Have you ever played with a known handicap cheat?

[Beezerk]

Golf is supposed to be one of the most honest sports there is, not playing in that way is just wrong.

Ha ha really?

 

[gopher99]

We've got a group of low handicappers who no longer play in the Saturday comps as they don't see any value in handing over a fiver for a comp they can't win! Our Div 1 in comps goes up to 10, this doesn't help! They put their fivers in the hat and play for that between themselves for it.

This is very true, I have got my handicap down to 3.4 and I have no chance in our stableford or swindle comps. Last Sunday I had a pretty decent knock of 36 points, and came last out of our 4ball. There was a 12,19 and 25 handicapper in our group, i just play for fun and enjoy the company of those around me. What it does help me to do is play in some decent open comps, I am hoping to play in open comp at Royal Dornoch in Sept.

 

[Deleted member 25172]

I never knew what to make of this scenario:

Someone I know got into a spot of bother at the club with the members, because he essentially openly admitted to duffing a chip on the 18th on purpose to avoid a handicap cut.

It was the day before he had a knockout match, he entered a supplementary card and as it was on WHS, he knew his handicap could not go up.

However, he played so well that he calculated walking up the 18th that he would end up getting cut 2 shots. He effectively made a 6 instead of a 5, to avoid that happening.
his argument was that basically he wasn’t required to enter a supp score, he did so voluntarily and he could not receive an increase for the match the next day, only a cut. However, he wanted his handicap to come down a shot at a time, and he can’t be accused of manipulating his handicap because if he was, he’d be submitting general play scores to do that (his general play scores were generally good).
my advice; don’t admit anything like that to the members ?

If admitting manipulating the system on purpose cause you don't like the outcome of your score isn't cheating then I don't know what is. If something like this happened at my club I would've like to see the person suspended and/or disqualified from all comps for some time.

 

[Depreston]

This is very true, I have got my handicap down to 3.4 and I have no chance in our stableford or swindle comps. Last Sunday I had a pretty decent knock of 36 points, and came last out of our 4ball. There was a 12,19 and 25 handicapper in our group, i just play for fun and enjoy the company of those around me. What it does help me to do is play in some decent open comps, I am hoping to play in open comp at Royal Dornoch in Sept.

not quite as low as you but last sat a 26 handicapper shot net 66 as did a 8 handicapper the 8 handicapper shot level par back 9 and was beat on the countback

i'd have been gutted

 

[SteveW86]

Ha ha really?

I believe it should be, the game as we play it is essentially self policed. I do accept that there are many people who dont play the game honestly.

 

[Beezerk]

I believe it should be, the game as we play it is essentially self policed. I do accept that there are many people who dont play the game honestly.

Yes, I think honesty is the image actively portrayed by most golfers be it pro or amateur. Got to be honest though, since I took up golf about 8 years ago I’ve never seen such levels of cheating in a sport.

 

[woofers]

They do but with the My England Golf app there are ways round it. From the point of registering your intent, you only need to wait two hours before you're allowed to submit the final scores. Therefore someone could in theory play most of their round, register in the app around the 14th hole or something, then having stayed for a couple of drinks after the round, enter the card just before they leave the car park.

Whatever you do there will be a way around it, unless there's a human being verifying the start and finish I guess.

My understanding is that a General Play round needs to be attested and verified by a playing partner, wherever it is submitted, be it a card or via an App. So, in the case of registering around the 14th hole, the playing partner is complicit in the ‘deed’, (fraud) by accepting the verification of the score. They should (probably?) know that the intent has to be registered before play commences. So, we do have a human being verifying the start and finish, just not an honest one.

 

[Orikoru]

My understanding is that a General Play round needs to be attested and verified by a playing partner, wherever it is submitted, be it a card or via an App. So, in the case of registering around the 14th hole, the playing partner is complicit in the ‘deed’, (fraud) by accepting the verification of the score. They should (probably?) know that the intent has to be registered before play commences. So, we do have a human being verifying the start and finish, just not an honest one.

Of course, but they'll just get a mate to do it won't they. Have heard a story on here of someone enlisting an attester who didn't even play with them that day!

 

[Springveldt]

Ha ha really?

Of course. Have you not noticed the amount of "class acts" that play on the PGA Tour each week.

 

[Old Colner]

My understanding is that a General Play round needs to be attested and verified by a playing partner, wherever it is submitted, be it a card or via an App. So, in the case of registering around the 14th hole, the playing partner is complicit in the ‘deed’, (fraud) by accepting the verification of the score. They should (probably?) know that the intent has to be registered before play commences. So, we do have a human being verifying the start and finish, just not an honest one.

I see a possible scenario where there is no mention of a General Play score being submitted, if all is going well, take out your phone while strolling down the 14th fairway and sign in, then at the end of the round just give your playing partner the old, 'Oh sorry bud, almost forgot can you just attest this score for me, many thanks'.

