Every August the assortment of club championships and member-guests inspires a uniquely golf dilemma. To spend your season sharpening your game means your handicap might be lower than it has been—which makes things tougher in return.

It’s not always clear what to root for with your handicap. Whether it’s vanity or competitive instincts, I still crave posting a good score to GHIN and seeing my pending handicap index creep lower. That rush lasts at least until I show up on the first tee for a tournament and wonder why I’m not getting more strokes.

Golf Digest has written at length about sandbaggers and the assorted manipulative tricks they wield. Yet as a rule, the shrewdest sandbaggers represent a tiny percentage of the golf population. It’s too much work, for one, and most golfers subscribe to an honor code that is embedded in the game’s DNA. But for many golfers, including the four of us in the midst of our season-long project monitoring our handicap progress, there’s at least a question of what we prefer when playing for real.

Before proceeding, let’s at least take a look at where we stand.

Of all of us, Greg has shown the most measurable progress, not surprising given he’s newest to the game and with the most open road ahead of him. But even he now has to confront a new dynamic: the lower his handicap, the less cover he’ll get in the form of strokes in competition. “I’ll take whatever strokes I can get,” he says. “And yet, I’d also like a lower handicap heading into any tournaments just so it looks like I know how to play golf.”

Neither Luke nor Maddi have that concern. Both played college golf, and as low-handicap players, they don’t expect much help to begin with.

“The gift and curse of having a lower handicap means your fluctuations won’t be that wild compared to others,” Luke says. “Only a few half points. The literal number my handicap is doesn’t really make a difference in club competitions for that reason. Instead, I prefer to use it as a gauge for where my game currently is compared to where it was—and how I can improve it.”

I play enough with seasoned players like Luke and Maddi that I tend to lean on strokes. Yet my own modest progress means less than before, and I even risk advancing into a higher flight for an upcoming club championship. By one measure I’m giving myself less of a chance in competition. But like most golfers, I welcome it as a good problem to have. A trend line toward improvement is the only direction that matters.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com