I haven't posted in years but this thread has held my interest.
I've never belonged to a private club, I've been a public player with a
handicap for about 15 years. I think overall the handicap system is
fairly effective, and like most things its the bad apples spoiling the
lot for the majority of us that know and play by the rules.
The weakness of the handicap system is not the way a club/course is set
up (tees forward/back etc.) but it's mostly human issues. I think Don's
post hits one major problem on the head. A little education would go a
long way, particularly around the equitable stroke control. I would
like to see the systems force people to post hole by hole scores since
the system could then calculate ESC by itself. People could still cheat
of course but at least even inflating their scores the ESC score would
still be the basis for handicap.
I would love to see more basic education available to players - basic or
common rules that are often misunderstood and how to adjust your score
to post it.
I play with a lot of friends, none of whom have a handicap nor do they
want one. I don't play anyone for money unless I've seen them play
before to know their ability (and truthfulness on the course). I also
ignore my friends when they tell me how they just broke 80, 90 or
whatever, when I know they play mulligans at will and don't know how to
deal with lost balls & hazards properly!
Jen
Don M wrote:
I've belonged to 3 clubs. In each one, members entered their own scores, and
there was never any effort to police the system. No education was given to the
golfers about score entry either. It was all totally self-service. If someone
wanted to sandbag, they could. The clubs didn't do any handicapped tourneys,
so it never really came up in a setting where the club could do something about
it.
I think this is fairly common. That's why I think the handicap system is
untrustworthy.
-Don
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