Is bagging rampant?

[MattyO1984]

23 hours ago, mark m said:

Hi Matty,

 

I noticed this post back in August. Frankly, I found it disheartening, but I wasn’t surprised either. I was wondering if you could tell us more? I believe it’s now been 1 year since the WHS implementation in the UK?

 

Any good to it? (The iGolf app, or whatever). And of course the bad and the ugly as well.

 

Really curious about larger field events at the club level, and open tournaments. I realize from old threads here that the Fourball comps had problems prior to WHS.

 

Thanks 

 

Edit: others from outside North America are encouraged to respond as well.

Hi Mark

 

You are right, WHS came into being November last year in the UK, although for most, it only really came into real being a thing come the Spring.

 

I appreciate that @Halebopphas a different perspective but from what I have seen and heard the WHS from friends at other clubs, competitions still seem to be well subscribed but the demographic of the competitions has changed.

 

In our local area most clubs have at minimum one competition a week for the main ordinary male membership. Often there are two Wednesday and Saturday. They were divided into different sections. If there is not a scratch section, then it has been quite clear that a number of low handicap players no longer bother. They may still head out and play and pop a card in but not in the competition, why pay to enter if you are going to receive absolutely no benefit from it. Before some guys played regardless. Speaking to guys at other clubs, they see the same thing happening.

 

The changes that the WHS have brought in for open Texas Scrambles has also had a huge impact. They tended to be a great money earner for clubs but now, they are so skewed in favour of higher handicap teams, handicaps of up to 18, that lower teams are not bothering. Again, why other paying money when teams are winning with scores in the 40’s.

[Halebopp]

35 minutes ago, MattyO1984 said:

Hi Mark

 

You are right, WHS came into being November last year in the UK, although for most, it only really came into real being a thing come the Spring.

 

I appreciate that @Halebopphas a different perspective but from what I have seen and heard the WHS from friends at other clubs, competitions still seem to be well subscribed but the demographic of the competitions has changed.

 

In our local area most clubs have at minimum one competition a week for the main ordinary male membership. Often there are two Wednesday and Saturday. They were divided into different sections. If there is not a scratch section, then it has been quite clear that a number of low handicap players no longer bother. They may still head out and play and pop a card in but not in the competition, why pay to enter if you are going to receive absolutely no benefit from it. Before some guys played regardless. Speaking to guys at other clubs, they see the same thing happening.

 

The changes that the WHS have brought in for open Texas Scrambles has also had a huge impact. They tended to be a great money earner for clubs but now, they are so skewed in favour of higher handicap teams, handicaps of up to 18, that lower teams are not bothering. Again, why other paying money when teams are winning with scores in the 40’s.

 

The two-person scrambles at our club were won by net scores ranging from 59 to 63 with none of the winning sides getting more than nine strokes. In the few four-person scrambles the winning scores were net 55-56 with the sides getting 1-6 strokes.

 

In open singles competitions, net stroke play flights tended to be won with scores ranging from -5 to +1 whereas the Stableford flight was oftentimes won with a score of 44 but some were won even with 36 points. The WHS did make handicap indices move up at a much faster rate while slowing down the pace at which they move down so it's only natural the net scores got better but that's across the field. 30 points isn't quite what it used to be. So, while that 44 might sound egregious, it's not nearly as bad as it used to be.

[llewol007]

Makes me sick of playing tournaments like these specially when a typical buy in since most are to raise money is $175 or more. I go into them expecting to have fun at the most and win at the least. 

[Mcgeeno]

I find posers/vanity cappers more rampant at my club and everywhere I travel.

 

I find the few actual sandbaggers in my town to be way more destructive though. Boggles my mind when committees wont do anything or cant do anything. We have had one guy 3 PEAT as overall low net champ in our big city event lol. 

 

Thankfully I havent cared or even known my net score in an event in years. Only gross for me.