Someone with a 48 handicap has managed to shoot 31 points over 9 holes in our winter league today in absolutely horrible conditions including heavy rain and winds. Should add it was the B nine which is harder. They'll not get cut because it's non qualifying. Absolute joke. If they're capable of that score today I'd hate to see them in good weather. At the risk of sounding bitter it really makes entering competitions pointless for the rest of the club. I'd hate to be the person who came second (it wasn't me).
so in my case I am a new golfer (started playing during furlough June time and joined my local club at the end of August), was advised by the club to get my handicap as quickly as possible due to the improvements you should see in the first couple of years. So I did just that and my first 3 cards went in with scores between 115 and 120 and ended up with a handicap of 31 since then I have played on average a round every other day (joys of furlough and working from home) had lessons and now breaking 90, looking at the past few tournaments if I hit 90 I would have won or come second in the majority of them based on my current handicap which I would agree would annoy the crap out of ppl, but ultimately am I doing anything wrong by that obviously no and everyone would have had the same opportunity when they got their first handicap etc etc.
I think this year will make it worse due to the increase in people playing golf but surely over time the handicaps will come down and “level the playing field” again especially as I would have imagined the majority of players are more interested in playing and lowering handicaps rather than playing in comps (I know that’s the case in my book).