How do you spot a sandbagger?

[Mr.Buckethead]

I think I might have played with one today. He plays at a 13 handicap and dropped a 79 in the first day of a tournament on a course he said he has not played in a long time.

[Garthmo]

That is possible, I was a 11.5 handicap when I shot my best round ever in a tourny 77 to place second. Best time to do it, not like you can plan when to shoot well or when not to...

[Doctorfro]

I was sporting an 11 handicap about 14 years ago and during our practice round for the member-guest I shot a 76. During the Calcutta that night my team went for a fortune. Over the weekend I played well but not near the 76 I shot during the practice round. I had several people addressing me with the "S" word but that went away by the end of the weekend.

To spot a sandbagger? If he's dropping low numbers in more than one tourney then you've got your man. Don't trust him after that. Especially if he's a high capper shooting around 80 or better. That just stinks.

[iacas]

  Mr.Buckethead said:

I think I might have played with one today. He plays at a 13 handicap and dropped a 79 in the first day of a tournament on a course he said he has not played in a long time.

Where would he fall on this chart?

http://www.usga.org/playing/handicap...eanstable.html "13" handicap could be a 13 index or a 13 course handicap, and who knows what the course rating and slope were... it may not be too far out of line.

[RickPro]

  Garthmo said:

That is possible, I was a 11.5 handicap when I shot my best round ever in a tourny 77 to place second. Best time to do it, not like you can plan when to shoot well or when not to...

whoa you took second place shooting 77.

where do you play your tournaments? i can really clean house there. 77 won't get you far here.

[iacas]

  RickPro said:

whoa you took second place shooting 77.

I think he meant gross. 77 off 11 is a net 66.

[RickPro]

  iacas said:

I think he meant gross. 77 off 11 is a net 66.

oh man in that case my new handicap is 36

[klaymon]

I think one way to tell is if you can find out how long this person has been playing. I've been playing 10 months and I'm a 22.4 HCP, but I've shot the following three scores in the last 3 weeks: 85, 84, 82.

I think golf has a steep learning curve and if this guy has not been at it long and is starting to post lower scores, it could be he's be doing what I've been doing: working like hell on his game. You better be damn sure about what you say to someone if you're going to call them out for sandbagging. I'm not saying he is or isn't. I'll tell you this: if you called me a SB, I'd come unhinged on you because I know I've been doing the honest thing (like posting my new super-low scores right before the tourney week).

If you suspect something, go to his handicap committee or your tourney coordinator and ask them to look into it.

[Mr.Buckethead]

He is a 13 course handicap. 11.1 index. I looked him up on GHIN. The last tournament he played in he posted a 76-91.

Had he not double bogeyed 18, an easy par 5, he would have shot a 77. The more I think about it, the more I think he might have tanked the last hole to keep it from looking fishy.

On the popeofslope charts, the guy had something like a 1 in 600 round.

[GaijinGolfer]

If the person is right-handed and has a deep tan on his/her arms, neck and face, but their left hand is pale as could be and they claim they dont play much and suck at golf, but still want to play for money; you've got yourself a sandbagger.

[FlopShotArtist]

  TitleistWI said:

If the person is right-handed and has a deep tan on his/her arms, neck and face, but their left hand is pale as could be and they claim they dont play much and suck at golf, but still want to play for money; you've got yourself a sandbagger.

hahaha, nice one. It's like that quote "Never bet with a man on the first tee with a deep suntan, squinty eyes, and a 1 iron in his bag.

[Mr Eagle]

My society has safegaurds to protect its members from Bandits.
You cant win a competition at your first attempt and anyone found cheating is shot.

To date we have not had any sandbag invasion

[Garthmo]

  RickPro said:

whoa you took second place shooting 77.

well ya but it was with the adjusted score with my handicap that did it. With the adjusted score I shot a 65.

[Garthmo]

  RickPro said:

oh man in that case my new handicap is 36

Now that's a sandbagger

[julius06]

I just played in a tournament where the format was 5 nine hole matches across 5 flights - fully handicapped. My course handicap at the time was 20 and my partners was a 5 putting us in the flight with the 25 -35 combined cappers. One pair in our flight had a combined 34 and the guy with an 18 shot under 40 in all but one of the matches. At one point - he had 3 consecutive birdies for net eagles. Their 4 match point total was higher then any other team's 5 match total. Lot's of people complained, but nothing was done. It stunk - we finished second and beat them 5.5 to 3.5.

[HotBite]

  Mr.Buckethead said:

I think I might have played with one today. He plays at a 13 handicap and dropped a 79 in the first day of a tournament on a course he said he has not played in a long time.

I'm a 12-13 handicap...but if I shot well, 79 wouldn't be out of the question...

[cvlngineer]

That doesn't really sound too far fetched.

I was an 11, but shot a string of rounds at 72-78-78-83-77. My handicap started going down at that point. I only average 33% GIR, but on those days I just hit more greens.

[RX Phoenix]

  Mr.Buckethead said:

I think I might have played with one today. He plays at a 13 handicap and dropped a 79 in the first day of a tournament on a course he said he has not played in a long time.

It could be a case of 'horses for courses'. Probably not a SB, 79 for a 13HC is very much in play on any given day or course. And as a poster mentioned, how long they have been playing is important. Players who end up with low HC go through a phase of sometimes scoring low, other times going high, their not as consistent with their scores as someone who has played a long time.