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Playing "Alone" Doesn't Count Anymore Sez USGA


GolfSpy Barbajo

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On Monday, the USGA announced that beginning Jan. 1, 2016 scores shot while playing by yourself are no longer acceptable for handicap purposes. This is a dark day for people everywhere with vanity golf handicaps. Here's an explanation of the new policy:

 

 

Playing alone and necessary peer review: To further support the key [uSGA Handicap] System premise of peer review, scores made while playing alone will no longer be acceptable for handicap purposes. This change underscores the importance of providing full and accurate information regarding a player's potential scoring ability, and the ability of other players to form a reasonable basis for supporting or disputing a posted score. (Section 5-1: Acceptability of Scores)

 

 

Sure, we all have friends who just happen to always play their best when no one else was there, but this new rule produces a lot of questions. First off, doesn't this fly in the face of the notion that golf is a game of honor? Aren't golfers supposed to be trusted to police themselves on matters like these?

 

And what happens if you're playing with people you don't know who aren't keeping track of your score? How does that factor in? Also, what if you happen to play most of your rounds alone? Maybe you play at odd times, or you have no friends. How is this rule fair to those people who need solo rounds to maintain an accurate handicap index?

 

The provision was the most significant of six changes made to the handicap system for 2016 that will affect the 10 million golfers who have an official handicap index. Well, that will affect golfers in theory. It seems like this will be difficult to enforce, so keep posting those "75"s weekend hackers.

 

Okay, so if you play by yourself a lot, it seems those scores won't count. Anyone have a problem with this? Is this badly needed or completely arbitrary?

 
 

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I don't see this as being an enforceable policy.  Lots and lots of people post their scores online for handicapping.  I have never really been a favor of it but USGA allows it.  Where is the peer review in those scores being posted?  I can just see the question coming up now..."Did you play alone?" and it not letting you post if you answer yes.  

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I think that is a good rule. If you want an official handicap you need witnesses to your rounds.

It would also allow guys to go out and try working on things they normally wouldn't if they are to worried about it effecting their handicap. No real harm in my eyes.

 

One of the great joys of golf for me is going out and walking a round alone and not keeping my score. I enjoy the sound of the mowers, the birds, and my clubs clanging together as I walk and just think of my next shot not my score.

 

I keep score sometimes, sometimes not. I'm not interested in competitive play really so I don't need an official handicap. I know what I shoot on average, if someone I'm playing with wants a little Nassau game we can figure out who's getting strokes.

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I chalk this up to another thing that the recreational golfer shouldn't really care about.  This won't stop sandbaggers and who cares about vanity handicaps.  Personally I love them, it's like free money :)

 

It seems like the USGA is changing from golf being a game of trust and integrity to a game of kind of trust but verify.

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Not really something they can enforce unless you have to turn in a signed card and the course has to review and post it for you. Also this doesnt bother me because when I play alone its usually for practice and I play 2-3 balls so I dont post a score anyway.

 

This does seem odd that this game is based on integrity and honor and this removes some of that from the game.

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For guys you guys that do keep a official handicap, do you now post all rounds? I mean do you ever play rounds you consider practice rounds and don't input for your GHIN?

 

I would think there are times you want to work on a certain part of your game and not have it go towards your handicap. Or say you are playing a round with your wife/son/daughter and it's almost more of a teaching situation where your round is instructional, teaching them something on the course.

 

It seems like the biggest reason for a handicap is for tournament purposes, so maybe only rounds with others with official handicaps should be eligible for entry for official handicap index. That way, rounds against other potential tournament opponents will be recorded, but rounds that are more casual aren't.

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While my wife and I keep our handicaps in GHIN, it is not for tournament play, although there are some events that come up now and then where a 'cap is needed; mostly scrambles for charity.  We keep our scores in GHIN to monitor our progress (or lack thereof) of our game.  I can do that by other means, but GHIN is handy.  Yes, I do play single rounds; sometimes I do it for score and other times I will play each hole, get to a spot where I want to practice a particular shot, and hit several shots.  This spot is where I usually end up when playing for score and I am trying to improve that shot.  These are purely practice rounds.

