I wasn't suggesting that Larry sandbagged. I was wondering how accurately the handicap system captured his golfing ability. Not all that long ago, he was a mid-single-digit golfer.
I've been very reluctant to weigh in here, but I thought I would provide some relevant info, along with my own opinions.
Streelman shot -13 for the tournament by making 15 birdies, 2 bogeys, and 55 pars. That is about as good as a pro partner can do, not only contributing 15 birdies, but also parring virtually every other hole, leaving his erratic amateur partner a lot of leeway. Basically, LF only needed to contribute on 26 out of 72 holes (36%).
- As a team, they shot 58 (-14), 60 (-11), 68 (-4), and 60 (-12).
- Streelman contributed 7, 2, 2, and 4 birdies
- Leaving LF to make 7, 9, 2, and 8 stroke contributions
- By my rough math, this means LF shot approximately (depending on how many birdies/doubles+):
- 83-86 in round 1 (9.6-12.0 diff at spyglass)
- 80-83 in round 2 (9.1-11.8 diff at MPCC)
- 88-91 in round 3 (14.3-16.9 diff at PB)
- 80-83 in round 4 (7.4-10.0 diff at PB)
For a guy that plays 80% or more of his golf from Feb-Aug, who has proven 'potential' to be a low/mid single digit player, but just recently finished his 6 month golf "off-season" I don't see how this is crazy. It isn't sandbagging, in my opinion.
Brian, I don't know much about handicaps, but I believe you made some mistakes above. In particular, I think Larry's lowest possible scores (in theory) are way less than you figured.
First, I read Larry was given a course handicap of 13 for the tournament. Doesn't that mean he got strokes on 13 holes? If so, he could have parred all 20 of the holes he got no strokes on. That leaves 52 holes in the 72-hole tournament.
The team finished -41, and Kevin finished -13. So Larry had to contribute -28. I believe he made one net eagle. That means he made par (net birdie) on 26 more holes. Leaving 25 holes (52 - 26 -1).
Kevin made 15 birdies. If every one was on a stroke hole for Larry, Larry could have parred all those as well.
That leaves 12 holes where Larry shot above par. If each was a bogey, he could have averaged 3 over each round. (Actually a tad less due to the eagle.)
I doubt it happened that way, but isn't low-to-mid 70s the best-case scenario for Larry's scoring? Or did I make some mistakes or overlook something?