Online handicap service or use local club?

[tony@CIC]

That's cool the app allows stat tracking now. I had a second app on my phone. Though I didn't track last year, and let my GHIN be inactive. I didn't expect to play as much golf as I ended up.

Take Dead Aim

That kicked in early last year and they've made minor improvements during the year. Keep in mind that the stats for the round are available in graphic form (pie charts, etc) after you post the round. However, once the score is posted you can see the scorecard but not the graphic format for that particular round. There is an option to see your stats for the current year, last year (2020), previous 12 months, scores by course/tee, plus a couple others. FYI, another nice feature is that you can input other GHIN users names and their recent scores will show up along with their index.

I continue to ask the developers for the ability to download the info or at the very least have a print feature. That would sure make my record keeping a lot easier.


Sent from my iPad using MyGolfSpy

[Curtis Atkinson]

That kicked in early last year and they've made minor improvements during the year. Keep in mind that the stats for the round are available in graphic form (pie charts, etc) after you post the round. However, once the score is posted you can see the scorecard but not the graphic format for that particular round. There is an option to see your stats for the current year, last year (2020), previous 12 months, scores by course/tee, plus a couple others. FYI, another nice feature is that you can input other GHIN users names and their recent scores will show up along with their index.

I continue to ask the developers for the ability to download the info or at the very least have a print feature. That would sure make my record keeping a lot easier.


Sent from my iPad using MyGolfSpy

Sorry for the last question. Feels like you use/are looking for similar things to it that I am (love studying data/stats). You go through local club for handicap registration then input everything into GHIN site/app?


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[Buffly]

On 1/16/2021 at 5:11 AM, MattF said:

You could use The Grint, they have a free membership that includes official USGA handicapping.

I also use thegrint.com for my hdcp. You can use the app or the website. 

I use the app 'golfpad gps' to record my rounds, so I enter my scores online hole by hole with putts and penalties on thegrint.com 

[Will_Mac]

Count me as another who uses The Grint.

I paid before you had to pay for it. Don't even use a fraction of the available features but I appreciated the app enough to donate, if you will.

[Curtis Atkinson]

6 hours ago, Buffly said:

I also use thegrint.com for my hdcp. You can use the app or the website. 

I use the app 'golfpad gps' to record my rounds, so I enter my scores online hole by hole with putts and penalties on thegrint.com 

Interesting. My question is if you're using the grint for hdcp, why not use it to track shots on the course as well? Golfpad that much better?

[tony@CIC]

10 hours ago, Curtis Atkinson said:

 

Sorry for the last question. Feels like you use/are looking for similar things to it that I am (love studying data/stats). You go through local club for handicap registration then input everything into GHIN site/app?


Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

 

Correct, the club sets up the account number and then you can access either desktop or phone app. Sounds like GRINT also provides similar info, however, my Club includes it as part of the golf membership so I didn't have a reason to use the GRINT app. If you'd like I can message you some screen shots of the GHIN app and then you'd have a good comparison. 

[Mr. 82]

On 1/17/2021 at 9:52 PM, Tsmithjr9 said:

This is among the lines of what I was implying with the USGA not giving a crap. It seems they have an assumption that players have access to a club/body/committee that will review and uphold scores. Or at least an association where there's always a match and 3 other guys to play with. I agree with your scenario that there's essentially no difference in playing solo and getting paired with a rando at the local muni. They don't care about me, and I don't care about them. I am allowed to post this score but not the one alone.

I don't live in a rural area, but because of family and job, I play at sunup on weekends as I can't afford to be out there for 5-6 hours like can happen. It's tough to find partners for 6AM tee times.

Take Dead Aim
 

With regards to playing rounds solo, versus playing rounds with others, and not being able to post solo, I'll simply say that I play better solo, because I just hit the ball, and go to my next shot, and I don't have to pause and wait for anyone else to hit.  So my tempo and rhythm are much better when playing solo (typically).  Also, because you don't have to wait on anyone else to hit, or look for anyone else's lost balls, you aren't distracted from your own game.  I believe the wait, and the distraction, and the pause between shots, waiting for others in your group to hit, is a HUGE factor in how you score, and why I play better solo (in general).  It's also why I consider my personal best scores that I've ever played to be better when posted with playing partners, versus the rounds that I scored alone.  For example, I've shot 71 six times in my life.  Three of them were alone, and three of them were in rounds with others.  A couple of those 71's were in tournaments.  I value the tournament rounds the most, and the 71s I shot alone to not be as good, purely because of the intangibles I mentioned above when playing with others.  Granted, I've broken through and shot 69 last month, so that round definitely stands out way beyond the rest, but it was played within a group, so it's easily my best round of golf ever.

Taking it ever further, lately I've gone to not even keeping score when I play solo, and consider it just practice, and I'll intentionally throw down a 2nd ball from various spots, just to invalidate the round played by myself.  I take that opportunity to work on my game, and refine certain clubs and shots.  Heck, I went out the other week with two new wedges and played 9 holes where I dropped 3 balls from two different wedge distances, just to break in these two new wedges.  I might have "played" nine holes, but I think I hit over 70 shots.  And none of those shots were putts, as I just picked up all the balls on the green, and didn't bother putting, as that was not why I was out there.

Sandbagging within clubs, and in other tournaments will always be an issue.  There are a few guys at my club that I play with regularly and I know their GHIN handicap is fake.  They refuse to post low rounds when they play them, and they'll often go 2 months between posting rounds, even though they play 3 or 4 times a week.  But when we have money on the line we always negotiate the strokes and bet so that it's fair amongst us.  I just refuse to play with certain guys in tournaments not at our home course, because I know these few guys will always wind up right at the top of the leaderboard of any net event.  But it's also one of the reasons why I shy away from net events.  I'd prefer to play someone straight up, mano a mano, versus me giving strokes and having to continually write down net birdies on every other hole from a guy who is getting 8-10 shots per round, and ends up beating me straight up.  It's also hard to compete against that, because I just finished playing in a net best ball tournament, where the course rating was 68, and my course handicap ended up being ZERO because my 3.2 index was a 0 course handicap with that rating.  I was playing a course I had never played before, against guys that knew that course like the back of their hand and were getting those 8-10 strokes.  Well, their net 69 absolutely destroyed my 77.  It's easy to shoot that 69 when you just par a hole and take the birdie, and keep the double bogeys to a minimum when you are stroking.

But yeah, the USGA doesn't police the GHIN, and there will be sandbaggers for as long as the game of golf is played.

[Buffly]

8 hours ago, Curtis Atkinson said:

Interesting. My question is if you're using the grint for hdcp, why not use it to track shots on the course as well? Golfpad that much better?

I can look at all the shots on GolfPad after the round and I have all my rounds on it since I started playing golf in 2017. My experience with theGrint app was less interactive, but it did record fairways hit and bunkers without extra work. 

Pluses and minuses to both I guess. 

I get a link like this to share my round:

Scored 92 at Mountain Meadows Golf Course http://www.golfpadgps.com/round/RUV2D823 #GolfPadGPS