I don’t know why, but when I hear someone say ‘give me a 6, my handicap’ when they just plugged out a 9 on the hole – it just strikes me as wrong. Maybe it is the purest in me, but when I blow up and hit an 8 or a 10 on a hole, I take it.
Now, I know the idea of a handicap system, how it is meant to smooth out the scores and provide tournament parity, but it just seems wrong. When I was out the other day, I was on a tear … 7 holes into it and I was 1 over, then it all fell apart. In the end, I could of scored 5 lower if I would have ‘taken my handicap’ (Nice blow up triples), but I did not.
The handicap system makes sense for tournaments, but seems to defeat the purpose of the game – that inner challenge. I will keep taking my actual score and when I get older and have more time to get into the single digits, it will be the old fashioned way.
Michael Weening: a few pictures 
Equitable Stroke Control (ESC) is the method used to adjust individual hole scores (for handicap purposes) to make handicaps more representative of a player\’s potential ability. ESC is applied after the round and it is only used when the actual score or the most likely score exceeds a player’s maximum number. ESC sets a limit to the number of strokes a player can take on a hole depending on the Course Handicap. ESC is applied to all scores, including tournament scores.Below is the maximum number a player can take:Course handicap of 9 or less: Double BogeyBetween 10-19: 7Between 20-29: 8Between 30-39: 940 and above: 10Equitable Stroke Control is governed by the USGA and RCGA.Adjusting the individual score for handicap purposes is not wrong. The handicap is a measure of the player\’s potential. One blow-up hole is not representative of any player\’s ability. However, the score that gets tallied is the actual score. ESC occurs AFTER the round for tracking handicaps and not during the round to track the actual score.Perhaps what you should do in this case is tactfully remind the player to adjust his score for his handicap after the round is finished… that is, after all, the rule 😉