I have been playing golf for 5 years now. Today, I played with a very obvious vanity handicapper for the first time. I only played the back nine, but I saw him chunk a pitch into the 9th green, and figured that his ability level would about match mine.
We get on the 10th tee, and I overhear him saying that he is a 2 handicap. I pipe my drive down the middle (best shot all day for me), and he hooks his drive into the trees.
He kinda made a mess of 10, 11, and 12. Then on 13, he hits a beautiful drive- about 265 or so. I pull up next to him on the fairway and compliment him on his nice drive. Of course, he takes the opportunity to tell me that he usually hits his driver "300 or 340 or so". He also tells me that he is a "2 or 4 handicap". He tells me that he is playing horribly today. I say, "that's what equitable stroke control is for!" He did not respond. He went on to eagle the hole (par 5) with a great putt of 50 feet or so. At this point I'm thinking, "okay, maybe he's not full of it". Then he says that's the first eagle he's ever had. My question is this: can you get down to a low single digit handicap and not have at least one eagle on your resume'?
We go on and he starts to simply hit a second ball when something he doesn't like happens, and he doesn't hole out all of his putts.
Now, I'm okay with recreational golfers who pick up 3-footers and take mulligans, but if you are keeping a handicap, let alone a low one, let alone one that you brag about to your playing partners, PLEASE play the game by the rules!
I'm a 25.3 (not a "23 or a 26") and I hole out every putt and do my best to play by the rules and penalize myself appropriately when it is called for. I feel like the minority in that regard.
Thanks for reading my rant!