I am not a Bandit - Honest

[chris3081]

Been putting up with the bandit tag for the last 12 months. Standard if you ever win! Been off 17 for 12 months, but clearly improving swing looks good, but couldn't score well in comps or supp cards. Pressure probably. Fianlly came together and went from 17-13 in a month. Used to regularly shoot mid to low 80's in friendly games, but 90's in comps. Best to just make sure you always maximise comps and supp cards to reduce handicap.

 

[lukeysafc100]

End of day if you clearly have maintained the 25 handicap through you're 12 rounds a year! if you were better you clearly be lower!

Bugs me when people say someone should be lower than they are! End of day - everyone has the ability to shot lower than there handicap! tough **** they just sound like sore losers!
If you were shouting 41 points week in week out! yeah fair point - but you will be rightly docked when the summer returns!

Like my friend is off 17 and the last three times he has play he's shot 41/42 pts! but the course is shorter, wetter and greens are slow! Come the main golf season he will do well to be as consistent off the longer tees and speedier greens! But if he does shoot the score he will get docked and rightly so.

Some people just need to except when someone has had a good round! end of!

 

[hovis]

Some people just need to except when someone has had a good round! end of!

its when this person has had a good round and shoots a score that make it impossible for others in the comp to beat. thats usually when the remarks start to float about.

for a stange reason i used to get zero satisfaction from winning a competition when i was off 20. just felt a hollow victory because of the shots i had.
i

 

[njrose51]

That's what I have found with my handicap, I need a good day to play to or better than it. Me personally I used to have two handicaps one for society golf and my official one(used only for comps), and my society one was quite a bit lower as I tend to play a lot better when I played with people I knew and I am fully relaxed.



Nick aka Mr four pointer (BANDIT ALERT :ears, your handicap will come down as you do well in comps, you definitely have the potential to drop it massively that is for sure, from what I saw when we played.

Thanks Bubba!

 

[Green Bay Hacker]

Most rollups involve several groups of players who put a couple of quid into the pot in the middle. It's a bit unfair if 1 group gives generous gimmies and another group doesn't but yes, they tend to be quite informal fun games.

That's why I asked the question. If it's a group of mates playing together then you can decide what can and can't be given but when there are a number of groups and a pot of money at stake and gimme's up to a putters length can be given then that doesn't quite sit with me. What happened to protecting the rest of the field, official comp or not? That's just my opinion so happy to be corrected.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I play a roll up on Saturday which tends to attract higher handicappers (and some very low players too) and they tend to give putts of inside a foot or so. Every one knows this so no one group is discriminated. The Sunday roll up attracts more serious players and everything is holed out

 

[njrose51]

It's standard for the roll ups. So no group is being unfair. They are friendly matches but there is an element of competition there whether it's 2 v 2 in a four ball or the overall winner. It's good practise for me when it comes to playing in the comps.

 

[Andy]

It's standard for the roll ups. So no group is being unfair. They are friendly matches but there is an element of competition there whether it's 2 v 2 in a four ball or the overall winner. It's good practise for me when it comes to playing in the comps.

I disagree about putter length gimmies being good practice for anything. If you want to get better, start holing out.

 

[Tashyboy]

I disagree about putter length gimmies being good practice for anything. If you want to get better, start holing out.

And just to emphasis that point, my PP missed a 10" tap in on Thursday for a point. he had missed a 5 footer before and was bogged off. That miss gave him a blob on the first hole in a nine holer comp. he finished with 19 points for the day, I won with 20 😁 Division and overall.
But we played the back nine and he looks at me for gimmes from two foot plus. 😳
A couple I made him putt out.

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

One of the issues with 'generous' gimmies is that a better player will generally hole them all the time whereas a higher handicapper is likely to miss a few, hence the reason they have the extra shots in the first place so it's a bit unfair on the better players. No objection to tap ins but I've seen many putts around a putter length missed before especially if there is a bit of break involved.

 

[chellie]

I disagree about putter length gimmies being good practice for anything. If you want to get better, start holing out.

