Are we all playing off scratch or should we start the handicap wars now? 🤔
As a seasoned BUDAite, you should know that the handicap wars are always reserved for the night before competition.
True, but the first salvos are typically fired in these pages.
To kick-off the process, I've been fighting a left groin-area pull all year, limiting my ability to get through the ball (Mr. Shackelford will verify scores of 90 and 88 on an easy, short course in optimal conditions). In the name of sportsmanship and fairness, a two stroke upward adjustment to my 4/15/18 index seems reasonable.
Re: USGA handicaps (jumping off Niall's comment), starting this year, scores for rounds played alone (without a marker) cannot be posted. There was a lot of discussion that if golf is a game of honesty and integrity, this change was unnecessary. In fact, some of the changes in the rules effective in 2019 actually rely more on the honesty of the player, so the new handicap rule did not seem to make a lot of sense.
I learned recently from a person involved in these matters that the 2018 handicap change was the USGA's somewhat reluctant concession to the R&A and other associations to achieve universality. Since many if not most American players post their own scores (and outside of formal competitions, cards are seldom exchanged or signed), I suspect that posted rounds actually include unqualified scores, not that it should make much difference.