Commercial and Vanity Handicaps

In the last few months I have come across a couple of lovely descriptions of two kinds of golf handicaps at my home club.

Like every other golf club, golfers at the Poona Club also place bets when they play. Depending on one's appetite, these bets can be of varying sizes, but the core idea behind these bets is to make the game more serious and to bring in a competitive edge. Therefore a club golfer is at an advantage if his/her handicap understates their golf ability. Stories about "fudged" handicaps - some serious, some frivolous - are not at all rare, and these stories are a major topic of discussion in the clubhouse.

In this context, a friend introduced me to the concept of a "commercial handicap". A commercial handicap is a carefully "managed" handicap that gives a golfer a cushion of a few strokes and therefore helps them win more bets. I don't want to go into the techniques of "managing" one's commercial handicap, but there are some very interesting ones that do the rounds.

And then there are golfers who would like to look good on paper. These are the golfers who would like their golf handicap to overstate their ability. One of my friends describes such a handicap as a "vanity handicap". These golfers typically do not play bet games, and if they do, they are willing to forego some money in exchange for looking good on the handicap chart.