This Monday I travel to the Ft. Wayne, IN, area for a Ryder Cup-style event between a group of senior golfers from Michigan versus a similar group in Indiana.  We are only going to play two days with the first day a team game, either foursomes or four-ball, or maybe a combination.  The second day is singles.

I have never played a competitive foursomes or four-ball match.  I suspect most of the other players on the MI team have no experience, either.  I will need to brush up on the few Rules differences between team play and regular singles match play.

The event is going to be played “net” and it will be interesting to see how that goes down, too.  We have our share of players with interesting handicaps and I suspect the Hoosiers do too.  Fortunately, the people organizing the event are well experienced and will lead the rest of us by the hand.

It has been several years since my last true match play event.  I play against friends often but not in match play tournaments.  I am going to need to toughen myself up mentally in case my singles match is against an overly enthusiastic competitor.  This is not the Ryder Cup and it is supposed to be a fun event.  Inevitably, however, there will be some who will play like it is a blood match.  I’ll just need to cross my fingers that I get matched against someone relaxed, like me.

If nothing else, there should be a few interesting stories to tell next week.