Can't believe anyone would think those lengths are gimmes

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

And just to emphasis that point, my PP missed a 10" tap in on Thursday for a point. he had missed a 5 footer before and was bogged off. That miss gave him a blob on the first hole in a nine holer comp. he finished with 19 points for the day, I won with 20 😁 Division and overall.
But we played the back nine and he looks at me for gimmes from two foot plus. 😳
A couple I made him putt out.

If I've read this correctly, you give gimmies in competitions? Or the comp was front 9 and you then carried on round the back 9?

 

[Andy]

Can't believe anyone would think those lengths are gimmes

Yep, always been inside the rubber since I've played unless your swinging a broomhandle 😁 😂

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

Yep, always been inside the rubber since I've played unless your swinging a broomhandle 😁 😂

The 'Circle of Friendship'

 

[Green Bay Hacker]

Or the comp was front 9 and you then carried on round the back 9?

That's how I read it.

 

[connor]

In our roll up when money is involved no gimmies! That way it's fair yeah perhaps anal but your playing for money after all and there is normally 15players + at £5 each

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Personally I prefer to be able to hole out. Stands me in better stead when I need to hole out for real

 

[mikejohnchapman]

So my official handicap is 25.1 but I do not have the swing of someone with that handicap. My game though does sometimes reflect that!

When I play well, I can score in the low 90’s which in a stableford comp can often give me quite a high score. Last Sunday for example I scored 41 points and won my roll up. I got loads of light hearted abuse about my play from my 2 PPs, and whilst they were joking, I could tell that there was an element of truth in it.

So here are the issues.

They can say “well how can you, with a 25 handicap, drive past my driver with your Ping crossover 4 iron?” (I don’t want to reply “its because you only hit your driver 200 yards!” so let it go.)

In Roll ups when on the green, they can say “take it away”, often from what seems like silly distances that could easily be missed! And I ask are you sure? Half the time, I will putt out anyway.

When I play badly though, I am topping it, missing greens, 2 shots out of bunkers, loosing balls and easily playing over 100 and 7-10 shots over my official handicap. (Last year’s Cooden meet was a prime example – played soooooo bad in the morning singles, but teamed up well with the Williams Clan in the afternoon and we won the team event)

I am also on a limited membership which means I can only play about 12 times a year, and cant enter all the comps so it is difficult to lower my handicap.

It has been mentioned to me several times I should go to club and ask them to reduce my handicap to make it fairer. But I don’t feel this is fair on me as I do not have great rounds every time I play and feel that I need to use my handicap shots. Yes, IF I was shooting low 90’s / high 80’s every time I play then that’s justified, but I don’t do that.

Anyone any thoughts? Should I change my handicap to reflect how I play on average, all time the time or to my potential?

Cheers,

Nick - Pancho Villa - Rose

I don't think you should do anything but continue to play to the best of your ability and what will be will be.

I guess the new handicap system will help when it finally comes in as all rounds will contribute to your pool of scores from which your handicap will be calculated. I gather anything under competition conditions will be included so maybe the roll-up gimmes will be a thing of the past.

 

[njrose51]

Just to follow up on this, I played yesterday in our monthly competition. Scored 33 points and was two points behind the overall winner.

My first 4 tee shots with the big stick were topped! Not just a little, but a lot! Like I was digging for Australia! After that, it stayed in the bag and out came the Crossover and I actually played to my handicap. But I blobbed the 17th due to a horrific slice into water and then a very bad 80 yard shot to the final green! So I may have come in perhaps 1 or 2 shots under.

As I said a the beginning of this post, when I pay well, I can shoot bandit scores compared to my handicap. But yesterday proved to me that, at the moment, my handicap is right. It is not because I have a poor quality swing or the way I hit the ball, or my course management, which is getting better or the simple mistakes - missing greens, miss-read putts, landing in rough etc, but to help with the bad mistakes I make - the top, the duff chip etc. If I can remove those, then I am confident my handicap will drop. But it is for me to do as and when I can. Incidentally, my two PPs had no issues with my handicap -V- Score -V- Swing etc.

As the author of the original post, thanks for all the good advice and wise words!

 

[Scoobiesnax]

Hi mate. I will follow up from my reply to you on this! I hit 29 points yesterday and another 0.1 added to my HC. What a bloody frustrating game this is!!! Still be back next week mind