Your experiences with playing great and it wasn't enough? (handicapping complaint as well)

[agunner94]

My course handicap at my home course is a 5 (GHIN = 4.5 and trending down to 3.0) and just played in a match play event with an 11 (don't know his trend). He had 6 strokes on me. I ended up shooting a 1 over 72 and lost by 4 holes. He ended up shooting 76 or 77. This guy was fairways and greens all day. I had 3 birdies, 2 bogies and a double. And it certainly helped he holed out for eagle from about 140 yards.

 

I could never get a leg up on the guy, ever hole I birdied he got a stroke. Right after the match finished up on hole 15, he claims he "just always plays better in competition, when something is on the line." I agree with this 100% because I'm the same way.

 

This same guy beat the had pro in match play a few years when the pro shot -1.

 

I'm not saying he is a sandbagger, He is a great guy and a great player. But it's insane how inflated his handicap is compared to the swings and scores I've seen him post. I enjoyed my time with him this morning and learned lots. I want to play with him again.

 

But man, I feel the handicap system definitely gives the higher handicapped player an advantage in match play. I did everything I could and it still didn't get the job done. We both "played below our handicap" so to speak, but still....

 

I enjoyed playing well, and have no regrets for how the ball bounced this way. A couple lip outs happened, coulda had a few more bounces. Its golf though, stuff happens. Not really bitter at all.

 

What experiences have you had when you've played well and it just so happened that it just wasn't enough?

[crazy8golfer]

Very seldom have I ever seen anyone win in match play when giving up 6 strokes.

[thesamwise]

This doesn't sound like a thread about playing well and not getting it done. It sounds like another handicap/possible sandbagger thread, which is cool, but just own it.

[agunner94]

[quote name='thesamwise' timestamp='1434934910' post='11804096']
This doesn't sound like a thread about playing well and not getting it done. It sounds like another handicap/possible sandbagger thread, which is cool, but just own it.
[/quote]

I mean.. I talked about my round. And I accepted what I had to give him and knew it was gonna be tough.In all reality he is probably closer to an 8, but who cares?

I liked the challenge. I was confident that I would be able to get the job done on my end, and unfortunately my score wasn't good enough. I played well, but not good enough. Plus he holed out for eagle and hit a long birdie putt, like 45 feet. The point of the handicapping system is to make it equitable, but I was surprised at how tough it was to even try to keep the match close through until holes 13-14 where I parred, with two 180 degree lip out birdies.

So when it comes to owning my post, I'm owning it. The handicap system equalized the playing field and chips fell how they did. Now I just want to hear other stories about tournament play, money game play, or whatever sort of competition that people have played well in and similar experiences with the feelings I have.

[Tmiller72]

I rarely play in events where handicaps are a factor. I used to play in a Thursday evening men's league. I had to give a guy 6 shots. He shot even. I shot 32 and the match was over on the 6th hole. Lots of people aren't honest with the scores they turn in.

[RSinSG]

I'm reluctant to join the post because anytime you post about a good score you had someone invariably has to chime in about "passive bragging " for some reason. This is nothing about handicaps but how your best sometimes isn't good enough.

Anyway, a year or so ago my regular playing buddy and I were in different foursomes in a league match. We are always trying to one up the other as we are the same handicap. I was playing lights out this day- one of those rounds where I wasn't thinking about anything and the putts were dropping. At the time it was my career best score. After the round I was anxious to gloat over the score with my bud and showed him my card. He says nice round and shows me his card where he shot his age - 64, and beat me by 4. I shot a career low and he checked off a major item on his bucket list.

[MidwestGolfBum]

I haven't played in net events like what you are talking about for years. I will play in flighted events but those are always played as gross within the flights. Net events as a lower handicap aren't as much fun as they are when you get to say "I beat a 2 handicap" because you got 14 shots (my experience).

[larrybud]

[quote name='agunner94' timestamp='1434933684' post='11803912']
My course handicap at my home course is a 5 (GHIN = 4.5 and trending down to 3.0) and just played in a match play event with an 11 (don't know his trend). He had 6 strokes on me. I ended up shooting a 1 over 72 and lost by 4 holes. He ended up shooting 76 or 77. This guy was fairways and greens all day. I had 3 birdies, 2 bogies and a double. And it certainly helped he holed out for eagle from about 140 yards.
[/quote]

Just check if he's posting those T scores. If not, he's a sand bagger.

