Golf is one of the few sports in which players of widely varying abilities can compete fairly with each other.  A “rabbit” with a 28 handicap can enjoy competing with a scratch player with a reasonable chance of winning.  However, there is a catch.

Handicaps were invented to reflect a player’s true ability.  It’s fair to say that the scratch golfer’s handicap is genuine, as it is governed by scores which he has to submit from several different courses in competition conditions.  However, in recent years, there seems to be a growing consensus among many club golfers that their handicap should reflect their worst efforts and that nett par or 36 stableford points should be a doddle while 3 or 4 shots better is their normal expectation.

The results reported from many of the sponsored summer competitions here on the coast (i.e. those with lavish prizes) clearly illustrate this view.  Just to get into the frame usually requires a score in excess of 42 points, which is 6 shots better than the player’s handicap. This was confirmed by a conversation overheard in a local bar when a golfing waiter was bragging that he expected to win his next competition, as achieving 42 points was “easy peasy”.  His companions laughingly called him a bandit, when a more appropriate description would have been “cheat”, for that’s what he and others like him, really are.  Even when Tiger Woods at his best is playing in a Major, others feel they have a chance of winning, but genuine handicappers playing against our bandit waiter don’t have a prayer, so what’s the point of entering?  The answer of course, is that genuine golfers, as opposed to pot-hunters, realise that taking part is where the pleasure lies.   If they happen to have an exceptionally good day but are well beaten by a handicap cheat, then so be it.  If he cheats by protecting a false handicap, then he probably cheats out on the course as well, and sooner or later, he’ll be caught out.