Nickrat
Club Champion
Play badly your off a vanity handicap.
Play well and your a bandit.
Such is the life of a handicap golfer
Play well and your a bandit.
Such is the life of a handicap golfer
Vanity handicaps.
- Thread starter User101
- Start date
Beezerk
Money List Winner
And I thought we were friends 😂
Dasit
Tour Rookie
Plenty of vanity handicaps about
The worst are the people who ask for extra shots in a money match
The worst are the people who ask for extra shots in a money match
pendodave
Tour Rookie
A lot of the old boys at my dad's club are in vanity territory.
Partly accident, partly design.
The thing is, the medal course can be a long old slog, so they don't play in comps, preferring swindles and 4bbb with their mates. Nothing wrong with that, but it does mean that is hard to assign them a realistic number.
As mentioned above, it ought to make the seniors pretty uncompetitive in club matches, but as a lot of clubs have the same issue, it probably all comes out in the wash.
Partly accident, partly design.
The thing is, the medal course can be a long old slog, so they don't play in comps, preferring swindles and 4bbb with their mates. Nothing wrong with that, but it does mean that is hard to assign them a realistic number.
As mentioned above, it ought to make the seniors pretty uncompetitive in club matches, but as a lot of clubs have the same issue, it probably all comes out in the wash.
Grant85
Head Pro
With regards to Bandits - regular players in clubs know who these guys are.
It's all very well having a great round in your sweep and coming in with 40+ points and everyone calling you a bandit - but the guys managing their handicaps and can get to the 17th or 18th of their home course and know they need to bogey in to get into buffer zone or go up 0.1.
I've seen it before - guys playing off 10 who should be much lower round their own course and missing 3 foot putts they'd never miss in a sweep or in matchplay.
Vanity players obviously aren't cheating anyone, except kidding themselves on.
It's all very well having a great round in your sweep and coming in with 40+ points and everyone calling you a bandit - but the guys managing their handicaps and can get to the 17th or 18th of their home course and know they need to bogey in to get into buffer zone or go up 0.1.
I've seen it before - guys playing off 10 who should be much lower round their own course and missing 3 foot putts they'd never miss in a sweep or in matchplay.
Vanity players obviously aren't cheating anyone, except kidding themselves on.
Ha ha. Did you recognise yourself? I don't think that accusation could be levelled at you.
londonlewis
Tour Rookie
If your handicap should really be 22, then maybe you do feel you can brag when it is 12.
It's all relative.
stevek1969
Money List Winner
If i remember correctly this was posted years ago and it raised a few good points, the English lads if they have a few good rounds get and extra cut is it called an ESR ? which put there handicap that low they couldn't play near it .
I was on the end of the bandit nonsense during the week , a few years ago i played of single figures but now of 15 ,i was 81 scratch in the Wednesday sweep so nett 66 only to find out is was non counting gutted as it was of the back tees in tough conditions and after going up 3 full shots last season the work i put in over the winter is coming good it just shows i can do it , would i love to be back to where i was you bet but would it be a vanity handicap again ?
I was on the end of the bandit nonsense during the week , a few years ago i played of single figures but now of 15 ,i was 81 scratch in the Wednesday sweep so nett 66 only to find out is was non counting gutted as it was of the back tees in tough conditions and after going up 3 full shots last season the work i put in over the winter is coming good it just shows i can do it , would i love to be back to where i was you bet but would it be a vanity handicap again ?
FairwayDodger
Money List Winner
If you get it down there you've earned it. It only enters the vanity realms if you refuse to play comps in order to "protect" it. But we're handicap golfers and scores can vary wildly. I had a shocker at Turnberry - two rounds deep into the 80s - making a mockery of my handicap but I play upwards of 30 medal rounds a year and usually round ten or more different courses and the handicap is what it is.
stevek1969
Money List Winner
Karen playing Turnberry in the cold conditions would have a been a tough ask to play to your handicap i would imagine ,I'm the same play over 30 a year and various opens but some of my mates 1 in particulars handicap has never changed in years just to protect it for our winter comp i kid you not , he won't play any opens and is lucky if he plays 10 comps a year and never plays a shop sweep even if the other 3 guys are , just don't get it.
FairwayDodger
Money List Winner
Yeah, but I'm just as capable of chucking in a score like that on an Edinburgh parkland course in perfect conditions in July!
stevek1969
Money List Winner
Yeah, but I'm just as capable of chucking in a score like that on an Edinburgh parkland course in perfect conditions in July!
The games true leveller a parkland course :rofl:
duncan mackie
Money List Winner
As a senior off 12 who has already submitted his 3 cards for the 2018 season and failed to get within 8 shots of his handicap with any of them I resent this thread!
So I looked up my match record for the last 12 months and found I had only lost 4 times (in 45 Vets league, senior, men's and the county seniors knockout events) and felt I should probably still wear my sombrero whilst teeing off with my vanity handicap.... :fore:
rosecott
Money List Winner
Almost the first statement in the CONGU manual is that the system is designed so that players do have handicaps that truly reflect their playing ability.
The expectation for Cat 3 players is that they will be in buffer or better in the range of 23 to 45% of the time, with higher expectations for the lower categories.
SwingsitlikeHogan
Major Champion
At least one I know would not play in any diddy friendly roll-up stuff. No, no. He only played with the real low, and scratch and better guys. And they would humour him. Why? Because the guy was loaded and so the low guys used to play for big money and enjoy taking it off him. But he was cool about that - in his eyes what he paid out was his entry fee in their club - and oh did he enjoy being seen in their company...
Don;t actually know how he kept his mid SF handicap - was 30yrs ago mind...
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SwingsitlikeHogan
Major Champion
HomerJSimpson
Hall of Famer
Assuming most play regularly in competitions on here and aren't in the vanity or handicap protection brackets and so their mark is the only realistic marker of performance. Good rounds bring a cut and bad ones bring 0.1. Why would you want a vanity handicap, even if it allows you into certain competitions? Once in, these people are highly unlikely to play well, as the courses are usually a stern test on the day and will find them out. Enter, pay that money off a vanity handicap and chop it round. Hardly seems logical.
I think we've all been on the receiving end of the bandit end of the scale especially in match play but what can you do? It's the way of the current system and I now adopt a mindset of look after my own score and don't worry about their score. If I get beat, even if its apparent the guy is far better than his mark, accept it with good grace and move on. Life's too short these days to worry about it
I think we've all been on the receiving end of the bandit end of the scale especially in match play but what can you do? It's the way of the current system and I now adopt a mindset of look after my own score and don't worry about their score. If I get beat, even if its apparent the guy is far better than his mark, accept it with good grace and move on. Life's too short these days to worry about it
I had a vanity handicap for 9 holes today :rofl:
USER1999
Grand Slam Winner
I dont have a vanity handicap, it is what it is. But how the heck did I get here? Why, where, how, what the heck. I can play awesome golf, or flat out flipping shocking. It is what it is. I could be off 4, or 24, who knows? I dont.
Tommo21
Tour Winner
Being lucky enough to be a member of more than one club and playing many other courses besides. That being, I know many many senior players who over time gradually loose their game, loose their enthusiasm to play medals, preferring to enjoy their game with their mates. Some of them their game deteriorates faster then the 3 or 4 medals they play per year so in reality they dont offer much chance of picking up the top prize and their HC doesn't relate the gradual downturn in their game. However, I also know many good cat one senior players who play more medals per year than most young players at the clubs I play at. At 65 years young I played over 30 medal rounds last year. Incidentally, I also know quite a few guys who play off very low HCs who only pick the medals they want to play in order to keep their HC at that level. The thing is they can play near scratch rounds when they need to.
