Full of Sandbaggers!

[APowell1990]

Me and my father were playing at a 2 man scramble at our local country club and it is usually a straight shooting place, but 26 of the 56 teams shot under par on Sunday. We were in the 1st flight at 3 under par. The flight started at 4 under par. We came out and shot 6 under, but we came in almost dead last in our flight. One group shot 12 under on Sunday in the first flight! Is the world just filled with sandbaggers now?

[SiberianDVM]

Yes.

And other types of cheaters.

[NBGolfer]

There are sandbaggers don't get me wrong, but there are alot of factors out there as well.
Like me, I play on a tuff course as a member and my cap plays around a 12/13.
But when I go play less difficuly courses and shoot 5 or 6 over is that viewed as a sandbagger/sandbagging?

[Pa Jayhawk]

Originally Posted by NBGolfer

But when I go play less difficuly courses and shoot 5 or 6 over is that viewed as a sandbagger/sandbagging?

Your handicap takes into consideration the toughness of the course through slope and rating. So if you play a easier course, the course handicap will be lower, and you would be expected to shoot lower. For example I play off a 21, my home course is a tough one and the course handicap off the whites is a 25, and 27 off the blues. My course handicap off my old home course, which was easy is a 20 off the whites, and 21 off the blues. So playing 5-6 under what I shoot at my old course would in fact be the same. When you play in most tournaments you will be playing against your course handicap in most cases and not your USGA or R&A Handicap. If not, you would still need to consider that everyone is playing the same course, so people who shoot the same on a easier course will have a higher established handicap than you.

edit 1 - Personally I feel there are more vanity handicaps out there than Sandbaggers. The difference is, as a Sandbagger you have no moral values, as a vanity handicapper you are simply cheating yourself. Although I would be leary of accusing anyone of sandbagging for that reason. I figure they have to live with themselves, and I have been accused of sandbagging before when I played in a work league my Second year playing and got net low on an end of year outing. The outing was at one of my favorite courses, and not one that the league played at during the year. It was actually a tougher course than the ones we played on, but one I had played considerably more. Which on courses like that, familiarity in itself can be worth about 5 strokes. I shot an 82 off a 25 handicap for a net 57. Which at that time, 81 to 85 was my average on that course. They thought it was sandbagging until they realized I also only lost one match all year because my scores where drastically improving. My real handicap was in fact about 18 at the time, but I didn't make the rules. They used their own handicap, which I told them was unfair to them, although they did it so people would not sandbag. Needless to say, your first year or two at golf, if you improve drastically, this kind of thing happens.

[NBGolfer]

Sweet.. thanks for the info. I am still relatively new to the whole handicap thing.