My buddies and I love to play in local scramble golf tournaments. However, we are getting very frustrated with certain groups of golfers who show up for these tournaments and play under handicaps that everyone knows are incorrect, they are waaaaay too high. Almost every time, one of these foursomes wins, and usually one of the others take second. Is there a way to handle this?

One of the things that drives me absolutely nuts (no pun intended) is fudging on golf handicaps. The history and tradition of the game of golf are supposed to mean something, but people abuse the honor system that golf handicapping uses. I mean what the …….wait a minute, I’m sorry, I tend to get carried away.

Back to the question, is there a solution for this? I’m not sure that there is a long term answer. My experience with this, and I have had the EXACT same experience that you describe, is that many times some of these guys are your friends, or at least acquaintances. So that makes it even tougher to say anything. And, usually no one wants to ruin the mood of the tournament by calling them on it.

So what to do? Well I did see this situation handled in a very interesting way one time. And if you have access to the tournament chairman or director (and if he’s sympathetic to your cause) you may want to consider this.

A buddy of mine had had enough and talked to the tournament director of a scramble he was playing in. The director was very supportive and came up with a quick and, what I would call very appropriate, solution. He put all the foursomes of the “known” fudgers in their own flight! Everyone else was flighted accurately and the tournament was a smashing success.

Of course, the “special” flight group was not thrilled, but what were they going to do? Just like everyone else previously, if they said something, it would probably ruin the mood of the tournament and be viewed in bad taste.

Unconventional, but when have I ever given conventional answers? Good luck and good golfing.