theStick vs. TheGrint for Golf Betting

theStick tracks your handicap the same way — and splits out Sim rounds too

If you don't have a GHIN index, theStick calculates its own rolling handicap directly from your own round history, using the same underlying method the World Handicap System itself uses (a best-N-of-your-last-M-rounds average, with the same low-round-count adjustments). You don't do anything special to make it happen — it builds itself in the background as you play, visible right in Settings. That's the exact job TheGrint's index does.

Where theStick goes further: if you play both outdoor rounds and simulator rounds, it tracks two completely separate rolling indexes — your regular theStick Handicap from real courses, and a distinct Simulator Handicap built only from rounds you've marked as sim play. They never blend into one number. A hot streak in the sim bay doesn't nudge your outdoor handicap, and a rusty stretch outdoors doesn't drag down your sim number — each is computed independently, the same way, from its own pool of rounds. Sim scoring runs differently enough from outdoor golf that mixing the two into a single index quietly misrepresents both; theStick keeps them honest by keeping them apart.

What TheGrint is genuinely good at

Where it comes up short for live betting

Scoring and betting feel secondary to the handicap-tracking core. The scorecard entry flow exists mainly to feed the handicap calculation, not to run a live multi-game betting session — there's no equivalent of voice entry, no real-time hole-by-hole betting engine running several simultaneous games (skins, a nassau, a side press) off the same scores.

No real per-hole stroke allocation across simultaneous games. A handicap-tracking tool needs a rolling index at the end of a round; it doesn't need to know which specific stroke-index holes each player gets a shot on for three different bet formats running at once. That's a different, more demanding job than what the product is built around.

The interface shows its age. TheGrint has been around a long time and it shows — a dated, form-heavy UI that a lot of users tolerate because they're already invested in their handicap history there, not one built for a first-time player to pick up in a minute mid-round.

No live spectator experience. There's no share-link concept for a friend or family member to watch a round update live from their phone — following along means waiting for someone to report back after the round, same as it would with a paper scorecard.

Money settlement isn't really part of the product. Any actual wager still gets settled the old way — mental math or a separate app — because TheGrint's own flow ends at a posted score and an updated index, not a "here's who owes who" screen.

The fair take

Where TheGrint still has a genuinely separate edge is tee time booking and an established community/league directory tied to specific courses — theStick doesn't try to be a marketplace. If that's the actual need, TheGrint does that job well.

But for the handicap-tracking reason most people actually reach for it, theStick matches it and adds the Sim/outdoor split most golfers who play both never realized they needed — and then goes on to actually run and settle the betting itself: strokes applied correctly across several formats at once, live in the round, with a link anyone can watch. That combination — real handicap management plus real live betting — is the specific gap theStick is built to fill.