The arguments about bandits in golf will have been around as long as the handicap system. There is always someone who tries to gain an advantage, so lets face it it’s cheating.
I’m not talking here about the golfer who regularly plays in competitions, has a club handicap and one day goes out and shoots 10 under his handicap. We all have one of those rounds in us and occasionally it does come out.
No, the true sandbagger rarely plays in weekly competitions preferring to keep his/her powder dry for the biggies; Captain’s Day, President’s Day etc or travels to other courses and plays in club Open Days.
The thing these bigger competitions have in common is good prizes, the current limit in the R&A Rules of Golf is goods/services to a limit of £500 (approx $1000). Well worth winning and unfortunately some people think well worth cheating by fiddling their handicap for! Nowadays there are many competitions that you can enter that the first prize is a holiday or they are qualifiers for a Grand Final in some exotic golfing location.
There are a number of solutions as I see it for competition organisers;
For internal golf club competitions perhaps it should be a condition of entry that a golfer has played a stipulated number of competitions in the season, that way entrants will have a current handicap that truly reflects their current golfing ability.
For competitions that have entrants from different golf clubs it is essential that handicap certificates are required prior to teeing off and before any winner collects their prize. The golfer’s home club should also be contacted and handicaps verified. If these entry conditions are well know beforehand it should discourage sandbaggers from entering in the first place.
Of course there is another solution and that is to do away with prizes altogether for certain competitions. For instance a Golf Club Open Day is really only on the calendar as a fund raiser and as a showcase for the club. Invariably the entry fee is modest and for golfers it is a inexpensive way of playing different courses from the back tees and usually in prime condition. By doing away with expensive prizes it would ensure only bona fide golfers who really want to play the course enter and keep the undesirable bandits out.
Is it any surprise that those competitions that do have expensive prizes attract the most bandits? I would suggest that in the long run they will struggle to attract golfers with genuine and legitimate handicaps as they realise they have very little chance of competing fairly.
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Whilst reading a fantastic book recently, The Grand Slam by Mark Frost, about Bobby Jones, I was interested to read Jones’ initial struggle to come to terms with the Match Play format in the amateur championships in which he played.
The qualifying rounds were stroke play with a designated number of players advancing to 36 hole Match Play matches. He invariably qualified comfortably in Stroke Play but in the early days came unstuck in the head-to-head confrontations as he got sucked into playing the man and not the course.
A change of strategy was called for and he began to realise the secret of the format was to ignore his opponent and play against the course or “Old Man Par” as he called it. When he adopted this tactic considerable success came his way.
The British and United States Amateur Championships still retain the same basic format but with 18 holes matches up to the final which is over 36 holes.
This set me thinking because I know that generally US golfers seem to play their social golf in the Stroke Play format whereas in the UK they tend towards Match Play in both two balls and fourballs.
Perhaps this has evolved as the two country’s handicap systems have developed since, as I understand it, the US system requires golfers to submit cards after each round rather than the UK system of only counting fewer nominated “qualifying” competitive rounds for handicap purposes.
Even as a Brit, however, I prefer Stroke Play, I feel it is a fairer reflection of how a player has performed in a given round of golf. It is possible for two golfers to play badly in Match Play and still have close match. I personally have little satisfaction of winning such games and even less in losing them!
The professionals would seem to agree with me since there are very few pro Match Play events and those that are in that format tend to throw up surprise winners. There is no doubt, though, that the close quarters match play confrontations in the final day Ryder Cup singles are compelling viewing for the spectators and they truly test the nerves and spirits of the players, which after all is in integral part of competitive golf.
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There is always much debate on golf forums as to who is the best golfer and it is always heated but here is my list of my 10 favourite golfers with reasons why I include them.
Nick Faldo - The most successful British player of recent times. Completely remodelled his swing, his game suffered badly but persevered and won 6 Majors. Lee Trevino - An absolute legend, wisecracking entertainer with unique swing. Dave Pelz calculated the most pure ball striker. Jack Nicklaus - 18 Majors still make him the best golfer ever. His putt on 18th at Turnberry in “The Duel in the Sun” was incredible Johnny Miller - An absolute spectacular golfer when his game was on he shot the flags out. Tom Watson - Fantastic compact swing and a true gentleman. David Duval - Another player capable of the most spectacular golf. Shooting a 59 to win must count as the best round of golf ever. He is a true gentleman too. Tony Jacklin - Revived British golf and revived the Ryder Cup. Seve Ballesteros - Brilliant short game. Hit the ball all over the golf course and recovered from everywhere. A genius. Tiger Woods - Got to be included, a fantastic golfer his chip in on 16th at Augusta in 2005 was one of the most incredible shots. Brian Barnes - Any golfer who marks his ball with a beer bottle is ok with me
Let me know your 10 favourite golfers in Comments.
Update: I was recently asked by a fellow golfing twit http://twitter.com/KayTyler why Annika Sorenstam isn’t on my list. No reason other than I hadn’t really seen much of her play. In the UK women’s golf isn’t that well represented on terrestrial tv and I’ve only recently subscribed to satellite. Kay prompted me to look Annika up on youtube and what a fantastic golf swing, I was obviously aware of her success but didn’t fully appreciate her fantastic record. I am now and she’s on the list.
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Like many keen golfers I frequent many golf forums and read many blogs and magazine and invariably a topic or thread that comes up is about which golf balls you play.
As you will imagine the replies are as varied as the golfers themselves, from the player who swears by a particular ball to the golfer who uses whatever he finds in the rough!
So, which golf ball is the best? Well the truth of the matter is the one that suits your game and swing. The golf ball has evolved dramatically over recent years with balls available on the market that go further, higher, lower, spin more, spin less etc etc and it is important to know what particular performance characteristics you want from your golf ball.
Basically there is almost always a trade off between distance and control around the greens and each ball on the market has optimum launch angle and spin rate.
I was intrigued, therefore, when recently a UK golf magazine ran a product test featuring over 45 of the popular golf balls on the market.
Three testers with high, medium and slow swing speeds hit the balls and the flight of the ball was analysed using a FlightScope tracker. This calculated the launch angle, backspin and distance attained with driver and pitching wedge.
There was such a wide discrepancy between the data that I put it on a spreadsheet to analyse further.
I had been playing the Titleist ProV1 for quite a while because it was quite long off the tee and very high spin ensuring good feel around the greens. I had, though, noticed that my driving was inconsistent (particulary in wind) and was missing fairways too frequently.
By playing around with the spreadsheet I was able to trade off actual figures of distance and spin to select a different ball to try.
I opted for the Titleist ProV1x and have seen my fairways hit stats improve significantly.
Many of my golfing pals have used the spreadsheet to narrow down the search for the best ball for their game. There’s not substitute for actually testing the ball yourself but it does give you valuable data upon which to base your decision.
If you would like to download the spreadsheet it’s available free when you subscribe to my free golf newsletter Great Golf Green Fee Deals
by clicking this link or the report cover below.
by Mark Frost, about Bobby Jones, I was interested to read Jones’ initial struggle to come to terms with the Match Play format in the amateur championships in which he played.
