I'm legit embarrassed for Bill Murray watching this.

7 handicap.

you must have missed her pure shank into the ocean from 50 yards

I love watching these and seeing the handicaps some of these guys claim they have. It's called ego and/or not scoring properly. Hell, Trump claims he's a 1 or 2 or something like that.

He is and he's got the alternative facts to prove it.

Probably has something to do with which tees he normally pays and gambling for large amounts of money on the golf course. Pretty much everywhere I've played there are guys who are like always 5 shots better or worse than they should be.

We have a few sandbagger guys at my club who are older and drive it 225 or so and always play the blacks and carry around a 15 then they play in club tournaments from the blue white combos and shoot in the high 70s to low 80s

I'm definitely though seeing some of these guys on TV this week who are supposed 7-9 handicaps with the exaggerated over the top moves you only see on a 25, obviously they're fluffed up vanity handicaps

That's why I only watch the Sunday coverage of Pebble Beach.

Didn't know that spieth married Paulina. Is DJ mad?

If you shoot the score and are trying from the blacks that's legit though right? It's only sandbagging if you purposely shoot worse than you could or report higher scores than accurate right?

I often have people in work events tell me I'm not a 14 bc they see me hit some good shots and then want to give me 4 foot putts for bogey. But take my round today as an example. I made 4 birdies and shot 92. I had two 4 putt doubles on par 3s and missed another 4 or 5 putts inside 5 feet. I could've shot 85 if I did nothing other than putt better but I tried to make all those putts and simply didn't.

I'll have people bitch about my index too, they're just sore losers. Pretty much everyone knows people have great rounds sometimes. But then sometimes it happens event after event, year after year for the same guy at a club where everyone knows each other.

I guess sandbagging is a subjective term. If you go into the club tournaments year after year with an index 3-5 shots higher than you are likely to shoot then people at the club are going to be pissed and you're going to have that reputation regardless of whether you earned it fair and square playing weekend games from tees where you can't reach the green in two shots. There are enough weaknesses in the slope\rating system for it to be manipulated and there are enough guys out there who are willing to exploit it that this has been somewhat common among places I've played.

McCarron with the clutch eagle on 18 to leapfrog the leaders to win on the Champions tour today.

Spieth off to a great start this year. Have to like him at Augusta the way he's striking the ball.

apparently speith hit a godly % of greens in regulation at pebble. couple that with his amazing putting and he's very tough to beat.

every time though that one of the top players looks to become a dominant #1 they seem to go a little flat and get passed by a new hot player.

So Spieth is clearly taking stuff for his hair right? He was losing it last year, definitely receding but looks much thicker and full this year.

I put him on a Rogaine / Viagra / Preparation H cocktail.

i mean i would definitely being doing something about nasty hair if i was worth 9 figures at 23

Turning back to handicaps I am the perfect example of the non-sandbagger and how the handicap system absolutely kills me.



My latest revision is a 6.6. I have exactly 2 diffs under 6.6 on my current revision. The 73 was a career score. The 75 was combined 9s on the easiest 9 of the 36 at my home course.

So now when I have to play a match vs a 15 handicap and he shoots 81 (-6), I have to shoot my career low to beat him. The handicap system just kills the lower capped players (3-9 ish). We can't play gross score events because we would get killed and we can't play handicapped events because there is always someone that shoots 6 to 10 under.

/rant

Another thing that grinds my gears:

Golf Channel coverage of the Genesis Open starts at 1:30pm.

No, your ****ty pre-game starts at 1:30.

I agree with most of that. The betterish amateurs get totally squeezed for disadvantages of like, 3-6 strokes against slightly worse players.

In practice it ends up basically meaning that if you hit a bad drive and park it behind a tree or miss two birdie putts, you just lost because it necessarily means you aren't carding another best possible round.

I've been playing some gross/net events in Los Angeles and the gross events are impossible because bros shoot 66, meanwhile the net events are impossible because bros getting 12 strokes shoot net 68 80s, meaning my net 71 (gross 75) is terribad. . .

Get like a .2 and a 1 into your calculation and you're just screwed unless you can consistently do that, which you probably can't if you, for example, have a job.

+++++

Riviera is in unreal condition right now. The Friday rain is a huge bummer.

DJ is locked in right now, just piping drives.

I'm going tomorrow, rain or shine, so I'll provide some updates.

Can the Golf Channel audio techs figure out who is constantly making the old man breathing noises into the mic? thx.

i agree on the handicap system killing lower handicaps.

assuming those old guys with short swings do indeed have handicaps in 2 to 5 range with exquisite short games, what is their net upside?

whereas the hockey or baseball player who hasn't played that much golf and has 14 handicap due to a couple of doubles and maybe a triple every round, all of a sudden things click and no more doubles or triples and maybe half the birdies.. all of a sudden he plays like a 5 handicap or better but gets 14 strokes.

and most people with low to mid handicaps are much more like the first case, just not that much upside

It's almost incomprehensible that Steven Bowditch, he of the "extreme" DUI arrest a week ago in AZ, has two PGATour wins. In 20 rounds this year, he's got 9 of them shooting 76 or higher, with only one made cut.

#10 at Riviera is just pure genius. Never fails to entertain or challenge.

If you won 2 PGA Tour events and were a total eff up for another 958 weeks you would still have a pretty sick life.

Looking like a washout today, guess we're gonna have a Monday finish.