 

This change doesn't really affect me all that much since the majority of my rounds are played with my wife.  However, this might explain a recent change in the internet posting for my club.  New this past year on the GHIN webpage for posting a score, a question was asked if I played with someone from the club.  Saying YES brings up a menu of club members where I can select up to 3 members.  I can only assume that somehow the system validates that at least one person played the same course that I did on the same day.  It certainly doesn't cover people that are not club members, and I can always put down a member's name if I saw him at the course that day.

 

So many things to go wrong here in a vain attempt to fix an imperfect system that doesn't really need to be fixed.  There will always be cheaters, but there are ways to address them that should be enforced instead of this.

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Interesting, I see the purpose to curve sand baggers, but if golf is about "integrity" and "honesty"- I use quotes because I've found that not to be always true, then why require essentially a babysitter? The vanity caps don't really matter because it falls only on that player. Not the same issue as anchoring ban because you can use a long putter without anchoring right?

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This would bring my handicap way up and when I get into tournaments I will look like a sandbagger. Almost every round I play is alone. I usually play a little worse with others because all my friends live in Minnesota and I'm in Wisconsin now so when we get together it's usually at a course that I have never played and lose some shots from not knowing the course. With my game I hit the ball far and usually have a few penalty shots when I don't I have great scores. So when I get to the tee and hit a bomb but tell people I'm a whatever handicap it is rarely believed. I don't have a vanity handicap I keep mark every stroke I take. If I hit a ball OB and didn't hit a provisional I walked back to the tee and hit again like i should no one is around I can just drop not count it but that's not true that's not my score. I want to be the best golfer I can be and back it up than just be a number on a card that isn't true. 

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I read this last night but I was home alone, so I wasn't sure if it counted as a rule or not.

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I read this last night but I was home alone, so I wasn't sure if it counted as a rule or not.

 

Only if you try to use it in a tournament!

 

Speaking of which, I'm with the guys that only handicap for their own information, not for tournaments. I don't plan on playing in any, so the new rule doesn't really affect me at all.

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Only if you try to use it in a tournament!

 

Speaking of which, I'm with the guys that only handicap for their own information, not for tournaments. I don't plan on playing in any, so the new rule doesn't really affect me at all.

 

Unless they figure out a way to keep you from posting in GHIN if you don't have a playing partner.  Personally, I don't see how they are going to do that.

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I'm not sure what to make of this. I've tried for years to have our club post a score of even par when a validated card isn't turned in. I see it every week. Rounds are played and cards are tossed in the trash or left on a table. I keep a handicap for myself. Other than the Club Championship I've quit playing tournaments. (because I'm not in the championship flight) Pretty much all flights except championship are sandbagged. I keep my own score in our weekend game so when I get home I can enter my scores and stats in GHIN. Sadly, my club doesn't do a very good job of it if you leave your card at the pro shop.

We had a big discussion here last year sometime I think about entering your score in GHIN as a total of all strokes or by ESC. I use ESC. But I still think all strokes should be entered and not adjusted down just because of ESC.

This new rule wasn't very well thought out IMO.

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If it is to curb sandbagging, what keeps a guy from playing poorly on purpose while playing with a partner in order to get his handicap up?

I really don't see this helping much with sandbagging. Like you said one poor round in a group two or three rounds by yourself really trying to go low and do you best. Only posting one round a week when you played 3 or 4. For me it will be like one posted round a month and 20 rounds not posted which way really shows what my handicap should be? I could shoot lights out that one time a month or could shoot terrible sample size is too small.     

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When I post scores (I don't know if it's different for others), I am asked if I played alone and if it is a tournament round.  I frankly don't see how this will affect me that much unless I'm asked to input the identity of the people I played with which will likely pose a problem if playing as a single on a public course.

