I'm just getting to the point where I am ready to pay attention to my score as opposed to judging my day by how many balls I lost.

I'm half amused and half curious about the strange way people score and would be interested to hear what other people really do.

One of my friends who's also learning the game doesn't count mulligans and of course, that's a joke. But what's really the accepted norm for things like a "gimme" ?

Yesterday, this guy who we were paired with, a nice guy with much more experience than me, thought nothing of picking up someone's ball after they hit a long put (15 feet or so) and got it 2 inches from the hole and throwing it to you and saying "that's a gimme."

Another time, On my 2nd time out, a friend of mine were paired with a couple of much better golfers and when I was going for my third putt, he told me it's pretty standard to give yourself the hole when you get close.

When we were finished yesterday, I had a 124 (including penalties for 3lost balls) and the other guys said they had 95s. Now, I figure they may have beaten me, but I know I really had a 124 -- or am I a chump?