Are You a Vanity Capper?

[iacas]

Answer the poll. 😄

[Darkfrog]

Answered "I don't know".

I play by the rules of golf, keep score correctly, and submit all my eligible scores.  But when a round goes sideways early, I'll tap out and take the opportunity for on course practice. So during periods when I have really struggled, the likely should have been more high scores on my card. On the flip side, perhaps there weren't enough for them to be counted in the scores that are used to determine index anyway. So I don't know if this is a vanity cap behavior or not.

I don't play enough competitive golf to know how I perform against my index in these situations.

[billchao]

I was originally going with definitely, yes, but thinking about it some more, maybe? I know I don’t always drop where I’m supposed to (most of the time for pace of play reasons) and it can add up to a couple of strokes here and there. But then I don’t think most of those rounds count towards my handicap anyway.

I also stop counting my score after NDB and just mark that down on the scorecard. There is the possibility of double digit scores on holes if I were to play in a stroke play tournament.

I know I don’t feel like I’m as good as my handicap so that makes me feel like a vanity capper. Actually I know I’m not as good as my handicap right now because I only have two rounds out of eleven played this year counting towards my handicap.

[Zippo]

Definitely not! I started this season as an 18. I’m at 23 right now. If I’m a vanity handicapper I’m definitely doing it wrong. 

[JuanTheGolfer]

I only post scores to GHIN when I am playing with someone else who can verify it.  I do play LOTS of practice holes, and when I travel I often end up going out as a single.  None of these are in my HCP calculation.  Seems to me having a vanity HCP only makes a person feel good, it never helps in competition.

 

[Golfingdad]

On the sliding scale between vanity cappers and sandbaggers, I definitely lean towards the vanity end of things slightly.  I'll take liberal gimmes occasionally on a length of putt I deep down know I should be forcing myself to make as one example.

Additionally, I've played all of 2 times since last October so it's really a vanity cap now I'm sure.  🙂

[ChetlovesMer]

1 hour ago, billchao said:

I was originally going with definitely, yes, but thinking about it some more, maybe? I know I don’t always drop where I’m supposed to (most of the time for pace of play reasons) and it can add up to a couple of strokes here and there.

On that same vein or in this case vain (see what I did there?) This past Wednesday during golf league night, I hit a 3 wood approach on a par 5 and to me and the guy in my cart it looked like it should be close but not on the green. We rolled up and hunted around for it for a little less than 3 minutes. The damned thing vanished. I play the Srixon Divide for the specific reason that it is easy to see. But no dice. So, I went back near as I could to where I hit the shot. Dropped a ball as near as I could reasonably figure to where I hit the previous shot. Then I hit it up short right of the green and played on. 

So, here's the funny part. The guys in the group behind me were losing their minds. Shouting "What the F---!" and basically carrying on like emotional children. My cart mate was like "What's wrong with them?" I didn't know. I guess they were angry about pace of play. But it was in fact the first hole of league night. And we hustled right along. They never caught up to us again. 

I was talking to another guy in league about it and he says "Yeah, a lot of guys just drop the ball about where they think their ball should have been, take a stroke and play on." Correct me if I'm wrong but if you hit it and can't find it, that's stroke plus distance, right? 

I think a lot of folks are vanity cappers and they don't even know it. 

[billchao]

1 minute ago, ChetlovesMer said:

I think a lot of folks are vanity cappers and they don't even know it. 

In a league? Like tournament play? That’s not vanity capping, that’s cheating.

[ChetlovesMer]

1 minute ago, billchao said:

In a league? Like tournament play? That’s not vanity capping, that’s cheating.

Ding! 

Best part, we have a rules meeting at the beginning of each season. We play in teams paired up with another team. Funny how many guys won't call out rules violations on other guys. 

[Shindig]

I get nervous when a casual round is looking to be a high score because I don't want my handicap to go up.  Maybe I am an aspiring vanity handicap player.

[jshots]

22 minutes ago, Shindig said:

I get nervous when a casual round is looking to be a high score because I don't want my handicap to go up.  Maybe I am an aspiring vanity handicap player.

Thats funny I think I am the same. I want to have a low handicap and if I have one of my counted scores about to be knocked out of my revision scores I feel a bit extra pressure.

I actually have to admit last year one of my competition scores got double posted (by me and then a week later the club posted it) and I have never had them remove it. Probably lowers my handicap by a quarter stroke or something.

[Big Lex]

When I first got a handicap back in the early 1990s, I definitely was a vanity handicapper. At the time, I didn't know it was required that you post every score. Now I am a faithful poster. 