[agunner94]

[quote name='RSinSG' timestamp='1434938193' post='11804786']
I'm reluctant to join the post because anytime you post about a good score you had someone invariably has to chime in about "passive bragging " for some reason. This is nothing about handicaps but how your best sometimes isn't good enough.

Anyway, a year or so ago my regular playing buddy and I were in different foursomes in a league match. We are always trying to one up the other as we are the same handicap. I was playing lights out this day- one of those rounds where I wasn't thinking about anything and the putts were dropping. At the time it was my career best score. After the round I was anxious to gloat over the score with my bud and showed him my card. He says nice round and shows me his card where he shot his age - 64, and beat me by 4. I shot a career low and he checked off a major item on his bucket list.
[/quote]

Sorry he got you that round. But that's an awesome story, your buddy shooting his age and then you also having a career round on the same day. That's the kinda stuff I wanna hear!

My buddies and I try to play once a week together, loser has to clean the other two sets of clubs. You'd be amazed at the amount of pressure that puts on a round, you'll never want to lose again.

Ever since playing with older members, my whole perspective on golf changed. Now it's just for the experiences.

Thanks,
Keep on hitting them straight!

[tatertot]

Match play helps higher caps ... They usually have blow up holes, where they can double or triple holes. In match play, those blow up holes don't hurt as much as they do in stroke play.

[ratspros]

The day that I played well but wasn't quite enough I'll never forget. It was a college match play event set up by our two coaches. Just our school against another college.

This was back in the day when Jesper Parnevick was relevant and I always say I think I had to lay against his cousin. The guy barely spoke English and was a skiing swede like Jesper. He even wore that same goofy hat with the pop up brim.

Anyways I was captain of our squad that week and playing their top player. Front nine I struggled with ball striking but my short game was on fire. Chipped in twice and had 8 putts through nine holes. I was 3 under and down 2 at the turn. I played BETTER on the back and still lost 4&3. I was 6 under through 15 and was done. Those matches I don't mind losing. You played your best but someone edged you. The ones I hate losing are when you know you left some shots out there and lost by 1.

[goobers80]

[quote name='crazy8golfer' timestamp='1434934620' post='11804046']
Very seldom have I ever seen anyone win in match play when giving up 6 strokes.
[/quote]

[color=#800080]I signed up for a net club match play event to support it ands won three matches so far giving up 31 strokes , 9 strokes , ands 34 strokes.[/color]

[bk52]

Dean Knuth states that in a match play situation, the lower handicapped player has an advantage.

[i][b]"Although handicaps are supposed to equalize matches, it's not always true, is it?[/b][/i]

[i][b]Unfortunately not. The scale is tipped in favor of the better player.[/b][/i]

[i][b]The way the formula works, for every six strokes difference in handicap, the better player has a one-stroke advantage, because the lower handicapper is more likely to play at or near his handicap than the high handicapper.[/b][/i]
[i][b]In a match between an eight handicapper and a 14 handicapper, the better player is giving away six strokes, yet the odds are still 60-40 that he will win the match. "[/b][/i]

http://www.popeofslope.com/guidelines/handicap103.html

[golfinray]

I am playing the blues on a very long hard golf course. (back in my younger days)

I come to 16 3 under par.

16 is a LONG (like 558 yard) par 5 uphill all the way.

I hit great drive, great 3 wood.

I am sitting 130 out, slight wind in my face, pin tucked behind a bunker right on the front edge.

I pull out 8 iron (because of the uphill) and pure it.

I feel a gust of wind when the ball is halfway to the hole and I knew.

Plugged in the lip with no chance. Double bogey.

I did birdie the long difficult par 4 18th to bring it back to 2 under. Best round of my life.

Oh, If I had not been greedy and I had aimed at the middle of the green on 16. Such is golf.

