Do you enter a score every single time you play?

[Shorty]

So the general consensus is yes.  I get the idea, but to me that means you take every single round super serious.

I can't see the relationship between playing by the rules and being "super serious".

Is stopping at traffic lights and wearing a seatbelt a hindrance to enjoying driving a car?

In over 40 years of golf I have yet to see how playing by the rules lessens enjoyment or slows down the game. And I don't mean some idiot not hitting a provisional and then walking back to the tee on a packed course.

The people who think that DJ missing a four footer on a crappy green is a "brain fart" are the ones who take gimmes from that distance and think that NOT giving someone a tricky short putt is being "super serious."

[Lihu]

First a disclaimer. I'm not trying to be judgmental, or confrontational, or passive/aggressive. But I've been around a lot of handicap tournaments, seen my share of folks who "managed" their handicaps. Most clubs would say you play, you post a score. You are supposed to play by the rules anyway. Practice is for the range, the course is for playing, most all the time. If someone in the proshop sees you out playing, and you don't turn in a score, someone will ask you about it.

I'm sure folks here have good intentions, but all these comments about high numbers of practice rounds, reasons not to post a round, (and these are full rounds) are all the reasons used by vanity cappers and sandbaggers to massage handicaps. Again, I'm not accusing anyone of anything, I don't even know you guys, and I know you all mean well, but most every handicap committee would have serious issues with what you are doing, and folks with legit handicaps who post their scores are either going to be licking their chops (vs. vanity handicappers) or refusing to play at posted handicaps (vs. sandbaggers). If you just figure your own handicap with an online app, that's cool, but recognize it isn't being done like a USGA approved handicap would be done, and shouldn't really be compared to one.

While I do agree that counting every round seems like a reasonable thing to do, but there are possibly better reasons why it could really backfire. When you think about it, if you force everyone to post every single round, and some of them play every single day. Realistically, what are the chances that those daily players will play worse than what they state? Like anyone really enjoys suffering through rounds every single day where they play like crap? Now, add to that the fact that their handicaps will change every 20 days or less of playing. Unless you have someone watch and monitor all the putts that they miss, you have no idea what handicap they are "producing". In these cases, posting every single round makes it much easier to manipulate a handicap.

Plus, I don't really care about people who vanity cap it doesn't cost me a penny.

[RickK]

Nope, I do not.  I go out a lot in the afternoon and it is nothing but on-course practice.  I may hit different clubs from the tee boxes, drop a couple of balls and play them in for 2nd or 3rd shots.  I do not consider those official rounds.  Also, I may have a couple of different drivers in the bag or maybe a different 6 iron along with my normal 6 iron, same for wedges.  So, I may have 16 or 17 clubs in the bag.  I am out there usually by myself.  I may play anywhere between 9 and 18 holes.  For it to be an "official" round, I would  need to be trying to do my best and play only 1 ball throughout. So, again no I do not.

[MyrtleBeachGolf]

Lol.  It's funny, seems like most assume that people would be more apt to not report a bad score than a good.  I'm the exact opposite.  Besides the situations I mentioned, I post everything, but it's the good scores that I would prefer not to report than the bad... I don't and will never understand vanity 'caps.  When I go into a tourney I'd MUCH rather play as a 12 than a 9, etc.

I just post every single round and let the USGA system figure it out. Obviously it's not going to take into account my bad rounds, so there's no reason not to post them all. It gives me a true measure of my golfing ability.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoundandFury

Lol.  It's funny, seems like most assume that people would be more apt to not report a bad score than a good.  I'm the exact opposite.  Besides the situations I mentioned, I post everything, but it's the good scores that I would prefer not to report than the bad...

I don't and will never understand vanity 'caps.  When I go into a tourney I'd MUCH rather play as a 12 than a 9, etc.

I just post every single round and let the USGA system figure it out. Obviously it's not going to take into account my bad rounds, so there's no reason not to post them all. It gives me a true measure of my golfing ability.

I think your average score would be a better indicator of your golfing ability. Handicap is your potential, which is something like 1/4 of your scores.

[Jim Ludden]

So let me get this straight, only post scores where it's "real" golf? What about when your playing a round and it starts raining? It gets wet and maybe soft around greens and in the fairway. You chunk some chips, hit some fat due to the conditions which causes a higher score. When you post GHIN doesn't ask you if it was wet or windy, etc. this all means it's golf. Take the good and the bad, post it. It will give you your true ability to play the game. Your true potential

[DaveP043]

I agree enthusiastically with a couple of the posters here.  Like fourputt, I don't see any reason why you can't play reasonably serious golf, by the rules, and still have an enjoyable time.  Having fun is easy, and trying to do my best on every shot is second nature.  I also play some golf with my wife, and that's always competition.  On our recent trip to MI and WI, I kept track of a match on every round, and we had a 2-2 split, and it was hard work!  It was also a blast.  I post every qualifying round, and there are very few situations other than some funky competition (we just had a shamble at our club) make it a non-qualifying round.