But my handicap should still probably be a little higher than it is. This is from matches where maybe I'm out of the hole, and I pick up because my completion stroke(s) would be meaningless to the match. I believe the rule is you are supposed to write down what you think you would have scored if you hole out. I'm not sure I always estimate this correctly

If I pick up with a 20 footer, left, I generally assume a 2-putt. But of course there will be some 3 putts if you putt out. And what do you do with the 5-8 footers? Count every other one as a one-putt? Anyway, in this arena, I think overall I probably don't add enough strokes. I don't chalk it up to vanity, though. I plead guilty to vanity in some areas of my life, but not in golf. 🙂 

 

[Hugh Jars]

In Australia only rounds played in formal competition count towards handicap so fudging scores and submitting them, or choosing to not submit scores really isn't possible. Your scores are marked by playing partner, and this is mostly done using a formal Golf Australia scoring app. You can't play a round with your buddies and choose to put your score in or not. And you certainly have to play to the exact rules - no gimmes or mulligans or preferred lies...

But I've played with Americans overseas with handicaps I really have questioned. Like a couple of apparent 12 handicappers I played with in Bali who literally couldn't get the ball in the air, making the day slow and frustrating. There's also some videos going around of apparent low and mid handicappers who could get round even near 100 on Random Golf Films. There's one with a 14 handicapper who shot 140+ at Pinehurst (I think) who seemed to severely lack some basic fundamentals. Even Erik Anders Lang himself claims to have a 4 handicap which I definitely question. Its weird because these guys kept complaining they're not used to playing to full rules. 🙃

While everything I've submitted towards my handicap has been played to the exact rules in formal comp, I have a couple of scores where I shot 44 and 39 stableford points at a reciprocal course to my home club that I thought played a lot easier than it's slope rating. These rounds still count towards my handicap and I feel they might flatter my ability to an extent.

Edited July 22, 2022 by Hugh Jars

[GolfLug]

Not a chance. I would lose a lot of money at the club.

[iacas]

5 hours ago, Big Lex said:

And what do you do with the 5-8 footers? Count every other one as a one-putt?

Yes.

And EAL is a cavity cap. I think he’s up to 5.6 or so now.

[bkuehn1952]

9 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

I was talking to another guy in league about it and he says "Yeah, a lot of guys just drop the ball about where they think their ball should have been, take a stroke and play on." Correct me if I'm wrong but if you hit it and can't find it, that's stroke plus distance, right? 

I think a lot of folks are vanity cappers and they don't even know it. 

Your league should adopt model local Rule E-5.  When you have a situation as you describe, one determines approximately the point where the ball was lost or went OB.  Then one drops roughly laterally in the fairway with a 2 stroke penalty.

Alternative to S&D Model Local Rule.pdf (usga.org)

[bkuehn1952]

I am definitely not a vanity handicapper.  To people who don't know us, however, many of us appear to be vanity cappers at times.  A lot of players are unaware that someone with a 10.0 index only shoots a score of 82 or lower around 20% of the time (assuming a course rated 72.0 with a 113 slope).  In my role as handicap chairman, I often field questions that demonstrate how little most people know about the USGA Handicap System.

People that play in a lot of "net" events eventually learn that there is little benefit in having an unrealistically low handicap index.  Those that don't catch on become donors.

 

 

[ChetlovesMer]

6 minutes ago, bkuehn1952 said:

Your league should adopt model local Rule E-5.  When you have a situation as you describe, one determines approximately the point where the ball was lost or went OB.  Then one drops roughly laterally in the fairway with a 2 stroke penalty.

Alternative to S&D Model Local Rule.pdf (usga.org)

That would be acceptable to me. However, our league has specifically NOT adopted that rule. The last two years at the rules meeting and in the handout which is sent to every player. The league takes special care to point out that rule is NOT in effect. They try to make it very clear. It is stroke PLUS distance. 

Our rules committee has gone to great lengths to remind folks if you think your ball might be OB, you should hit a provisional. 

That being said, there was no OB on this particular hole. So, I had to go back and replay. 

To your point, however, if our league did adopt the local rule you mention, I feel it would be better because then we'd have a chance at getting folks to take a 2 shot penalty, rather than the 1 shot they are currently giving themselves. 

I will say this. I think its working. Last year it felt like every other group we played would try to drop a ball where their ball went OB and take a one-shot penalty. This year it has been a lot rarer. Most everyone has learned that if you go OB, you must take a stroke and replay the shot. So, maybe our rules committee is actually getting through to people? Perhaps in a couple of years we'll get to the point where the players in our league at least understand the OB rule. Then in a few more years maybe we'll get to the point where they understand the lost ball rules. 

Personally, I don't think either the lost ball or the OB rule are that confusing. But I'll bet you a dime to a donut that a large percentage of golfers misapply them. ... either by accident or on purpose. 

1 minute ago, bkuehn1952 said:

People that play in a lot of "net" events eventually learn that there is little benefit in having an unrealistically low handicap index.  Those that don't catch on become donors.