--- title: "Route 36 explained: how the Flemish path to a golf handicap works | Zalm Golf" description: "If you live in Flanders and want to start playing golf, you will quickly run into a system that works differently from most countries. There is no single exam you pass in a weekend. Instead there is Route 36, a guided programme run by Golf Vlaanderen that takes you gradually towards a registered handicap. Here is how it works, how long it takes and what your options are." canonical: https://www.zalmgolf.nl/nieuws/belgie/route-36-uitgelegd locale: en --- 6 August 2026 # Route 36 explained: how the Flemish path to a golf handicap works If you live in Flanders and want to start playing golf, you will quickly run into a system that works differently from most countries. There is no single exam you pass in a weekend. Instead there is Route 36, a guided programme run by Golf Vlaanderen that takes you gradually towards a registered handicap. Here is how it works, how long it takes and what your options are. Golf in Belgium Read with AI In this article ## First, some names you will encounter **Golf Vlaanderen** is the golf federation for Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium. **AFGolf** is its counterpart in French-speaking Wallonia. Both fall under the **KBGF**, the Royal Belgian Golf Federation, which issues the official Belgian golf licence. **NGF** is the Royal Dutch Golf Federation across the border in the Netherlands. It comes up in this article because it offers a route that works differently, and for people living near the border that difference matters. ## What Route 36 is, and why it is now called Just Golf Route 36 is a personal coaching programme for beginners, designed by Golf Vlaanderen. It replaced the older system of tests and exams. Golf Vlaanderen and its affiliated clubs increasingly use the name Just Golf route for the same programme, so you will come across both terms. Rather than passing one exam, you work through a series of stages. Each stage earns you a badge, tracked in the federation app, and you build your handicap as you go. One thing worth knowing before you sign up: the end point varies by club. Some clubs finish the programme at handicap 54, others at 45 or 36, depending on their facilities and sporting policy. Ask about this before enrolling, because it determines where you end up. ## Why Golf Vlaanderen designed it this way The reasoning is refreshingly honest and published on their own site. Half of all dropouts, more than 3,000 golfers a year, are players who have been at it for under two years and have not yet reached handicap 36\. People who go out onto a course alone too early tend to quit. Route 36 therefore trades speed for guidance. For many beginners that is genuinely the better deal. You are supported for longer, you get to know a club, and you are not left to figure it out on your own. The trade-off is equally real. It takes longer, and you are tied to a club. ## The steps **Step 1, the** [**introduction session**](https://www.zalmgolf.nl/en/news/belgium/golf-introduction-sessions-flanders)**.** Your first contact with the sport. One or two hours with a coach, hitting your first balls with clubs borrowed from the club. Golf Vlaanderen runs Start to Golf days twice a year during which participating clubs offer these sessions free of charge. Outside those days each club sets its own price. **Step 2, the starter package.** This is where the actual learning happens. A series of lessons covering the full range of shots, long game as well as short game, chipping and putting. Between lessons you can practise as much as you like using the club's facilities. You do not need to be a full member yet at this stage. **Step 3, the Just Golf route.** The guided build-up to your handicap, with a badge for each stage tracked in the app. **Step 4, membership and federation card.** To have your handicap officially registered and to use the BEgolf app, you need to be affiliated with a Belgian golf club. ## How long it takes This is where the real difference lies, and it can be made more concrete than most people expect. Golf Vlaanderen says starter packages run from a few weeks to a few months. A concrete example from the Antwerp area: at Drie Eycken you get five hours of group coaching with a qualified coach, in a group of no more than four, spread across six weeks and scheduled around the professional's availability. After that, the path to your handicap properly begins. And there is no end date on it. Ieper Open Golf puts it plainly: the professional decides when you are ready to go out onto the course, and that depends on your individual aptitude and how intensively you practise. Until then you are given an internal handicap of 53.5 and unlimited access to the practice facilities. For someone who wants to build up slowly, that is fine. But it does mean that when you enrol, you do not know when you will finish. ## What it costs The starter package itself is reasonably priced. Golf Vlaanderen quotes a range of 50 euros to a few hundred, and the Drie Eycken example costs 199 euros including two clubs, an 8 iron and a putter. What follows is where the money is. Golf Vlaanderen is explicit: in Belgium you must join a golf club in order to be federated. A standalone federation card does not exist. That affiliation recurs every year. An example from a recognised Flemish club: 112 euros club membership plus 67 euros federal contribution to the KBGF, totalling [**179 euros per calendar year**](https://www.zalmgolf.nl/en/news/belgium/cost-of-golf-in-flanders). For juniors under 21 it is around 126 euros. Clubs that include playing rights charge considerably more. ## The BEgolf app The BEgolf app is available to members of Golf Vlaanderen, AFGolf and the KBGF. You record scores, book tee times and enter competitions. It has improved substantially in recent years, with an interactive strokesaver linked to your scorecard and simplified hole-by-hole score entry. You do need to be a member of a Belgian club to use it. One point to check before choosing a club: in Belgium each golf club has authority over handicapping. The club's handicap committee decides whether a digital scorecard is accepted, and Golf Vlaanderen advises players to ask their own club whether it works with the digital EDS card. That matters more than it sounds. Your handicap only improves if your qualifying cards are actually processed, so how your club handles this partly determines how fast you progress. ## The alternative: getting your handicap in the Netherlands The Netherlands has no Route 36\. There the golf certificate still exists as a single course with an exam, and you can complete it in one day. In practice: you take a day course with a PGA professional, sit the theory exam at the end and play your qualifying round. By the end of that day you have your certificate and a handicap registered with the NGF. At Zalm Golf [a day course starts from 100 euros](https://www.zalmgolf.nl/en/prices), depending on location and professional. Registration afterwards runs through [an NGF pass](https://www.zalmgolf.nl/en/ngf-registration): 66 euros a year, with no club obligation, with your digital pass in the GOLF.NL app. On the course itself the price difference is small. Where it accumulates is the annual cost: | | Flemish route | Zalm Golf | | ------------ | ---------------- | --------- | | Per year | around 179 euros | 66 euros | | Over 5 years | around 895 euros | 330 euros | The second difference is harder to tabulate but matters more to many people. With a day course you know in advance when you will be finished. You book a Saturday and you go home that evening with your handicap. On the Flemish route you find out when the professional says you are ready. Because the NGF uses the World Handicap System, the same system Belgium uses, your handicap is internationally valid. You play with it worldwide, including on Flemish courses. ## Which suits whom **Route 36 suits you** if you live near a club you would want to join anyway, if you like the idea of the programme and the club community, and if you are not in a hurry. **The Dutch route suits you** if you want to start quickly, if you would rather not be tied to one club, or if you live near the border and already cross it easily. Our locations in the Rotterdam region and in Brabant are within comfortable driving distance of the Belgian border. Neither is wrong. The difference is pace and commitment, not quality. Both lead to an official, internationally recognised handicap. ## Can I switch later? Yes. Your scorecards and handicap index exist within the World Handicap System, so that data travels with you. If you later decide to join a Flemish club for the community and the competitions, you can. The honest question is whether you want to. Someone who mostly plays green fee golf and has no interest in club competition pays considerably less at 66 euros a year for the thing that actually matters: a valid, registered handicap. ## Ready for the next step? [Book a golf lessonBook a lesson directly with a certified PGA professional near you.Book a lesson](https://app.zalmgolf.nl/en) [ Back to news](https://www.zalmgolf.nl/en/news)