Net Tournament BS - what do you think should be done?

[chriskzoo]

Believe it or not, I ran into a situation in which the committe was completely wrong and falsely accused a player of sandbagging. Here is the setup - happened to a friend of mine in the Golf Association of Michigan Net Amateur yesterday/today.

Golfer's index: 10.8
Course Rating: 71.4
Course Slope: 133
Equitable handicap: 13

So my buddy goes out on Day 1 and shoots 81, net 68 (-3) and the tournament chair accuses him of sandbagging, claiming that his differential for that round was over 5 below his handicap and that he would be adjusting his handicap to 10 for the following day. My buddy is not happy, but accepts and goes home thinking he has a 2 stroke lead going into Day 2.

So we arrive today for the final round this morning and look at the score sheet - not only did they adjust his handicap to 10, they made it retroactive to Round 1, giving him a net 71, putting him 1 shot out of the lead. Not happy at all, he asks some of the tournament people and they say that they had never seen a retroactive adjustment like that, but it was a new policy they put in this year. Long story short, my buddy again tells the tournament chair he is pissed off, proceeds to shoot 89 today and ends up well back due to his new 10 handicap.

Now the kicker: I go home and look up the USGA policy on exceptional tournament scores and realize that his differential for Round 1 was 8.2, which is 2.6 below his index. According to the USGA, a round is not considered "exceptional" unless it is more than 3.0 below your index and you still need TWO such rounds in order for a handicap adjustment to be put in. My buddy has played 3 other GAM tournament rounds the last two summers and hasn't broken that 3.0 difference yet (i.e. he has ZERO exceptional tournament rounds).

I wrote a letter to the GAM today explaining the situation and wonder what you guys think? I told them they owe him both an apology and a refund for the final ($100). Obviously my buddy won't be playing in any more GAM events, and rightly so in my book.

Oh, did I mention that the winner, a 10 handicap, shot 70, 68 (-4 overall) and they didn't question a thing.

[golf_junkie27]

I'll venture to guess that the winner knows some folks running the tournament?

If they were to adjust his scores, they should have used the rule book and not "guessed." They should have looked this information, as you did, and shared it with your friend while he was still on the course.

This reeks of BS. The "I'm going to take care of this" attitude without following the rules and notifying the player of full intentions while he is on the course is just wrong and unprofessional.

Since this was a $$$ tournament, did they bother to ask for and check official handicap cards?

[chriskzoo]

I'll venture to guess that the winner knows some folks running the tournament?

It was not a money tournament - it is run by the Golf Association of Michigan and uses your official USGA handicap (lowest index in last calendar year). It's really a travesty because they were using some wrong calculation for differential, but then what pissed me off is that they don't even question the guy who shoots 4-under because "He has played in a lot of our tournaments and we have history" while they question that my buddy has only posted 9 rounds this year. OK, Michigan golf, May was our first round of the year and he has two small kids - is one round every other week that out of the ordinary to look like you're sandbagging and not posting scores?

[Fat Slice]

That sounds like a really shady/crappy organization. People who are lazy/cheats/stupid shouldn't run tournaments.

[golf_junkie27]

It's really a travesty because they were using some wrong calculation for differential, but then what pissed me off is that they don't even question the guy who shoots 4-under because "He has played in a lot of our tournaments and we have history"

If you're running a tournament you should never get a calculation wrong. That information should be in front of you and cut and dry.

The fact that these people allowed this 10 handicap to go without notice and worse, use that quote as their reason, reeks of BS. I would write a letter to the President of the Michigan Association and notify him of this. Your friend should fight to get his money back.

[alf174]

Chris, copy the USGA on any correspondence, something stinks.

[mhodar13]

It gets old hearing about this chickenshit bullshit with these half assed handicap score adjustments. If you shoot. 68, you shoot 68. If you shoot 78, you shoot 78. That simple. You didn't see Tiger getting penalized Saturday for shooting 62 did you? Albeit he is at a much higher level, but that's still about 5 or so less than the scores he usually cards. That really sucks for your friend, if I were him I wouldn't be paying to participate in any of that organization's events again. You shouldn't be f'ing penalized because you had a good day out there. If all they're gonna do is adjust the score to players' handicaps, then why even bother having them play? Just put the handicaps in order and there ya go. Dumbarse handicaps. Nobody can shoot the exact same score every time they play. That's not consistent, that's just being OCD about scoring. Sorry for the rant.

[tjy355]

Sounds like the GAM might be run by the UAW.

[rebby]

I know that I won't be in the majority on this one but, here goes... This is one reason that I'm not a big fan or the handicap system. I never have been. People manipulate their handicap all the time, up and down. For some, they want a higher handicap so that their net scores improve. Others think a low handicap is some sort of phallic symbol that proves they are a man. Either way, it's a no win situation.

Now, I'm not naive enough to think that we should do away with the handicap system. It's is a necessary evil, there is no way around that. Furthermore, there is little that we can do to improve the integrity of the handicap system and, as a result, there will always be cases of "questionable handicaps" in tournament/league play.

When I was a kid (about 10), I took over the league scoring system for my local men's club. They basically needed somebody to do data entry and scoring for their weekly league, including their playoffs. All scores were, of course, net based and immediately I noticed a huge number of very low net scores (as low as 26 on a par 37!). My next move wasn't a popular one at first but it did do away with the sandbagging, I began to calculate a "league handicap" that was based on all of your league scores. This "league handicap" was not used in any calculations but was printed next your name and your official handicap on everything. It became painfully obvious who was bagging and who wasn't and, interestingly enough, the net 26's went away rather quickly. Turns out, at the end of the day, that "dumb computer kid" knew a thing or two about math and peer pressure, even amongst adults. To this day the club still calculates a "league handicap" (using the same software I wrote for it nearly 20 ago!) and prints it next to every player's name and official handicap. Handicap wise, it's one of the fairest leagues you could play in and the race to the playoffs is always a tight one.

Any day of the week however, I'll always prefer straight up play. Go out and play the course, do your best. I couldn't care less if my net beats your net. Maybe that's because I don't play for money though?

[chriskzoo]

I know that I won't be in the majority on this one but, here goes... This is one reason that I'm not a big fan or the handicap system. I never have been. People manipulate their handicap all the time, up and down. For some, they want a higher handicap so that their net scores improve. Others think a low handicap is some sort of phallic symbol that proves they are a man. Either way, it's a no win situation.

We all know that handicaps can be BS, but that is why the USGA has a Rule in place (Rule 10 in the hanidcap Manual) to account for exceptional tournament scores. Essentially, if you have TWO tournament scores that have a differential more than 3.0 below your index, there is a calculation that can be done to adjust your index.