How many different leagues do you play in?

[Sante TwoGloves]

I have never been part of a league. I like to spent my money playing as many different courses I can. Many of the avid golfers I know play in 2,3, even more leagues. Just wondering how many here do that as well and was curious if you see much difference in your hcp from league to league and why do you think if you do?

[DrvFrShow]

I will say this - I was thinking about joining a second league at a course I play a lot before I hurt my shoulders. Now the odd thing is that the way I play this other course is longer and has few if any hazards on the right hand side of the course, whereas the other course has many.

If I dunk balls in the water on my home course which is rated way easy I will score like a 95-96 in each round. I will score 95 on the more difficult higher sloped course with no hazards and this will lower my handicap. I take the left hand side of the course out of play usually, so I've come to the conclusion that next year if I want to do the lower by 5, I should join a different league and change home courses. lol.

[Grumpter]

I play in 2 leagues and the only difference I see in my handicap would be based on the course slope. Both leagues use scores kept on GHIN for handicaps. Even with 2 leagues those rounds only account for about 20% of my play throughout the year. Plenty of opportunity to play other courses and it has increased the overall number of rounds I get to play per year significantly.

If you are thinking of joining a league but want greater variety then maybe try to find a 27 hole course that switches to a different 9 each week?

[zero]

I'd like to join a league but can't find one in my area (SW Washington). Any ideas/websites for finding one?

[Grumpter]

I'd like to join a league but can't find one in my area (SW Washington). Any ideas/websites for finding one?

I didn't have any luck on the internet when I started looking. Both were emails I received for being on the courses mailing lists. Otherwise I would suggest talking to someone at the course directly.

[Dave2512]

I joined two this year and won't again. My goal was to meet people thinking I'd make a few friends and expand my group of playing partners. What I soon learned is golf leagues are like high school cliques comprised of mostly middle aged cheaters. One I played just three weeks and the other maybe double that. My experience has been most guys join leagues with existing friends and stick to their regular groups. The few times I made a time to play with random 3somes I was treated like an outsider. I've played with guys that walked right by me like I was a stranger the next week. No kidding I played with a guy that asked me for a biz card saying he'd call me to play again and caught him on the course a few days later as a single and he acted like he'd never met me before. He actually asked me to play through and we were the only two people I could see.

This is where the cheater part is worth mentioning. I thought the vibe would be more social but apparently people take the winning part seriously but not enough to play it straight. I've seen mulligans, gimmies and guys do stuff like put their name on the long drive marker after jacking one OB and playing their third shot. If a stranger is with them it makes it tougher to cheat.

Never again.

[zero]

Wow, that does NOT sound like fun.

[Pretzel]

I play in one golf league that I have been a part of for the last three years. The league itself is organized through my dad's employer and consists of about 30-40 people from his work.

Comparing my league handicap to my official handicap, there is quite the disparity. This is because for the league rounds I usually just head to the course and maybe hit a couple of putts to get the green speed for a round. My official handicap is composed almost solely (18/20 scores) of tournament rounds that I made sure to warm up and prepare properly before. I had a league handicap of about 1 to 1.5 for nine holes compared to my official handicap of 1.0 for 18.

The league I just played in for fun and to make some connections in the engineering world that I could potentially leverage after graduation for employment. I wasn't too worried with how I golfed, but I certainly had a lot of fun going out every week and playing with a familiar group of people. It was a nice contrast to my usual solo or tournament rounds.