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Official OGBoards Golf Thread

I did something today I've never done before on a golf course - four birdies in a row. I know you guys don't particularly care (and I don't blame you) but I'm so happy I'm going to tell you about it anyway. I birdied the first four holes of my round. My club starts with a par 5, a 3, and two 4s. I went 4,2,3,3 to start my round. On 5, another par 4, I actually hit a pretty good drive and then gag-fatted a 7 iron into the front bunker and made bogey. I couldn't have made a 2 footer for birdie there as nervous as I was.

The bad news is that my Saturday group plays a points game - bogey=1, par=2, birdie=4. Shooting at a quota of 28, I made 40 points. I won first place money, but now my quota goes up to 34. It's going to be a long time before I see any money again.
 
In high school in a match against Harris English's team I went birdie, eagle, eagle then finished the ninth hole with a quad (out of bounds twice on a par 3). That was something.
 
Can't remember if I posted this before, but a buddy of mine who doesn't play golf got a call from someone to verify his handicap. He told them he didn't know what they were talking about - then his dad called him 5 minutes later to yell at him. Since they have the same name apparently his dad carries a handicap at his country club and another one for any tourney he plays elsewhere. He's around a 6 at his club and plays as a 14 in other member-guests and such.

The handicap system in golf has great intentions, and it's fine for friendly nassau matches... But it's a mess for tournaments - way too easy to manipulate.
 
Because people are assholes doesn't mean the system is flawed. LK and I got shafted by a sandbagger last year in his member guest. Beating me is ok. But do it fair and square.
 
DCDeac said:
Can't remember if I posted this before, but a buddy of mine who doesn't play golf got a call from someone to verify his handicap. He told them he didn't know what they were talking about - then his dad called him 5 minutes later to yell at him. Since they have the same name apparently his dad carries a handicap at his country club and another one for any tourney he plays elsewhere. He's around a 6 at his club and plays as a 14 in other member-guests and such.

The handicap system in golf has great intentions, and it's fine for friendly nassau matches... But it's a mess for tournaments - way too easy to manipulate.
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Oh man, that guy's dad is a dick. You should tell him that his dad is straight up cheater and probably fucked around on his mom.
 
So, the scores all came in, and but for those sandbagging motherfuckers, we would have won our flight. Those guys, who handicapped into the 5th flight, are now T6 overall. Money was paid based on the first two days.

However, the member guest at my partner's club (where the offending guest plays) happens to be next weekend. We plan to out him at the earliest opportunity possible.
 
BacktoBack said:
Because people are assholes doesn't mean the system is flawed. LK and I got shafted by a sandbagger last year in his member guest. Beating me is ok. But do it fair and square.
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Just to clarify - it's not just flawed because people cheat. It's flawed because it hurts better players. For example, if you're around scratch, you'll beat your index by 4 strokes about once in every 150 rounds. If you're playing a 15 handicap they'll have that same improvement once every 50 rounds. That same 15 can also turn in individual holes with a score of 7 or higher whereas the scratch player only gets to record a double bogey at worst for handicapping purposes - so even a "true" 15 can be a player good for the occasional quad on a par 3 and a couple other blowups but 6 or 7 pars. Then there's the problem with course ratings and how playing the tips for lower cap golfers deflates indexes.

Bottom line is that even without cheating, a player who knows they're always going to be a net player can very easily stick in the 13+ range and have a great shot at putting up 5 or 6 net birdies routinely. A player focused on gross scores in competition could win some nice cash on the mini tours with that kind of action.

Lots of tournaments try to account for this skew by altering to 80% of your index, 50% of you index, etc. Usually it doesn't really matter though - only really tough conditions can equalize the competition.
 
Several years ago, there were two guys at my club who were winning every two-man event we played. They played as a 14 and a 7 when in reality they were probably more like 9 and 3. The majority of their posted scores were from other courses ( a common method of cheating).

It finally got so bad that several of us approached the head pro and told him that if these two signed up for a tournament, the rest of us were going pass. The two cheaters finally left the club.
 