 

[IanM]

This is old ground.

I can key rounds at my nearest course without even leaving my armchair... all it needs is someone to verify. I can even sign in using my wife's account and do it myself.

At least the old system required you to play the competition. My club used to refuse general play cards if they were out of sinc with performance in comps.

All my 20 scores are comps. As are the 20 before it. None of my PPs put in cards from general play. Saturday and and Wednesday are qualifying days, anything else is recreational.

The Handicap Police need to sort out the disparity in application of process. But they won't. (Or can't)

Spookily I recently saw another member who had a nightmare on Saturday, put in a general play card the following day, for 4 better than handicap. I wonder if it actually happened?

 

[IanM]

Talking to my wife about this after I posted.

Ladies Section at her club now insist on a email to the ladies handicap sec of your intention to put a card in. I wonder if they check the time of email to the starting time that was booked?

Mind you, cheats will cheat. If they are fiddling handicap, they're dropping balls in the long grass too.

 

[sjw]

Talking to my wife about this after I posted.

Ladies Section at her club now insist on a email to the ladies handicap sec of your intention to put a card in. I wonder if they check the time of email to the starting time that was booked?

Mind you, cheats will cheat. If they are fiddling handicap, they're dropping balls in the long grass too.

What's to say, at this point, that people even play the round? If they're going round with friends, they either just play and lie about their scores or they don't play at all and just make up a card!

 

[Swango1980]

My understanding is that a General Play round needs to be attested and verified by a playing partner, wherever it is submitted, be it a card or via an App. So, in the case of registering around the 14th hole, the playing partner is complicit in the ‘deed’, (fraud) by accepting the verification of the score. They should (probably?) know that the intent has to be registered before play commences. So, we do have a human being verifying the start and finish, just not an honest one.

The marker doesn't have to verify when the round is pre-registered though. So, the notification might be sent through to the markers phone a few hours after the round. For all they know, the player was just a bit tardy in entering their scores, rather than the real reason being they had to wait as they pre-registered after the round, or a long way through it.

 

[Orikoru]

This is old ground.

I can key rounds at my nearest course without even leaving my armchair... all it needs is someone to verify. I can even sign in using my wife's account and do it myself.

At least the old system required you to play the competition. My club used to refuse general play cards if they were out of sinc with performance in comps.

All my 20 scores are comps. As are the 20 before it. None of my PPs put in cards from general play. Saturday and and Wednesday are qualifying days, anything else is recreational.

The Handicap Police need to sort out the disparity in application of process. But they won't. (Or can't)

Spookily I recently saw another member who had a nightmare on Saturday, put in a general play card the following day, for 4 better than handicap. I wonder if it actually happened?

I did put a couple of general play cards in this year as I wanted to get my handicap down, but it didn't really work as even a score of 83 is deemed score differential of 16 at my place. Then I won a competition with 40 points and my handicap didn't even come down from that either. In the old system I'd have come down at least a shot if not two from that, in this system it was about 0.3 and the next day I played again and it just went back up 0.3 again. I've just about given up on it now, no more dicking about with general play cards, I'll just enter the comps when there is one and let my handicap be whatever it is. I've wasted too much energy worrying about it.

 

[IanM]

What's to say, at this point, that people even play the round? If they're going round with friends, they either just play and lie about their scores or they don't play at all and just make up a card!

I guess the point I was making is that the new system (which does have good bits) has inadvertently also provided an excellent means of fiddling your handicap! (In either direction!)

 

[woofers]

The marker doesn't have to verify when the round is pre-registered though.

I know, but most partners, ‘mates’ etc usually announce that they’re putting in a card before play, so we know why they insist on holing out.
However, I agree that there will always be people trying to manipulate whatever system is implemented by whatever means they can.

 

[sjw]

To be honest I couldn't really care less what other people do with their handicap. When I start putting in cards, which will hopefully be soon, I'll try and put them in fairly regularly and just let my handicap be. I might get annoyed if I lose out in competitions to someone who's obviously sandbagged theirs, but I can't do anything about it. If they need to do that to inflate their ego that sounds like a them problem.

 

[D-S]

I just did a check and of we’ll over 600 registered Handicaps barely 100 had more than 10% of their scores as General Play rounds, this excludes around 20 who had only between 1 and 3 scores on their record all of which were General Play, clearly people just gaining initial h/c.
So General Play scores are not exactly becoming much of a thing here at least.

 

[Barking_Mad]

As a first time member of a club this year, I take my handicap seriously only in that I don't cheat as I like it to be a fair reflection of my ability and any improvement. I don't play competitions either as it doesn't really interest me.

Reading some of these stories is hilarious and ultimately, quite sad. Lots of insecure people who see their personal value by the handicap number next to their name.

If they're cheating by manipulating their handicap, I cam only imagine what else they're up to on the course!