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Tournament Madness

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JBJGolf

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So today I played in a small get together that had winners based in handicap. I (an 11.9) shot 14 over due to a few bad holes and well the pars didn't do enough. Anyway it wouldn't have mattered. My net 1 over would've still lost to the net 13 under. Yes. 13 under. Best round of the last 20 apparently.

Today was a "friendly" type tournament and I'm not angry or bothered but it made me think. How is a mid handicapper to low handicapper that plays and posts real scores ever supposed to win a tournament against that?
 
Your frustration is shared by thousands of golfers around the world. Net -13 is not something that can be competed against 99.9% of the time.
 
I went net -4 today with today's tourney format and was T6 against the winning net -12. There was talk about that afterwards, but I can see how he did it (older guy and high handicapper and if you played today's format correctly, it was doable).
 
Welcome to reality. I have no solution to offer but to look for tournaments that are able to dismantle this aberration, either by policing the handicap or by using a different format. If it was me I'd enjoy the game but won't keep my hopes up on winning, and maybe hope I'll win prizes in the raffle.

For me, the same goes in betting. If there's someone in there with a bloated handicap or is known to shave off a few strokes on the course, I'm out.
 
I'm a 18.1 but had a great day last week and shot a 85! BUT I do know sandbaggers are out there and have met many when I played pool in the APA
 
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goodearth said:
I'm a 18.1 but had a great day last week and shot a 85! BUT I don't know sandbaggers are out there and have met many when I played pool in the APA
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I did the same recently as 23 on the way to 18, not in a tourney, but it happens. now that said, your's and my scores would have netted out to 67, that's still miles away from -13...So I can see where the skepticism comes from!!
 
Anybody who has ever played handicapped golf in any tournament has always questioned the validity of handicaps. It happens. The only thing you can do is move on. If somebody is that empty inside that they have to sandbag their handicap, so they can win an amateur tournament, they need the trophy more than you.
 
Last weekend I played a decent field with 95 players. Various handicaps, from 6.8 (me) up to 18.4 in the "low bracket" and all the rest in the high bracket.

Serious wind, quite a wet course. I scored an 83, 34 stableford for 2nd place.
The overall winner came from the high bracket, with a posted 36 handicap. 52 (!!) stableford points on 18 holes. The organizers took 10 points of his score. And said they should probably take off more, then set his new handicap at 26 and told him that if he didn't turn in at least three qualifying cards before the next tournament he wasn't allowed to enter.

Seemed fair to me :)
 
This is the main reason why I generally avoid net events. Even if somebody does shoot a legitimate -10 net, there is no possible way for me to compete with that. Continuing on in playing those events is basically throwing away money
 
Floor-is said:
Last weekend I played a decent field with 95 players. Various handicaps, from 6.8 (me) up to 18.4 in the "low bracket" and all the rest in the high bracket.

Serious wind, quite a wet course. I scored an 83, 34 stableford for 2nd place.
The overall winner came from the high bracket, with a posted 36 handicap. 52 (!!) stableford points on 18 holes. The organizers took 10 points of his score. And said they should probably take off more, then set his new handicap at 26 and told him that if he didn't turn in at least three qualifying cards before the next tournament he wasn't allowed to enter.

Seemed fair to me :)
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Had a similar result from someone at my home club last year, who scored 50 stableford points

Now I know my golf is improving, but that would be the equivalent of me shooting a gross 72 and there is no way I am managing that anytime soon. By the time I manage to shoot a round of level par (assuming it does ever happen) my handicap will be considerably lower than the 14 it is at the moment
 
On Monday, I played in my dad's club's Independence Day tournament. One of the guy's nickname is 5 for 3. You can't make this up. Between his handicap and my dad and I both playing well, we had the lowest net across the three flights. Ol' 5 for 3 Watkins doesn't lose a lot.
 
I'll play net events because I suck.

But I'll stay away from playing them again if it's clear the committe won't take action against the obvious baggers.

Too many are afraid to take a tough stance, but if you do and the event(s) get a reputation of being run fairly then they can be awesome.

The baggers will also stay away. But I see it even at private courses. Known sandbaggers participate in club events and the club doesn't do anything about it.
 
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