My partner and I were semi-jokingly accused of sandbagging when we won the member guest a few weeks ago. The reality is we are two guys that hit the ball a long ways and can birdie any hole but the doubles/triples that result from hitting a drive off the face of the earth in a real round don't hurt much in a match play best ball.
 
I take a lot of pride that the year I won the member guest at my club I did it playing off a plus 3 with a 0 as my partner, and we beat a team that had a guy who played in multiple US Opens.
 
Ended up finishing fifth in the 3rd flight (re-flighted after two rounds). A solid weekend of golf. Ran out of gas on the back nine today--legs turned to Jello. Must've had too much fun at the dinner/dance last night...
 
Liquid Karma said:
I take a lot of pride that the year I won the member guest at my club I did it playing off a plus 3 with a 0 as my partner, and we beat a team that had a guy who played in multiple US Opens.
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Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
 
Went to the range yesterday evening. Was knocking short irons all over the place. Driver was straight as an arrow.:confused::noidea::noidea:
 
On the subject of sandbagging... I played in our member guest for a number of years in a row with the same guest. He played very little golf during those years, maybe 5-6 rounds a year outside the tournament. He basically played those rounds just so he could send in cards to establish a handicap, since he wasn't a member anywhere. But, he was a good athlete and was teachable.
So, every year he would be given a big handicap based on the (terrible, but totally legit) scores he turned in - usually high twenties, sometimes even 30.

He would show up and we played 4 rounds - a practice round and three tournament rounds. Almost every year he would get better every round. I carried a very low handicap so my job was to make pars and coach him up. With the focus and coaching in the tournament, by the last couple of rounds he would be shooting awesome net scores and we almost always contended. The format (full handicap with adjustments to par each day based on what you shot) placed a premium on getting better every day.

I think we won our flight 3 times and finished in the top 3 probably 3 or 4 other times. Our playing partners were often heard muttering to themselves about his handicap - especially when he made 2 natural birdies in a row one year, with a shot on one hole and two shots on the other.

But then, he was also good for several holes each day where he was in his pocket.

One year he had a bad day in the second round and was in his pocket for the last 8 holes in a row. I managed to play those holes even par so it didn't kill us. I think he shot a net 63 or something the next day, though, on his own ball...

So, anyway, he was the last person in the world who would sandbag on purpose, but I am sure people thought he was sandbagging...
 
scooter84 said:
On the subject of sandbagging... I played in our member guest for a number of years in a row with the same guest. He played very little golf during those years, maybe 5-6 rounds a year outside the tournament. He basically played those rounds just so he could send in cards to establish a handicap, since he wasn't a member anywhere. But, he was a good athlete and was teachable.
So, every year he would be given a big handicap based on the (terrible, but totally legit) scores he turned in - usually high twenties, sometimes even 30.

He would show up and we played 4 rounds - a practice round and three tournament rounds. Almost every year he would get better every round. I carried a very low handicap so my job was to make pars and coach him up. With the focus and coaching in the tournament, by the last couple of rounds he would be shooting awesome net scores and we almost always contended. The format (full handicap with adjustments to par each day based on what you shot) placed a premium on getting better every day.

I think we won our flight 3 times and finished in the top 3 probably 3 or 4 other times. Our playing partners were often heard muttering to themselves about his handicap - especially when he made 2 natural birdies in a row one year, with a shot on one hole and two shots on the other.

But then, he was also good for several holes each day where he was in his pocket.

One year he had a bad day in the second round and was in his pocket for the last 8 holes in a row. I managed to play those holes even par so it didn't kill us. I think he shot a net 63 or something the next day, though, on his own ball...

So, anyway, he was the last person in the world who would sandbag on purpose, but I am sure people thought he was sandbagging...
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5 or 6 rounds a year doesn't yield a valid handicap. Your pro should have been all over that.
 
Liquid Karma said:
5 or 6 rounds a year doesn't yield a valid handicap. Your pro should have been all over that.
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So what do you do in that situation? You've got a guy that rarely plays and doesn't belong anywhere but you have to assign him a handicap. I have generally seen tournaments like this have submitting 5 scores as an alternate method of assigning one.

I always thought they should have keep his scores from year to year and figured them in when doing his handicap for the next year. That probably required too much effort and forethought.
 
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