Am I A Handicap Bandit

I have been trying to play golf for 2 years,starting with a handicap of 22.I have played in at least 4 competitions per month and come down to14 which I struggle to play to. Then last week in a friendly roll up I scored 43 points, it turned out I was playing alongside the handicap secretary and at the end of the round he ask if I was was going to put a card in for handicap purposes to which I said no I play in enough competitions to get a fair handicap from the computer and this rounds score was once in 2 months of struggling.His reply was that a handicap was something to aspire to and not neccessary be able to play to.
Please give any opinions on this matter

hi john
this is bizarre just been reading your letter to todays golfer mag!

Hi John,

If you can shoot that kind of score, you shouldnt have a prob playing to a h/cap of less. I would urge you to put in a few cards. It will increase your confidence and make you more competitive. Anyway, if you dont play well after that your h/cap will adjust itself

IMO - every time you finish 18 playing under the Rules of Golf, you need to turn in your card.

Now, that said, the USGA states that a handicap is a golfers' potential - not how he should be playing. It's stated that you'll play to your handicap one out of every four rounds, and play under it one out of every 8 or so.

John
put all cards in good and bad. It works out to your advantage.
No one wants to play with a twelve handicapper who should be a seven, also no one wants to play with a 7 handicapper who honestly cant play to a 12.
My goal is to get my handicap as low as possible honestly and lowering that digit gives you motivation and a goal

Sorry but yer i think your a bit of a bandit

Kiwi

I hear people at the golf club saying "you don't want to put too low a card in under general play or you won't win anything".

I disagree with this, I aspire to be the best golfer I can be and this can be measured by my handicap if I consistently submit cards. To win competitions with an overly generous handicap would not satisfy me. I would much prefer to not win and just beat my best score.

Surely any keen golfers true goal is to lower and play to the lowest handicap they can rather than win competitions with an unfair advantage?

I agree with the comments made, your handicap should reflect your current potential. By putting cards in whenever possible will reflect your this. My handicap has gone up as I do not get to play the course often these days so my potential to score is lower but when I played the course often it was lower as my scoring ability was better.

Putting regular cards in through general and competiton play will ensure your handicap reflects your current scoring potential.

Hope that makes sense to you all!

Cheers

JCBDB

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JCBDB

I only return cards that are in competition, but I always return a competition card.
If you are off 14 and scored a 43 or so then you will only get dropped to 11 or 12, its not like they will cut you to 6 or anything.

What makes the game interesting, is the that anyone at any time is capabible of greatness. Who is better at being great can be measured, over a period of time, using a sequence of events...from the single stroke, to a single hole, to an 18 hole round, and over a multi day span.

When people try to guage themselves against others in terms of this greatness level you invariably get those that want to be seen at their best, and those that want to be preceived as the best. These are very different.

Using a leveler like a handicap invalidates completly the common sense approach to this guage. Who is the "best"? Who is better then the other? Keeping a handicap is a way to guage your own personal level. Using it as this "best guage" in my option a waste of everyone's time. Playing for money or stature within a club/county tournament is always riddled with issues over this system.

The solution (as many tournaments do) is to make flights of entry. Make the handicap a marker that you know where you should compete. Play within that group for tournament status, and winners are moved up one level to the next...infact that should be the goal...to be "promoted" based on your abilities. This makes keeping a handicap very personally lugit because who wants to keep loosing in the higher ranked tournaments?

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I'm a golfaholic, no question about that. Counseling wouldn't help me. They'd have to put me in prison, and then I'd talk the warden into building a hole or two and teach him how to play. ~Lee Trevino

I think you need to record all your scores. By picking an choosing which ones you record or not record entirely defeats the purpose of the system.


Bob

But only competition scores are counted towards your handicap (unless you are being cut on observation)

Guess I was not sure on wether he was under the Europe sytem or the American. In the American you record all your scores to get your handicap. I guess then if only competition scores matter what is the effect of "turning in ones card?"

Bob

Greebowan,

I see your point, yes, clubs ask you submit "x" cards per year towards your handicap. Do you think this is the right approach?

I play very few medals and to be honest would be unlikely to win as my handicap reflects my current scoring ability. This is because I submit cards in non medal play to lower my handicap as I see this as acheiving in golf, rather than "winning" medals.

I play with people who play every other day and can scorer 5 over one day and 30 over the next. What counts is the scoring over a reasonable period and thus what you are currently capable of. If you score 79 one day and 90 the next then during the medal that weekend you may score 79 off 20 on in the medal.

The handicap system is meant to give an even playing field, it is time all golfers were honest in their ability by submitting regular cards rather than submitting for competitions only. How many people have you seen pick up the medal and all you can think is bandit. When I win a medal I want people to say "he played out of his skin" (off a low handicap).

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JCBDB

The handicap system is something rather unique to our game, it allows golfers of all abilities to compete with each other on a level playing field, as long as each player has a realistic handicap rating.

The argument of whether this guy should put in a particular "non-competition" card is rather subjective, there are rules to govern things like the minimum number of competition cards etc a player needs to return. What is very important here though is that players use the utmost honesty and integrity in their game, this includes ensuring handicaps are realistic, just as much as scores are correct.

The individual will know if their handicap is realistic and should enter suitable cards to reflect their ability, if they have any uncertainty about it they should seek advice from their club handicap committee.

Finally, to answer your question: Yes, put the card in.

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Best Regards
Brian

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Funny o'l game!

You should only play to your handicap 20% of the time, as i have been told by many people.

This is a VERY broad rule of thumb. The more consistent a player is, the more often they will play to their handicap. Players who are improving will obviously play to their handicap more often than a player who is getting worse.

To the OP, the system is based on turning in ALL rounds, competition or not. Only practice rounds are excluded. Personally, if I’m playing by myself, I usually consider that a practice round, since normally I might hit a second ball or re-putt a ball to see what went wrong or rehit a shot with a different club to see the difference.....stuff isn’t allowed in "real" stroke play. I normally exclude "vacation" golf, since we always make it a priority to keep it fun and enjoy the course and the refreshments. (ie....liberal amounts of mulligans and beers )

When our weekly foursome plays, we submitthe scores everytime.