My suspicions and reservations on unofficial handicaps is the absolute lack of any independant checking - anything the player decides to submit to Golfshake (or whatever) is accepted without question. Although players whose only handicap is via Golfshake (or whatever) will insist that they are scrupulously using it just as if it were a proper handicapping system, there are so many ways for the scores to be suspect. The nature of social rounds inevitably produce the possibilities for:
Gimmes
Loose application of the rules of golf
No application of the rules of golf
creative score counting
etc etc etc.
At least, when I play in a qualifier I know that someone else has marked and verified my score and has probably been watching me like a hawk for any of the afore-mentioned possibilities.
