i'm new to tournament golf....
i am playing what i thought would be a reputable tournament club.
i am currently playing to a 9 index.
am i wrong in thinking that it seems 8-12 h'cappers should probably not be shooting even par?
seems like almost every tourney (played from an average of 6500 yards) it takes even to win my flight.
personally i haven't ever broken 76 and i am wondering if the slide in the sport is due to...

"cheating"?

i hope to learn something from this discussion, but right now i unferstand why so many people don't play organized golf.

thanks for all responses

former bowler

The major flaw in the US handicap system uncovered. This could never happen in Europe or down under as they use a different handicap system.
Two options:
- live with it
- sandbag yourself

Just keep in mind, YOU gotta live with it.

Forgive my ignorance, what is the handicapping system in Europe?

Only scores from tournaments count toward your handicap. With weekly and monthly medal games it's easy enough to do here in Europe. Not to say there is no sandbagging here in Europe, but it's a lot harder to go back up once you hit the jackpot (only +0.1 per handicapped round played over your handicap).

There has been a rule change recently giving tournament organizers the option to disallow any participants with 4 or less handicapped rounds in the last year. Maybe the USGA should do a similar move to only count tournament scores for selected tournaments with expensive prices or great prestige. Let the rest of the sandbaggers do as they wish, just make sure the prices go to those who deserve 'em.

So what do you do if you're playing in your first touranment? Since you don't have an established handicap, are you just a scratch?

The Golf Assoc of Michigan does a pretty good job. They take your lowest handicap over the last 12 months for tournament play, so there's none of this trying to jack up your cap right before a tournament going on. However, it doesn't prevent anybody from posting incorrect scores.

I played in an amateur tour last year in which you started with your USGA handicap, then built your own "tournament" handicap just for use with that tour.

There's nothing preventing a player from playing like crap in 4 touranments to jack up his handicap, then playing his best in the 5th. I think most people would be happy to win 20% of the tournaments they play in.

Well, here in Germany you always start at 54, then you work your way down by using the Stableford system. Every point above 36 net points reduces your handicap by 1 shot. Below 36 the steps get reduced to 0.5 and finally at 4.4 you'll only go down 0.1 for every shot below your handicap. If you're playing badly, shooting higher than your buffer zone you go up 0.1. So if you're a 36 and shoot 50 net points your handicap goes down to 29, and so forth. It would take you 70 tournaments to get back up to 36!
On the other hand, if you lose your game or get injured you'll stand no chance with your too low handicap and that's probably the only flaw the european system has.



I guess there's just nothing that can be done about that.
But that`s why using a moving average (as the USGA system does) is suboptimal. It's not totally bad given the tournament frequency situation and therefore probably the only viable option.

If your club is truly reputable and the handicap committee is doing their job, the players shooting low scores will be adjusted downward.