Handicaps, what percentage are actually correct?

[Everardo]

At the beginning of 2006 season our club changed it's handicap policy and will only use tournament scores to calculate a player's handicap.

• A player must have 4 tournaments in order to have a valid handicap.
• If a player doesn't have 4 tournament scores then they will only be eligible for Gross scoring

This helped eliminate a lot of sandbagging and seems to make everyone happy.

[iacas]

At the beginning of 2006 season our club changed it's handicap policy and will only use tournament scores to calculate a player's handicap.

I wouldn't like that. I rarely play tournaments (because I'm not good enough to win low gross, nor bad enough to win low net). That's lame.

[Fourputt]

At the beginning of 2006 season our club changed it's handicap policy and will only use tournament scores to calculate a player's handicap.

My club has done this for several years now. We had a member who was a shameless sandbagger, but he was an early retiree, so while he was still young enough to play a good game, he was also free to play anytime he wanted. As a result, even when the handicap committee di a manual adjustment, by the next tournament he had enough scores returned to inflate it again. After he won more than $1000 for 3 years running, the club switched to tournament scores only, and he immediately quit the club. Sandbagging hasn't been an issue since.

[ipark1303]

Yes, sorry to deviate the discussion a bit... but what happens when you have tournaments where they calculate the scores through the "callaway" system?

Do you think that the callaway system is correct?

Does it reflect your handicap precisely?

IMO, handicaps have their flaws. I admitted that when I was younger and in Europe (the system differs a lot), I had a higher official handicap and I took advantage in 2 tournaments... but right after the second tournament, I felt that I was just cheating myself... so I stopped playing tournaments.

Now, I have a 7.0 handicap and 2 years ago, I participated at a Korean tournament (my first and last!).

Well.... you never want to play those ones, because everyone cheats.

There were people who said that their handicap was 28 and they play 79-80.

There were others who said that their handicap was 2-3 and they play 90 and over.

The guys in my foursome were playing winter rules from everywhere (too bad it was middle of August!!!) and were placing the ball

The guy who won had a declared handicap of 12 and he scored 71 (-1)!!!!!!!

By now, you should know what I think about handicap...

[chingali]

I'm from Australia and our handicapping system is quite good so I'd have to say that down here 95% of handicaps (Australian Golf Union) are true and accurate reflections of a players ability. The other 5% consists of golfers who are sandbaggers (don't play to their ability to inflate their handicaps).

Those trying to maintain a "vanity" handicap find it impossible because if you DNF and don't hand your card in they put .1 back on to your handicap anyway, the same as if you had shot 20 over your handicap. The only way possible to maintain a vanity type handicap would be to only play on days you were playing well, and you never can tell that beforehand can you!

Something to keep in mind regarding our AGU handicaps, a lot of golfers down here are members of an AGU affiliated club (the only way to have an AGU handicap) and will play 20+ members competition rounds a year. In fact to maintain your AGU handicap you have to hand in at least 5 competition cards each year.