"Properly sandbag"... love it...Safety play can help RAISE your handicap, and MAINTAIN your handicap if you're an SL7. So, if you wanna LOWER your handicap, play "safe" without actually calling a safety. "Miss intentionally with a purpose"-- leave your opponent tuff shots. This adds innings to your match which eventually will lower your handicap.
SL7s get matched up against other 7s a lot and thus the declining (older) SL7s are usually getting beat quickly, which keeps the inning count low, which keeps you BOTH stuck as a SL7. ONLY ONE PLAYER has to have a great game for both players to get rewarded. That's the problem with APA handicapping.
To properly sandbag in APA you have to "miss your shot intentionally while leaving your opponent a tuff shot". Create a longer game, don't call safeties. Trust me, I know lol. (But you didn't hear it from me). And this is why I now only play BCA-- sandbagging is tuffer-- love fargorate. I'm a 672 btw, if you're curious.
I know the APA has a whole tutorial for LO on spotting players 'properly sandbagging'. It really isn't all that tough to spot.