You know the cheating scumbags when you see them. The ones who intentionally post higher scores or conveniently “forget” to post their low scores. The obvious techniques to pad handicaps and gain extra strokes in competitions are easy to spot. But what about the passive-aggressive cheaters?
There is a sneakier behavior I only recently noticed. Perhaps there’s a weasel in your midst. Is there a person in your club who consistently plays better than his or her handicap in tournaments? Maybe you even play casual rounds with them or witness them entering accurate scores after rounds. They can look you in the eyes and be sincere when they say they post every score, count every stroke and vigilantly apply Equitable Stroke Control. You (and they) are comfortable in their honesty because they actually are truthful statements. So where is the sneakiness? Out on the golf course during casual rounds. They play enough to keep their games sharp, so as soon as they realize they’re not setting any personal bests in a round, they get intentionally lazy. They don’t focus or try their best to make putts. Flub a chip here, slice a drive there. Their scores become inflated and the score they post at the end of the round is technically accurate but not indicative of their actual abilities.
But why be aware of this when there is really nothing you can do about it? How can you “call out” a person when you have no proof of their intentions out there? All you can hope for is that your handicap chairman recognizes it and audits the person’s index. Adjustments can be made at that level such as attaching more weight to rounds (giving them T-score ratings) or even manually changing a course handicap for tournament play.
Maybe if they know you’re onto them, they’ll be guilted into changing their behavior. Everyone knows an obvious sandbagger and they probably get harassed about it, but the crafty weasels with the passive-aggressive techniques deserve their share of ribbing as well.
April 10, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Check out the guys at http://www.bogeypro.com they probably have a great product to call them out.
April 10, 2008 at 6:15 pm
^^^Nice spam GolfSpyX. That site and yours are now on my permanent do not visit or buy from list.
April 11, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Here is another type of Sandbagger for you my dear Golf Chick and you will love this one. This is the guy all you girls love to hate, the ego monster, the guy that only posts his good rounds so that he maintains a low handicap. He may even fudge his scores so that his handicap is lower than he can ever play to but allows him to boast about being a 4, 5 or whatever. He can’t play to it of course even on his best day so what does he do when he hacks it around in a member-guest or other tournament? He whines his way around the course, “Geez, I don’t know what’s wrong with me today” or “darn, I think I pulled something on that last hole.” I see these guys all the time and avoid them like the plague because they usually want me (an honest 12 who is whipping their butt)to give them swing advice. I would rather be a single and I HATE playing alone.
April 11, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Kristen I have a sure fire way of dealing with this on a personal level. I don’t play anything “net” at all. I refuse to play against other players “net” and I play in only gross stroke play events. With a 1.4 hcp, I have NO chance at beating anyone net anyway. I’ve gotten sick of shooting 72 and losing by 8 shots to some guy who was a 15 handicap and shot 76. Yeah, right.
April 15, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Kristen,
7 years ago I started an amateur golf association. We played only for trophies with the idea it would weed out the sand baggers. It didn’t. I typically stick to a group of players that I’m certain don’t cheat. Sometimes that makes it tough to fill a foursome.
Nice site!
Bob
October 21, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Sandbaggers are the worst kind in golf. It’s what gives golf a black eye, because it’s hard to stop cheating in the first place. Golf is an individual game not team based, and it’s based on the gentleman’s honor system. At our golf club we do three things to stop this fraudulent act of high handicaps. Anyone who shoots a lights out score in a regular or tournament round, will first receive a warning about not doing it again. We will also monitor his scores to make sure he’s putting all of his scores into the GHIN system. If the same player does it again, we will restrict his handicap to a 5 for the rest of the golf season. For a mid to high handicapper it means he will probally lose out on most of the money games for the rest of the season. That’s because he’ll have to play for birdie money with the actual golfers who do play with legitimate low handicaps. The third time he does it during the golf season, we will automatically kick their ass out of our club. Then notify all golf clubs in the Rochester NY area, about this person and his cheating habits. We put this into place about 10 years ago, and we have expelled a few players, but it has made play a lot more fairer and fun for everyone.