Vanity handicaps. AKA Screw Balls

[club ho]

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

You mean the "oh, I don't know, just put me down for an 8" guys?  Lol.  Yeah, I know lots of those.  Regarding your last statement ... I'd tend to agree with you.  I do apply ESC on my rounds, and, in fact, when I was in the 9's and 8's was applying it too liberally.  I would take no more than a double, however, some courses/tees I played gave me 10 shots, which meant I should be taking 7's maximum.  WHoops.  Thing is, in the 10 rounds of my best 20, there were probably 2 or 3 strokes at most that I didn't count that I should have, so perhaps I should be a 7.1 instead of a 6.8 at this point.

At a single digit handicap, rounds that include 7's or 8's are likely not in your 10 best, for the most part, so I agree that you probably won't be affected much at all.  If it was me, I would still do it though, as I don't want to do anything at all that would give people any opportunity to call me a sand bagger. :)

My sunday group I play with has a great solution to this. We play team hole play. We play cumulative scores for the teams meaning to win the hole both players scores are combined. This forces each golfer to finish the hole. It really exposes the vanity handicaps.

[stevejason]

Yesterday I shot 37-38=75. My best ever nine/total. The back nine included two doubles

[Slicer219]

I consider myself just starting out as this is my second year playing and the first actually trying to improve my game. I keep a handicap strictly for the purpose of tracking my progress, not ready for any tournaments yet. I always have some really good shots but they are always mixed in with the miss hits and the drops that kill my score. I'm totally comfortable with my high handicap. :-)

[JonMA1]

Originally Posted by Slicer219

I consider myself just starting out as this is my second year playing and the first actually trying to improve my game. I keep a handicap strictly for the purpose of tracking my progress, not ready for any tournaments yet. I always have some really good shots but they are always mixed in with the miss hits and the drops that kill my score. I'm totally comfortable with my high handicap.

Same skill level and similar attitude towards my high handicap as you. I'll get better with time, but can't fake or cheat my way to a lower handicap.

[Lihu]

Originally Posted by carrx

..."So, an 8 then?" is my typical response to this guy.

My dad has a similar vanity handicap, he keeps his score meticulously, just chooses not to post scores that "don't reflect" what he thinks he ought to be scoring...needless to say, there are a lot of 105s out there that don't get posted.

I laugh, because one day, my son will be probably posting something similar to this one. Only hopefully, the number will be 90 rather than 105 )

[ApocG10]

I love playing people with Vanity caps. I give them less strokes tan they deserve, and win anywhere from 1$ to $5 dollars a stroke.

I also have a once a year 'High Stakes" game with very good friends, who are all at or near scratch, but one of them had to be replaced by a guy who has a vanity cap and is closer o a 5-6 than the 1hc he has listed. It was Ed and I VS Ron and a new guy, Terry, since his regular partner had a bad accident that spring and couldn't play at all during 2012. Terry is the Vanity capper, and we play 100$/Stroke, with 25 and 50$ side bets. Last year my partner Ed and I won 475$ each, after giving them each 2 strokes per side. Ron is extremely happy to have Kieth back for our game this July.

There was also the part where Terry didn't expect to have to pay, even though he knew the rules ahead of time. He paid, but after he put the cash in our hands, he walked off the 9th without shaking hands or even looking at us. And I mean, he knew the stakes beforehand, and initiated most of the side bets that he lost. giving them 8 (2 pwer side each)strokes between them, we sill won by 3 strokes, and made 175 in side bests. And why did they lose with an 8 stroke lead, because the vanity capper spent more time in the woods and water than the rest of us combined. To top it ff, he didn;t want to take penalty strokes for drops or provisionals, saying 'Thats not the way I play.", to which I answered, "Well, here we play by the CPGA/R&A; rules, I have an extra if you want to learn them." He got insulted, saying, "Its not me who isn't following the rules"... Just a bitter and bad golfer.

But at least I know who not to play with ever again.