Do I have a vanity handicap?

[Shindig]

My scores at my home courses have been improving. When I play at Rancho Park (69.7/117), Knollwood( 68.1/118), or Woodley Lakes (70.5/117), I have no trouble posting a good round. I've broken 90 at all three courses and regularly shoot in the low 90s at all three.

All this is good for a handicap of around 20.

I realize I'm going to score higher at a course when I play for the first time, even if I play with people that play it regularly. But my last two rounds at new courses were abysmal. Vineyards (71.2/127 - I played from the blues since they're shorter than Woodley's white tees. Oops, that's part of it) was 106, good for a 31 differential. Arroyo Trabuco (69.3/125) was a 103 (posts as 100 after ESC, due to a 9 and a 10 that became snowmen).

Seven and Ten shots above my handicap at those courses. Whoa! Is this normal, or is it possible that the low scores at my home courses are a form of vanity handicap? I don't take mulligans (don't need 'em, especially not at home) or gimmes.

[jwnolefan]

This would seem to be purely a sign that you are more comfortable at your home course. As you should, you have more knowledge and should play better there than on a new track... A vanity handicap is more the opposite of a sandbagger... if you aren't inputting artificially low rounds at your home course, then no- you do not have a vanity handicap...

[Dent]

Almost everyone who has a membership Posts consecutive good scores at their home course, goes somewhere else, and shoots 10 strokes above their handicap.

One thing I love about not having a membership (1 of 2 things ) is that Normally play 3 courses, and am currently shooting a little higher than my handicap. (8.5, 8.2, 9.1) on them.

[meenman]

We all do it - on occasion i will play a course thats much easier than my home course and the first couple of times I played there my scores were same as my home scores were.

Of course I know this other course is where I will probably break 100 first if I keep playing there once a week.

[iacas]

I personally feel as though one of my home courses - Lake View - is over-rated (literally, not in terms of how good the golf is). The slope is too high.

Of course, that doesn't affect me very much at 2.7, but it does have a big(ger) effect on others. 18s who travel and shoot +25 or whatever.

I think there's something to be said for getting to know your home course and being more comfortable there, but the courses you played (one had a slope of only 127) aren't exceptionally hard, so I'd look inward to see if you can find the answers.

Is your home course over-rated? Maybe, but probably not. Do you get extra nervous? Do you spend the time to learn the speed of the greens before going out? Do you think your way around the course the same as you do at home (or at least as close as you can, by using a course map and local advice if available)?

I'm usually pretty close to my handicap when I'm away. I use my laser range finder frequently because I want to know carry yardages and things, particularly off the tee. Sometimes a bunker might look 220 but it's 260, or vice versa.

[cbe_golfer]

The course I play has a slope of 126 from the green tees I play from. I am tending to do better at the relatively easiercourses I was playing last year. I am knocking on par's door more often there now. These numbers must mean something or its a confidence thing..dunno.

[Shindig]

  jwnolefan said:

This would seem to be purely a sign that you are more comfortable at your home course. As you should, you have more knowledge and should play better there than on a new track... A vanity handicap is more the opposite of a sandbagger... if you aren't inputting artificially low rounds at your home course, then no- you do not have a vanity handicap...

Yeah, the scores are legit. Well, that's good to know.

  Dent said:

Almost everyone who has a membership Posts consecutive good scores at their home course, goes somewhere else, and shoots 10 strokes above their handicap.

Yeah, I don't really have a membership so much as there's one city course I play more than any other course, so I consider it "home."

  iacas said:

I think there's something to be said for getting to know your home course and being more comfortable there, but the courses you played (one had a slope of only 127) aren't exceptionally hard, so I'd look inward to see if you can find the answers.

On flat putts, I tended to have speed about as accurate as I'd have it at home - not great, but not missing by 10+ feet either. On the other hand, elevation changes in the greens threw me - there were greens that looked flat that evidently weren't, and I'd leave it way short. I know this happened a few times.

For the latter of the two playings, I played with a friend who plays there regularly, and he gave me lines off the tee. Another thing that threw me is water, and I think I didn't get it into my head how these affect my game plan. It's one of the reasons I need to find a course with more water to play more often - I'd do stupid things like going for the front of a par-3 green when the pin is front but the green is water-guarded. This cost me several strokes. So, largely, it's mental mistakes, which makes sense. New situations, brain doesn't adapt as quickly. I'll need to be conscious of this when making game plans in the future at new courses.

  iacas said:

I'm usually pretty close to my handicap when I'm away. I use my laser range finder frequently because I want to know carry yardages and things, particularly off the tee. Sometimes a bunker might look 220 but it's 260, or vice versa.

In both cases, the friend I played with had a range-finder, and in the latter case, the cart also had GPS. And knowing the distance helped me, but I still needed to plan for it.

Alright, I'll try to put the proper planning into effect next week. I'm playing Empire Lakes, which I've never played before, but I did attend a NWT event there last year, and I can still picture the outline of the course. Thanks for the help!