[SoundandFury]

So let me get this straight, only post scores where it's "real" golf? What about when your playing a round and it starts raining? It gets wet and maybe soft around greens and in the fairway. You chunk some chips, hit some fat due to the conditions which causes a higher score. When you post GHIN doesn't ask you if it was wet or windy, etc. this all means it's golf. Take the good and the bad, post it. It will give you your true ability to play the game. Your true potential

What about when you're trying different clubs and hit the same shot a few times to get the feel?  Or what about when you play night golf with glow balls?  The best answer is to declare it a qualifying round or not.  I don't think anyone would disagree that there's no changing one's mind halfway through or even after one hole.  But the idea that you absolutely have to score the round every time you step up to the tee is silly and antiquated.

[No Mulligans]

I sometimes play on a executive course that are not listed on the USGA course rating/slope database (Lomas Santa Fe Exec.).  I don't post those, they represent less than 10% of my rounds.  I've used swing-by-swing app for my handicap calculation in the past and they assigned some bogus rating/slope to those rounds which miscalculated my HI and made it too low.  I now use the web site Diablo Golf which seems to do a good job (but I always check the rating/slope on the USGA database and make corrections if necessary).  I don't post the Lomas Santa Fe rounds there either as I don't see the point (and don't know how that site would handle it).

When I'm playing on a USGA rated course, I post every round.

[oregongolfguy]

I post every round I play....Sometimes I experiment with what I am doing such as hitting driver on a hole I usually don't and such.....but to me that is just part of golf and I am still going to post the score.  As someone who doesn't play during the week I need to post all I can anyways.....

Only exception is a few times a year when I get out late on a weekday evening or something when the course is empty, I might "play" 9 holes and hit couple balls on each shot etc...true on course practice.  But that rarely happens for me.

I know that the handicap committee pays pretty close attention to our postings....I had a horrendous round a couple weeks ago...embarrassingly bad.  OB all day long off the tee, a bunch of shanks with wedges, bad putting etc....I posted the score and got a call from the committee a week later double checking to make sure that I didn't make a mistake posting the score because it was so high...

[Lihu]

I post every round I play....Sometimes I experiment with what I am doing such as hitting driver on a hole I usually don't and such.....but to me that is just part of golf and I am still going to post the score.  As someone who doesn't play during the week I need to post all I can anyways.....

Only exception is a few times a year when I get out late on a weekday evening or something when the course is empty, I might "play" 9 holes and hit couple balls on each shot etc...true on course practice.  But that rarely happens for me.

I know that the handicap committee pays pretty close attention to our postings....I had a horrendous round a couple weeks ago...embarrassingly bad.  OB all day long off the tee, a bunch of shanks with wedges, bad putting etc....I posted the score and got a call from the committee a week later double checking to make sure that I didn't make a mistake posting the score because it was so high...

Even the software complains. . .

[MyrtleBeachGolf]

I think your average score would be a better indicator of your golfing ability. Handicap is your potential, which is something like 1/4 of your scores.

I'm using the term 'ability' to mean 'potential'. I'm certainly not using it to mean average.

[MrFlipper]

Not offended at all (being offended just means you can't control your emotions), just disagree.  If you're posting on this thread, or you follow this site, you're likely more passionate about golf than the majority of people out there.  And you take the game seriously.  I just think there's a time and place for it (which is most of the time, just not all the time). There's not reason in my mind you have to strictly follow USGA rules every single you step foot on a golf course.  Sometimes it's just about being outside and hanging out with your buddies, not lining up 2 footers.

You can still (briefly) line up 2 footers and still move along and be fun to play with. Doing the tournament grind on a Saturday round with your buds isn't required for a postable round.

My only comment on this is that I don't have access to a range that is not on both turf and flat enough to gauge something like how far I hit different types of wedge shots, or deal with sidehill, downhill, uphill shots (of which my course has a lot, even in the fairway).  For hitting drives, shapes of shots or general working on your swing, I would agree.   If you are doing swing changes or trying to correct something, they wouldn't delay a tournament so you have to go out with what you have.   However, there are some things, at least where I play, that I can only go out on the course and get information on.

And the pro shop where I play advises this as well, so I assume that the handicap committee would be fine with it.   With the caveat that you don't have a one per week "practice round".   Of course, you can also go to a specific spot when it's not busy and work on this as well, and only do that.

Sure sounds reasonable. Doesn't sound like anything that could be abused to massage a handicap.

While I do agree that counting every round seems like a reasonable thing to do, but there are possibly better reasons why it could really backfire. When you think about it, if you force everyone to post every single round, and some of them play every single day. Realistically, what are the chances that those daily players will play worse than what they state? Like anyone really enjoys suffering through rounds every single day where they play like crap? Now, add to that the fact that their handicaps will change every 20 days or less of playing. Unless you have someone watch and monitor all the putts that they miss, you have no idea what handicap they are "producing". In these cases, posting every single round makes it much easier to manipulate a handicap.

