When you bang somebody like Sergio Garcia as often as I have the last couple of years and then Sergio did what he did on Sunday, you have to come clean.  I commend the Spaniard for a spectacular Sunday round.  His putting was especially strong on the backside.  While I am not ready to put him in a class with Ernie, Vijay or Phil, it was nice to finally see El Nino get it done.  And don't feel too bad for good guy Paul Goydos and his second place finish.  Goydos earned ONE MILLION DOLLARS for finishing second.  For reference, Bob Goalby, who was honored at St. Clair C.C. on Tuesday night for the 50th anniversary of his first PGA Tour Victory, won 11 times including the 1968 Masters.  Bob's career earnings were $645,013.  By the way, his nephew Jay Hass and the man he beat in a playoff, Dow Finsterwald, were on hand to celebrate with the pride of Belleville.  

Sand Bagging!

As you may or may not know, I am becoming a message board geek.  Never thought it would happen but it has.  I also love input from readers of this site or who participate in the golf message board portion of insidestl.com.  Recently "'Lil Sickness" (aka Mckernan) got this email:  

"Could you pass on a request to Jay Jr. to do a golf piece on sandbaggers?  Maybe how to eliminate them?  New Handicap systems?  Thanks for the help. "

-Billy in Bellvegas  

Ok first off, here is the definition of a sand bagger as it relates to golf:  

1. Generally it's any golfer who misleads others about his ability level, claiming to be worse than he actually is at golf.  

2. More specifically, a golfer who artificially inflates his handicap index in order to better his chances of winning tournaments or bets.  

A sand bagger is considered by many to be the lowest form of life on a golf course.  Sand baggers can inflate their handicap indexes by selectively leaving out their best rounds of golf when they post scores for handicap purposes.  Then, when the sand baggers enter a tournament, they show, for example, a handicap index of 18 when, in fact, their true handicap might be closer to a 12.  So voila, they've just bought themselves 6 extra strokes off their net score, and lowered their odds for winning their flight or the tournament.  Sand baggers are, for the most part, cheaters and hustlers.   

There are also golfers who actually do the opposite,  They post lower scores that they have not actually shot to get their handicap down to a level to play in certain tournaments like U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur Qualifying.  At one time, say when I was 12 years of age, I actually made a mistake of doing this to get to play in the U.S. Junior Amateur Qualifying.  Well, I learned my lesson BIG TIME.  I shot like 98 in the first round of qualifying and while on my way to shooting a C-Note or higher, I bagged the 2nd round on the 15th hole at St. Louis C.C.  It quickly taught me that if you aren't good enough to shoot the scores it takes to qualify for an event, you really shouldn't be playing in them.  But back to the traditional definition of sand bagging. 

I have met them and most are wanna be hustlers who play sparingly in cash games.  They inflate their handicap to present a level of play that is not their actual game.  I remember one time at Glen Echo C.C. where myself and Tim Van Galder were playing with some of our normal group.  I was fifteen at the time because I remember my mom picking me up from the club.  These two oil guys from Oklahoma were in town doing a business deal with one of the regulars in our cash game group.  Well without going in depth, TVG and I get paired with these two guys.  Right off the bat TVG offers them a bet, our standard fare, $10 on the front, $20 on the back and $30 for the 18 holes.  We also played automatic two down presses at the value of each bet.  At the time I was a six handicap and TVG was like a two handicap.  These slick Okies informed us that they were both eight handicaps.  So in theory TVG and myself should be giving these guys eight shots over 18 holes.  Now I had been playing for a little bit of cash and making a couple hundred bucks a week playing in these cash games so I was ready to roll and I knew how good TVG was, so I liked our chances.  TVG birdies number one and I birdie the third hole and we go two up in the match, so everything is great, right?  Well I go to take a leak after hitting my second shot on number four and TVG flies over in his cart and says, "Son, we got 'em.  They just asked to double the bet and I agreed and both guys hit it out of bounds after doubling the bet."  Even better right!  WRONG.  One of the guys proceeds to birdie five, six, eight and nine.  At the turn TVG looked like he had seen a ghost.  To make a long and very sad story short, this young punk had to ask his mom for a check in the amount of $720 when she picked me up.  I had been hustled, bamboozled and treated to a lesson.  One guy ended up shooting 70 and the other 74.  We got waxed and lost every which way we could.  These guys were BIG TIME sand baggers!  

I am unsure of how prevalent sandbagging is today, but it was interesting to have a reader bring it up.  I have not played for serious cash in over fifteen years and during the time I did play for cash, word would get around about players that were sand baggers or would dump during rounds to get their handicaps up higher.  I am baffled as to how to eliminate them, too.  The group of guys that I used to play with kept their own handicap book.  If you won money that day, your handicap would drop half a shot and if you lost if would go up half a shot with a maximum number of four shots being added or subtracted each month.  It seemed to work pretty well.  The bottom line was they never wanted anybody to get hurt financially.  Sand baggers are an unfortunate thing, but as we know in just about every endeavor, somebody is looking for an advantage.  I would like to think in the end what comes around goes around but sometimes this doesn't happen.  I am curious if there are others ways that players have tried to combat sand baggers or any other sand bagger stories.  Post away your stories!