[FKA HB]

Mine was in our member-member's shootout just a few weeks ago. I've made various shootouts over the years but have never advanced past the first hole. Up until this year, it was fully justified. Bad shots and nerves by either me, my partner, or both.
This year in true alternate shot, we essentially lost before teeing off. The 12 flight winners randomly drew to see if teeing off on the 1st or 10th hole. It just so happened that all the higher flights plus my team went off #1, which is not a very hard hole at all and is reflected as the 13th handicapped hole. Every other team got a stroke.
We played the perfect hole. Partner hits the best drive, I hit the best approach, partner lips out from 10 feet, I tap in the par.
I really didn't even know 100% what the other groups were doing, but I saw a lot of bad things going on. There are a couple of 5-6 footers made on the green though. Turns out 3 other groups made par (net birdie) and we are gone.

[North Texas]

Last summer the wife and I were playing another couple in our summer match play tournament. The other husband, my wife, and I were all 9 handicappers and the other wife was a 24. I bogey the first hole and my wife doubles it so we are one down. The wife and I both play the next 14 holes in two over and, wait for it, win one hole and lose four holes to lose the match 4 & 3!

[mumbles236]

Two weeks ago I was playing in my work intramural league (four man teams from each command who play match play against each other) and my opponent tells me he doesn't have a handicap established yet, which everyone was supposed to prior to the start of the season, but he thinks he's about a 19. When asked what he usually shoots he said his last four rounds were 84, 88, 85, and 82. My teammates and I tell him that if that's what he usually shoots then he definitely isn't a 19. He says whatever and we play our round. I end up shooting an 88, which is good for me being an 18 cap, and he complains all day about how poorly he is playing and winds up with an 83. When we all get together to compute the team scores for the day we tried to tell his team captain that there is no way he is a 19 and it shouldn't be scored that way. The guy proceeds to scream at my LT that if he thinks he's a 19 then he is a 19. Tallying the scores straight up he beats me by a hole on each side to win all three points in our match and his team wins by 1 point. Needless to say we expressed our displeasure with the pro who runs the league and warned the other teams we know to watch what happens when they play those guys.

[Golfer from MO]

[quote name='tatertot' timestamp='1434944447' post='11806528']
Match play helps higher caps ... They usually have blow up holes, where they can double or triple holes. In match play, those blow up holes don't hurt as much as they do in stroke play.
[/quote]
Thats the issue tho, blowup holes score still counts in its entirety towards a handi - ex:
a guy has consistently 3 holes a round he blows up and another 5 holes he just bogeys but plays the other 10 holes around par as hes an athletic guy good striker that just looses focus or is rushed at times etc. those 6 holes = 5 bogeys + lets say 2 doubles and a triple = 12 strokes. Its sooooo easy for a guy like that to focus a little more and cut out a bogey and one blowup hole just from caring about the match ~ 3-4 strokes from the start are gone and you as the low capper has to find some extra birdies or its early closeout time....
It is what it is but a talented 12 is the champ in these things almost always or a sandbagging 8-9

[tadams1975]

We have an annual match play tournament for members at one of the local courses, but is based off of 1/2 handicap for match play. Still pretty tough to beat those higher handicap players but at least you are only giving up half of the strokes. No matter what sandbaggers are out there waiting to get you even when you shoot lights out. So now I only played in flighted events.

[Justmuckit]

[quote name='crazy8golfer' timestamp='1434934620' post='11804046']
Very seldom have I ever seen anyone win in match play when giving up 6 strokes.
[/quote]

I'm going to respectfully disagree here.

My regular playing partner and I play MP every time out. Depending on the CH, he's usually giving me 6-7 strokes. We play for $5 a round and if someone gets to $20 we pay up.

I've had to pay once in over two years, and he's never had to pay me. Our matches are usually pretty damn close - the bet hasn't gone more than $5 in either direction once this year in 20+ rounds.

Which means he's winning plenty giving up 6 strokes.

[MtlJeff]

the handicap system is only as good as the people using it...sadly many people are dishonest either directly or circuitously

I hate handicapped events and rarely play in them. Over my years in private clubs i've seen too many people who "manage" their handicap to get the desired results. Guys who are 2-3 handicaps jumping to 6-7 every year when the tournaments start. Must be a coincidence

[wy3134]

let it be a lesson...this is why i quickly learned to never play a handicap tourney, as all it takes is for a 18 handicap to shoot a 7 over and they just shot a net 61. happens every year in an annual event i play...luckily they only win one single prize in the three categories (gross, net, bankers) so i dont have to worry about really competing against them. id bet 75% are sandbaggers with handicaps over 12.

