 1988) to remedie this problem. The GVB is basically a pre-handicap. It guarantees a certain level of ability and knowledge of the rules and etiquette. The GVB is required for entrance into a golfing association or to play on an official golfing association course although most clubs have their own admittance policy.
Some clubs and courses (like in a lot of other countries) demand a handicap certificate or certifiable level of play (i.e. handicap 24) for guests.
Read more about this topic: Golf License
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“The best history is but like the art of Rembrandt; it casts a vivid light on certain selected causes, on those which were best and greatest; it leaves all the rest in shadow and unseen.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)