Golf Bandits

I got accused of being a bandit at my club when I was a student. My handicap at the club was 28 but I was a member of another clubat university and had worked on my game with the uni golf team. I got back home every summer and entered competitions and as I was winning them, got accused of being a bandit! I think you need to see what their situation is in a lot of cases. you have to get your handicap down somehow!
 
A lot of people get confused between 'rapidly improving new golfer' and 'person that keeps their handicap artificially high'.

The former is no problem, the latter should be shot.
 
What constitutes a bandit? I don't think that anyone with a club handicap can be called a bandit, if they are playing in their allotted requirement of competitions. There may be people protecting their handicap, but if they are protecting it, it means they aren't winning a lot of competitions, as they have to "throw away" shots here and there.

People with high handicaps play well, and if they come in with a silly amount of points (silly format), or have shot a decent NETT score, then fair play to them. Yes it maybe annoying, but it just means that I/You should have played better.
 
If someone goes and spens £300 on a course of lessons over the winter rather than buying a new driver and
works their nuts off during the close season on all aspects of their game....... then enters the first medal of the season
and wins by 10 shots I say good luck to them and it shows that hard work does pay off.
 
jonnyround said:
Surely if your Uni Handicap was lower than 28!! Then ???????
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I didn't enter competitions at uni, which is why it didn't go down. The local players didn't like us having discounted rates so we weren't welcomed in competitions. Plus everything with the uni team was played without handicap.
In the space of two semesters I got from being a hacker to shooting 77. I had a lot of time on my hands! People back at my club weren't too impressed for a few competitions but I hadn't set out to do anything wrong!
 
I was accused of banditry when I got my first handicap of 18, I'd had a few bounce games before joining and my 3 cards warranted 18 (one card was in the ninetys), I got down to 5 in the first season (havent really moved for the next 30+ years BAH!)
 
genius, so you will no doubt have got a big cut and more cuts after, so that your h/c was reflecting your scores. So what h/c are you off now?

Last season I played in a mid week medal and was jarred off at some of the antics of a handful of players. I saw a lot of piss taking, banter and some really stupid play out on course. I saw one guy try and play a driver from the rough ffs. I then find out that some members use the quiet mid week medals as a way of registering a bad score ......

Does my head in, so I only enter 3 comp's each season to keep my h/c current
 
Do not have any problem with rapidly improving players. My mate is a prime example of that happenig. Started April with a 25 handicap and was 17 in May. People say if they are playing enough qualifying comps then they are not bandits. Well I disagree because some people will paly enough qualifying comps to keep there handicap and maybe try and nick the odd 0.1 back, then all of a sudden go out and win one of hte big comps.
 
My mate is a massive bandit, and a proper bandit at that although it's really not his fault. He has been playing golf now for about 3 years, when we first joined our golf club in March 2011 he was given a handicap of 24 which was reasonable at the time. He finished Uni for the summer in 2011 and was playing 4 or 5 times a week, unfortunately, due to him having part time work at a supermarket at weekends he was/is never able to play in competitions so isn't getting his handicap cut. During last summer he shot a personal best 78, 7 over for our track. He instantly told me about it and I forced him to put the card in for a general play cut, which he did and was cut to 16 a massive 8 shots, but in truth I was hoping for a bit more.

Anyway, he goes back to Uni in September and doesn't play much golf at all throughout the winter, choosing to focus on his Uni work, fair play to him. He finished Uni this year in June and proceeded to start playing golf 4 times a week again, still playing off 16. I went out with him on a Friday evening about two weeks ago just to play a quick 9 holes, what I witnessed was nothing short of professional quality golf. He shot gross -2 through 9 holes!!! 29 points in 9 holes!!!! I was absolutely gobsmacked at the golf he was playing, seriously, it was that good.

I'm desperately trying to get him to come and play some competitions but the weekend job is literally the only work he has at the moment and he needs the money to see him through Uni etc so he's very reluctant to take time off, understandably, but you mention anything to him about getting his handicap cut and he doesn't like it at all saying things like "I think 16 is about right" etc etc.......not when you're shooting -2 through 9 matey!
 
swanny32 said:
My mate is a massive bandit, and a proper bandit at that although it's really not his fault. He has been playing golf now for about 3 years, when we first joined our golf club in March 2011 he was given a handicap of 24 which was reasonable at the time. He finished Uni for the summer in 2011 and was playing 4 or 5 times a week, unfortunately, due to him having part time work at a supermarket at weekends he was/is never able to play in competitions so isn't getting his handicap cut. During last summer he shot a personal best 78, 7 over for our track. He instantly told me about it and I forced him to put the card in for a general play cut, which he did and was cut to 16 a massive 8 shots, but in truth I was hoping for a bit more.