Plus, I don't really care about people who vanity cap it doesn't cost me a penny.

If you have a USGA handicap you have to be willing to play by the rules to get a legit handicap. Doesn't matter how often you play. If you play like crap, or play well, your handicap will reflect that. You are what you are. There is always a part of golf that expects folks to do the right thing on their own. Hopefully handicap committees just help honest people stay honest. But if I have a match with someone who plays 18 holes every day and posts only one score a week, I'm going to be pretty dubious that their handicap is accurate, maybe it is, but odds are it's not. That's where the handicap committee has to step in and make sure that the handicap rules are applied equally to everyone. Starting with posting all your scores.

And I think its a huge stretch to say that there is more manipulation of handicaps by folks who play a lot and post all scores than by those who don't. You shoot what you shoot. If anything, someone who plays a lot has a more accurate handicap for their current skill level. Someone like me who plays maybe twice a month still has scores from last year in their handicap calculation, for better or worse (could go either way)

[Jim Ludden]

What about when you're trying different clubs and hit the same shot a few times to get the feel?  Or what about when you play night golf with glow balls?  The best answer is to declare it a qualifying round or not.  I don't think anyone would disagree that there's no changing one's mind halfway through or even after one hole.  But the idea that you absolutely have to score the round every time you step up to the tee is silly and antiquated.

Sounds like practice to me and not a round of golf if hitting the same shot over and over. Night golf with glow balls is a event, hit and giggles. If you want to declare a practice round and work on stuff, do so, but when it becomes a practice round when you decide your not playing well that's another story. If you have any quality of a HC committee and do this more than 1-2 month your going to get called on it.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

I think your average score would be a better indicator of your golfing ability. Handicap is your potential, which is something like 1/4 of your scores.

I'm using the term 'ability' to mean 'potential'. I'm certainly not using it to mean average.

Potential is not your current golfing ability , though. You need to take the good with the bad.

I have about about 4.2 strokes between ability and potential. On topic, when I include all my practice rounds which I record in a spreadsheet with all my scores, the average score is identical. This is obviously because my average score tells me how I play on average.

The OP clearly wants to play rounds that do not count because he wants to practice without feeling guilty about it. This is a totally valid thing to do. It prevents inflated scores from getting posted. It's more honorable than posting a score when you hit 2 8i (for practice) onto a 310 yard par 4 and shooting a bogey when with a driver/wedge could be a tap in par or birdie.

If you have a USGA handicap you have to be willing to play by the rules to get a legit handicap. Doesn't matter how often you play. If you play like crap, or play well, your handicap will reflect that. You are what you are. There is always a part of golf that expects folks to do the right thing on their own. Hopefully handicap committees just help honest people stay honest. But if I have a match with someone who plays 18 holes every day and posts only one score a week, I'm going to be pretty dubious that their handicap is accurate, maybe it is, but odds are it's not. That's where the handicap committee has to step in and make sure that the handicap rules are applied equally to everyone. Starting with posting all your scores.

And I think its a huge stretch to say that there is more manipulation of handicaps by folks who play a lot and post all scores than by those who don't. You shoot what you shoot. If anything, someone who plays a lot has a more accurate handicap for their current skill level. Someone like me who plays maybe twice a month still has scores from last year in their handicap calculation, for better or worse (could go either way)

The ROG clearly state that you must play to the best of your ability to reduce the number of strokes. If you hit 2 8i on a 310 yard par 4 as in my example above, you are clearly not doing that. Thus you are breaking the rules.

[Jim Ludden]

You can still (briefly) line up 2 footers and still move along and be fun to play with. Doing the tournament grind on a Saturday round with your buds isn't required for a postable round. Sure sounds reasonable. Doesn't sound like anything that could be abused to massage a handicap. If you have a USGA handicap you have to be willing to play by the rules to get a legit handicap. Doesn't matter how often you play. If you play like crap, or play well, your handicap will reflect that. You are what you are. There is always a part of golf that expects folks to do the right thing on their own. Hopefully handicap committees just help honest people stay honest. But if I have a match with someone who plays 18 holes every day and posts only one score a week, I'm going to be pretty dubious that their handicap is accurate, maybe it is, but odds are it's not. That's where the handicap committee has to step in and make sure that the handicap rules are applied equally to everyone. Starting with posting all your scores. And I think its a huge stretch to say that there is more manipulation of handicaps by folks who play a lot and post all scores than by those who don't. You shoot what you shoot. If anything, someone who plays a lot has a more accurate handicap for their current skill level. Someone like me who plays maybe twice a month still has scores from last year in their handicap calculation, for better or worse (could go either way) :-)

I agree that people who play often have a better representation of their handicap and are less likely to manipulate. I play 300+ rounds a year and post the good, bad, and ugly. Guess what, my HC doesn't fluctuate more than 2 strokes. So the system works

[Patch]

No, not every time. Some days we are out there just goofing off.

[caniac6]

I play 9 holes almost every day. Occasionally I'll get talking, and forget, but I intend to enter every score.