[LeftDaddy]

I played a 28 handicap last year in a match play event, and turned out he was a senior and played the white tees (I was blacks). Anyway, the math worked out that we were even on strokes (roughly). I thought going in that he had no chance, being a 28. Boy was I wrong. Because of his ridiculously low swing speed, every shot went straight down the fairway and never got much higher than say 20 feet off the ground. He hit driver-hybrid to every green and was putting for birdie or par all day. I question his 28 handicap to say the least, though.

[TripleSingle]

this is the reason why the courses I play at no longer use the handicap index system for matchplay, instead they've been using the 36 point system specifically for matchplay.
Basically its 2 points for par or better, 1 point for bogey, 0 points for double or worse. Total the points, minus that from 36, and that's your matchplay handicap. The handicap index is only useful for stroke play, but not match play.

For example 2 golfers A and B.
A shoots even par 72 with 18 pars. thats 36 points, or 0 handicap
B shoots 4 over 76, 17 pars and last hole blows up for double par. B has 34 points, or handicap of 2.
In this case A would give B 1 stroke each on 2 holes (2 lowest handicap index holes).

I feel this is better for matchplay because it measures a player's ability to get par on any given hole, as opposed to his/her score over 18 holes.

[RichieHunt]

Played 6-6-6 with 3 friends of mine. We weren't playing for a ton of money. I shot 70 (-1) and my handicap was 0. I had the low gross and low net score.

And I owed $40 to each friend.

Every time I got paired with somebody, they played terribly. Then when they played against me, they were hitting miraculous shots.

I only had $100 on me and told one guy I would have to pay him the balance the next time I saw him (typically a person would lose no more than $20 in total).

It wasn't until the next time I saw them that they had put 2+2 together and realized how much money I lost despite how well I played. They offered to give me back some of the money, but I turned them down. A bet is a bet. I just got clobbered really good.





RH

[bruinsPATSirish]

[quote name='RichieHunt' timestamp='1435244038' post='11832542']
Played 6-6-6 with 3 friends of mine. We weren't playing for a ton of money. I shot 70 (-1) and my handicap was 0. I had the low gross and low net score.

And I owed $40 to each friend.

Every time I got paired with somebody, they played terribly. Then when they played against me, they were hitting miraculous shots.

I only had $100 on me and told one guy I would have to pay him the balance the next time I saw him (typically a person would lose no more than $20 in total).

It wasn't until the next time I saw them that they had put 2+2 together and realized how much money I lost despite how well I played. They offered to give me back some of the money, but I turned them down. A bet is a bet. I just got clobbered really good.





RH
[/quote]

Ouch. It is fun to play with our less talented golfing buddies that is for sure, but man it hurts when they "win" doesnt it?

[larrybud]

[quote name='RichieHunt' timestamp='1435244038' post='11832542']
It wasn't until the next time I saw them that they had put 2+2 together and realized how much money I lost despite how well I played. They offered to give me back some of the money, but I turned them down. A bet is a bet. I just got clobbered really good.
[/quote]

Sure they didn't collude against you?

Think of it, all three purposely play bad so you and your partner lose all 3 matches, while they all go 2-1.

[crazy8golfer]

[quote name='Justmuckit' timestamp='1435088730' post='11820564']
[quote name='crazy8golfer' timestamp='1434934620' post='11804046']
Very seldom have I ever seen anyone win in match play when giving up 6 strokes.
[/quote]

I'm going to respectfully disagree here.

My regular playing partner and I play MP every time out. Depending on the CH, he's usually giving me 6-7 strokes. We play for $5 a round and if someone gets to $20 we pay up.

I've had to pay once in over two years, and he's never had to pay me. Our matches are usually pretty damn close - the bet hasn't gone more than $5 in either direction once this year in 20+ rounds.

Which means he's winning plenty giving up 6 strokes.
[/quote]It sounds like he has an accurate handicap and that's they way it is supposed to work at the finish of a round. All Tied !!!