Anyway, he goes back to Uni in September and doesn't play much golf at all throughout the winter, choosing to focus on his Uni work, fair play to him. He finished Uni this year in June and proceeded to start playing golf 4 times a week again, still playing off 16. I went out with him on a Friday evening about two weeks ago just to play a quick 9 holes, what I witnessed was nothing short of professional quality golf. He shot gross -2 through 9 holes!!! 29 points in 9 holes!!!! I was absolutely gobsmacked at the golf he was playing, seriously, it was that good.

I'm desperately trying to get him to come and play some competitions but the weekend job is literally the only work he has at the moment and he needs the money to see him through Uni etc so he's very reluctant to take time off, understandably, but you mention anything to him about getting his handicap cut and he doesn't like it at all saying things like "I think 16 is about right" etc etc.......not when you're shooting -2 through 9 matey!
Click to expand...

any your club doesnt run any midweek comps?
 
We have some , they are well known , & dont seem to care about it .. one has recently won a big comp , nothing anyone can do , despite knowing it ..

Good story of our presidents a few years ago .. seemingly a bandit won it (avoiding liability with seemingly) the guy who was 2nd went up for his prize & the roof nearly lifted off the clubhouse with his reception .. guy who won went up , 4 or 5 people clapped , then a few more but no cheering or anything .. was realy obvious , no winners speech & no longer a member .. right or wrong ?
i dont know but the members finaly had their say even if it was through silence .. point made & message recieved
 
swanny32 said:
My mate is a massive bandit, and a proper bandit at that although it's really not his fault. He has been playing golf now for about 3 years, when we first joined our golf club in March 2011 he was given a handicap of 24 which was reasonable at the time. He finished Uni for the summer in 2011 and was playing 4 or 5 times a week, unfortunately, due to him having part time work at a supermarket at weekends he was/is never able to play in competitions so isn't getting his handicap cut. During last summer he shot a personal best 78, 7 over for our track. He instantly told me about it and I forced him to put the card in for a general play cut, which he did and was cut to 16 a massive 8 shots, but in truth I was hoping for a bit more.

Anyway, he goes back to Uni in September and doesn't play much golf at all throughout the winter, choosing to focus on his Uni work, fair play to him. He finished Uni this year in June and proceeded to start playing golf 4 times a week again, still playing off 16. I went out with him on a Friday evening about two weeks ago just to play a quick 9 holes, what I witnessed was nothing short of professional quality golf. He shot gross -2 through 9 holes!!! 29 points in 9 holes!!!! I was absolutely gobsmacked at the golf he was playing, seriously, it was that good.

I'm desperately trying to get him to come and play some competitions but the weekend job is literally the only work he has at the moment and he needs the money to see him through Uni etc so he's very reluctant to take time off, understandably, but you mention anything to him about getting his handicap cut and he doesn't like it at all saying things like "I think 16 is about right" etc etc.......not when you're shooting -2 through 9 matey!
Click to expand...

How about suplamentary cards or open comps? , is he not embarrased to be off 16 if he can play to maybe 5 ? how is he a bandit tho if he aint entering comps ?
My defination of a bandit is someone who pulls or purposely plays badly to get a string of .1's back in order to have falsely high handicap , then goes out in the big comps , plays correctly & wins .
 
bladeplayer said:
How about suplamentary cards or open comps? , is he not embarrased to be off 16 if he can play to maybe 5 ? how is he a bandit tho if he aint entering comps ?
My defination of a bandit is someone who pulls or purposely plays badly to get a string of .1's back in order to have falsely high handicap , then goes out in the big comps , plays correctly & wins .
Click to expand...
The problem is, I don't play all that much golf with him anymore so can't really keep an eye on his scores, the guy he does play with a lot has a "don't care" attitude so wouldn't force him to put in cards.

He's also not the kind of person to go and play in open competitions, he's a tight fisted bugger so doesn't like to pay to play golf elsewhere when he has his student membership at the club and can play there for free. Embarrassment doesn't come into it, he likes his 16 handicap and truly believes that is the correct handicap for him.
 
It just goes against the grain.... my sole aim (apart from enjoying the game with good mates) since I took this game
up is to get my h/c as low as possible and shoot the lowest scores i possibly can.

I'd rather be off scratch than have my name on the honours board in the club house half a dozen times.
Winning comps is nice but for me its always been me v par that is the biggest motivator
 
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