[MrSandman]

Keep in mind that your handicap is not your average score over par. It is your top 50% of scores. If you're a 20 handicap, then your best rounds should average about 20 over (the rating or par or some sort of combination of both). If you are a 20 handicap, then 50% of your rounds should be above 20 over, and 30 over in 5 or 6 of your twenty most recent rounds is not unusual at all.

I'm around an 8/9 handicap. I frequently go out, shoot something in the 70's, and the next day or even later that day throw out something in the high 80's, even going above 90 now and then. That does not make my handicap too low, as my top half of rounds are usually around 8 or 9 over par.

I am inconsistent at my handicap, and it is a goal of mine to become more consistent, but there is a lot of work I have to do to create that consistency. You may be in the same boat.

What was your handicap last year? Have you made rapid improvements. Sometimes when you hit a "breakthrough" that causes your handicap to drop 4 or 5 shots in a month or two, you still carry some of your bad habits from before. So while your good rounds are better, thus your handicap is lower, you still have the ability to revert back to some of those stinker rounds and post a higher score. I had stopped playing for years after being a 5'ish handicap in the 90's, and last year I remained constant at a 12 handicap. This year, I have seen a rapid drop, as I am more consistently shooting in the 70's. However, my bad rounds are still as bad as they used to be as a 12 handicap, which is something I have to work on eliminating. This is opposed to somebody who has been playing at the same handicap for a few years, and has developed a consistency with that ability, but has not made any major improvement to the maximum potential of their good rounds.

[iacas]

  MrSandman said:

I'm around an 8/9 handicap. I frequently go out, shoot something in the 70's, and the next day or even later that day throw out something in the high 80's, even going above 90 now and then. That does not make my handicap too low, as my top half of rounds are usually around 8 or 9 over par.

You may be. I encourage you both to check out your "anti-handicap" (it's in Scorecard and you can calculated it elsewhere). The closer that is to your handicap, the more consistent you are.

[MrSandman]

  iacas said:

You may be. I encourage you both to check out your "anti-handicap" (it's in Scorecard and you can calculated it elsewhere). The closer that is to your handicap, the more consistent you are.

Sorry, I don't really understand what you are saying. Anti-Handicap? It is in "scorecard"? Where is scorecard located? GHIN page?

EDIT: So I looked up what anti-handicap is. Don't know how to calculate it, though. My 10 worst: 1. 21.2 2. 20.2 3. 20.1 4. 19.1 5. 18.3 6. 15.6 7. 15.4 8. 15.2 9. 14.7 10. 14.4 Total = 174.2 (avg = 17.5) My 10 best (comes out to a 7.8): 1. 3.6 2. 6.8 3. 7.4 4. 7.6 5. 8.2 6. 8.5 7. 8.5 8. 9.7 9. 10.1 10. 11.7 Total - 82.1 (avg, 8.2) But I'm a 7.8? I guess the slope drags it down another half stroke? So would my anti-handicap be around the 17 mark? It appears my middle ground is: 6. 8.5 7. 8.5 8. 9.7 9. 10.1 10. 11.7 6. 15.6 7. 15.4 8. 15.2 9. 14.7 10. 14.4 Total = 12.38 (avg = 12.4) Surprised at the gap between 11.7-14.4.

[mikelz]

I love the guys that do.

[sacm3bill]

  MrSandman said:

Total - 82.1 (avg, 8.2) But I'm a 7.8? I guess the slope drags it down another half stroke?

No, the .96 multiplier brings it down to 7.8 - slope is already accounted for when the indexes were calculated.

Your antihandicap would be 17.5 * 0.96 = 16.8

[Shindig]

  MrSandman said:

What was your handicap last year? Have you made rapid improvements. Sometimes when you hit a "breakthrough" that causes your handicap to drop 4 or 5 shots in a month or two, you still carry some of your bad habits from before. So while your good rounds are better, thus your handicap is lower, you still have the ability to revert back to some of those stinker rounds and post a higher score.

Actually, this is a very good point. Last year at this time, I had played maybe 5 regulation rounds and had yet to break 100. In fact, I had only one round under 110. This may well explain a lot!

  MrSandman said:

This is opposed to somebody who has been playing at the same handicap for a few years, and has developed a consistency with that ability, but has not made any major improvement to the maximum potential of their good rounds.

Which explains why a buddy of mine seems to always have low 80s/high 70s (11 handicap) and yet my consistency isn't there.

[iacas]

  MrSandman said:

Sorry, I don't really understand what you are saying. Anti-Handicap? It is in "scorecard"? Where is scorecard located? GHIN page?

Do yourself a favor and buy a copy of

Scorecard . Click the ads you see on this site to save 20%. Anti-handicap is simply the 10 worst differentials, not the 10 best.

[MrSandman]

I want to buy scorecard, but my cpu at home is all messed up so I am waiting for a new computer. Don't want to do it at work.

I like the idea of anti-handicap, and I think it is a good measure of consistency.