What's Your Handicap?

Why would anyone lie about their golf handicap?

The 113th U.S. Open golf tournament, this year at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, is but two weeks away.

If you're going to try out for this prestigious event, you might want to get real about your actual ability to put the ball in the hole more often than you put it in the weeds or the water. If your swing is so bad that you look like a caveman killing his lunch, as Lee Trevino used to say, you'd be better off saying so before slicing the first tee shot into the clubhouse at the qualifying tournament.

Golfers, of course, are notorious for creative counting of their strokes on the course. As one old golfer's adage puts it, 80 percent of golfers admit to cheating, and the other 20 percent are liars. Indeed, golf is the only game where you can yell "fore," shoot a six, and write down a five. Golfers can also fudge on their handicaps, the average number of strokes over par that they tend to shoot in a round. Exaggerate that number when you fill out your application for the...