I'm continuously baffled by how much people care about handicaps.
First of all, it's completely obvious that a huge percentage of golfers have fraudulent ones and always will. We all know those guys. They aren't even particularly ashamed by it. If you care about winning a net event, you'll either be perpetually disappointed, or you'll have to rig your own index. I was at a club once and the same guy would win the net club championship every year. He was very proud of it and not at all embarrassed.
Secondly, is it really that great to win something on a net basis? The only way that I could see that being at all satisfying would be if I had a close friend and we regularly played against each other and wanted to keep it interesting. But even then, it would just be humoring each other and an overall casual affair.
My advice is to dial down your care level to the 1 out of 10 range. Just try to enjoy your rounds or try to actually improve your game. I think that it's a disease to feel like you have to keep track of every score in casual rounds of golf just so that your handicap is valid.
Peter,
You’re certainly entitled to your feelings on this. But you might go easy on considering keeping track of and posting scores to be a “disease”.
For those of us that play competitively, an index is a requirement, plain and simple, and that’s true even of club tournaments; no established USGA index, no entry. I play in some state level tournaments where you have to have a single digit index to get in, even to qualifying rounds. Even in casual play at most courses, games among buddies for a $6 Nassau, or points, or one gross/two net games, not to mention match play, just can’t function without indexes. And I doubt many players would be satisfied with the guy who wanted to participate but considered valid handicaps a disease.
I’m an outlier on this board where endless complaining has become the order of the day; I actually like the GHIN system, and I’m glad that the USGA and the R&A continue to tweak it. I absolutely, unequivocally disagree with the idea that there is rampant sandbagging and gaming the system; I see VERY little of that, despite having every opportunity to see it if it’s out there. Vanity handicaps are common; sandbagging just isnt.
I also happen to take pride in winning the net division of competitions I’m in; it’s one of the truly unique things about this game I love so much in that it gives me, at age 71, a chance to compete against guys that are decades younger and who hit the ball miles farther. And playing closer to your handicap under the gun than anyone else is a valid reason to feel some pride.
We have a guy in our regular $6 game who is 86 and can only hit a tee shot 120 or so. He plays the front tees, and he’s getting a lot of shots, and NOBODY begrudges him his winnings. The alternative of gross play only would make him just a lonely old man playing by himself, instead of being part of a group of younger, better players and then sharing a beer and some laughs after.