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If it is to curb sandbagging, what keeps a guy from playing poorly on purpose while playing with a partner in order to get his handicap up?

The answer is absolutely nothing.  The biggest sandbaggers at my club all play together and unless it is a tournament can't break 85......but it is always a miracle when they shoot 75 getting 9 shots.

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With the ability of the internet and technology, this will be very difficult to police. And, they better talk to the clubs if they expect them to input the scores for you after the round. A lot of clubs staff generally act to busy staring at a computer screen and acting as though they are uninterested in helping the customer. Different topic...

If this is how the USGA plans to proceed, great. There is a reason I don't play for a living. And, just another reason there should be rules for professionals and rules for the ameture.

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I've read these comments and agree.  But, I think its ridiculus For me there are meany times I get out late  from work and can not get a partner to play with. And there are some times I ma working on my game so don't care but otherwise I am playing a serious game so I can put enough games together to have a honest handicap. If I didn't do this I would never have enough games in the system to even have good handicap.

And as ther are some tourneys I like to paly that require a handicap this ruling is a real handicap for me. I guess I can just list one of our members that I see but this doesn't live the idea of honor and honesty that is supposedly such a big part of golf culture.

 

And as mentioned how are they going to police it.  Remember a lock is only there to keep the honest honest. 

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I'm amazed this was even possible in the first place.

In Europe, official handicaps are only calculated with official rounds submitted by a golf club. And in those rounds you'll always have a another person signing your scorecard and counting your strokes.

 

Every golfer has an official ID# and all golf clubs are linked to the same system, so even if you play somewhere else, the score submitted will be associated with your ID.

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I play a lot of rounds while traveling, sometimes with friends/customers, sometimes with people I've never met, sometimes alone, and I post online.  I play by the rules, and post legit scores.  That's why my handicap stinks.  Am I supposed to get driver's license and SSN from my playing partners now?

I keep a handicap for two reasons:  1)  I play one tournament a year, with a friend in his member/guest, and a "verifiable" handicap is required, and 2) as others have noted, to track my own progress.

I'm not sure what the USGA is driving at here.  To cut down on sandbagging?  Vanity handicaps?  (Maybe they only want 800k entries into the U.S. Open next year, not 1.2M, LOLZ)

Personally I love those vanity handicaps.  If you have to give me two a side, but can't play within 10 of your handicap, you're my kind of pigeon.

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Back at Steven - there was a time when that was the case here but it was a long time ago.  You and a witness signed the score card it was turned into at the clubhouse and either the pro or handicap committee reviewed your score before it was posted.

 

I can't even begin to tell you when that rule was changed, I just remember that there was a time when it was the rule 25 perhaps 30 years ago or longer.

 

If it were the case that we were going back to that sort of rule I'd see the point but we're not - the USGA is simply saying that you can't post rounds that you play by yourself - so I probably won't - maybe 10 percent of my rounds are played by myself no big deal.  Having written that there is no way to enforce this and thus it is ridiculously stupid - ultimately handicaps rely on the integrity of the players.  It's easy enough to know if your handicap is where it should be - ask yourself if you play to it about 1/4 of the time - that should be true if you are playing by yourself or with others. 

 

Up until this year I've always had both a GHN and a league handicap.  The GHN will include the normal things that we encounter in casual rounds including at times a give me that is overly generous or because I'm out of the hole and we want to move pace of play along (I follow the rule of trying to record what I think I'd make for that one.)  League is putting everything out, play everything down always -   Interestingly the handicaps would always be within a few hundreths of a point at season's end. 

 

I'm confident that my handicap is accurate and of late it's been up, up and away - I wish I didn't have to post some of the scores that I've been shooting.

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We've had this rule for years. It's not a problem.

 

Look at it this way - you'll have less singles waiting to play through, and more people playing with others. Rounds can be faster, and you'll make new friends :)

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