I play sparingly at most anymore. I need a handicap and it has been about 10 years since I kept one. Do I still need about 20 scores to establish one? Tournament is in May and not sure how I can make this happen. Also, I checked and there is no rule regarding handicaps having to be within certain range of each other.

I'd ask the guy who invited you to inquire at the club.

Aggie95 said:

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I play sparingly at most anymore. I need a handicap and it has been about 10 years since I kept one. Do I still need about 20 scores to establish one? Tournament is in May and not sure how I can make this happen. Also, I checked and there is no rule regarding handicaps having to be within certain range of each other.

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check out the grint app. I played my first round with it in prep of the TexAgs tournament and it calculated my HC off of that. Played like ass so it will get better, but I officially have a handicap

Icecream_Ag said:

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Aggie95 said:

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I play sparingly at most anymore. I need a handicap and it has been about 10 years since I kept one. Do I still need about 20 scores to establish one? Tournament is in May and not sure how I can make this happen. Also, I checked and there is no rule regarding handicaps having to be within certain range of each other.

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check out the grint app. I played my first round with it in prep of the TexAgs tournament and it calculated my HC off of that. Played like ass so it will get better, but I officially have a handicap

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thank you

The grint only takes like 5 rounds. If you can remember any scores from the previous month put them in

I started using the grint for the TexAgs tourney. I like it so for except the Mobil version. It's to busy for me.

A member guest I've played in for years now, the club had it figured in, no official HCP was required. My partner basically slotted me in. We see some guys in there that seem a little off, but it's a smaller club and everyone is pretty good about being pretty truthful.

Tony Franklins Shoe said:

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A member guest I've played in for years now, the club had it figured in, no official HCP was required. My partner basically slotted me in. We see some guys in there that seem a little off, but it's a smaller club and everyone is pretty good about being pretty truthful.

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Put 32

even legit handicaps are suspect at member guests... i know guys who will tank in the 4 months leading up just to get their handicap up a few more points.

and just a tip, **** the bed during the practice round before the calcutta. No use driving up the bid on a meaningless round.

No matter how accurate your Hdcp is during member guest, if you win you are sandbagging.

A 14 Hdcp going birdie, birdie, birdie raises eyebrows.

Aggie_Eric98 said:

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No matter how accurate your Hdcp is during member guest, if you win you are sandbagging.

A 14 Hdcp going birdie, birdie, birdie raises eyebrows.

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Never won, right?

no I was the 14 who went birdie, birdie, birdie

take your average score, subtract the par from the course you usually shoot that average score. Now look at the course rating for that course from the tees you played. If the rating is higher than par, add that amount of strokes and vice versa if lower, subtract.

That's not the proper handicap calc, but this should get you fairly accurate to it. Then, if you want to sand bag, add 20%.

If we're doing a rough estimate, you should actually stick with the average from the best 50% of your rounds vs. all rounds. You've already sandbagged it if you use all rounds in the calculation.

Whatever number you come up with, you should only be able to beat it about 20% of the time.

I think this factor is the main reason that someone who isn't intending to sandbag ends up sandbagging, and those intending to sandbag end up sandbagging even more than intended. It's essentially the average of your better golf, not all of your golf

It's supposed to be a measure of your potential, not really your measure of average score.

Interesting bringing up the sandbagging thing. It's one reason I actually follow the damn rules. So many upper teen/mid 20s guys don't. I'm talking OB is lateral, 5 foot putts are good, etc. This falsely drives their handicap down. Then I get called a sandbagger because my handicap is actually appropriate for my skill.

Another thing that can drive it down is only playing one home course. Makes sense if you're a member to not go elsewhere, but knowing the course inside and out will save strokes here and there. At any time my last 20 rounds will likely have 5-10 courses in there and rarely any more than 4-5 times. If I only played say Torrey North, which fits my game very well, I'd be much lower.

ORAggieFan said:

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Another thing that can drive it down is only playing one home course.

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Goes both ways if your home course is tight and difficult it makes playing wide open courses much easier.

DadAG10 said:

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ORAggieFan said:

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Another thing that can drive it down is only playing one home course.

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Goes both ways if your home course is tight and difficult it makes playing wide open courses much easier.

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That is me, my handicap travels very well.

ORAggieFan - you make a valid point. Alot of golfers have a "vanity" handicap that does not truly reflect their playing potential. Those guys will probably never shoot 3 or more strokes less than their differential. If you want to determine if you are a sandbagger or just a guy who follows the rules and properly posts scores for handicap, a good resource would be the "pope of slope" Dean Knuth. Search him online and read his articles. Especially the probability tables. Basically one good round can happen from time to time BUT 2 exceptional scores in a MG tournament for instance would indicate your handicap may not be accurate. Hope this helps.

This particular member-guest, we as a team have been playing about 10 years. There has definitely been a number of sand baggers brought in and some of the members seem to struggle a couple of months prior to it to "help" their handicap. What's been funny is that it seems that the members who aren't that great bring in a much better player (the sandbagger) and over three rounds, that better player tends to get worn out when his lousy partner hardly contributes. It's fun to watch and usually the next year they don't come back.

I love to play golf, but even a Thursday practice round, drink fest and then playing three straight days of grinding in July with all the boozing after rounds, I'm pretty worn out by Sunday afternoon in the heat. Last year we even split 2nd and 3rd place instead of going into a playoff hole because it was so hot, just wasn't worth the extra club credit.

Thx...I live in GA and the tournament is at a high-end club in NC, so it has to be "official" as possible

I've brought a guest that didn't keep an official handicap, but plays regularly. Asked the Club Pro what to do and he just told me to provide course/score info from as many rounds as my guest could recall from the past year. So as others suggested, just ask the club how they prefer to handle and I'm sure it won't be an issue.