How Did You Fare In 2008 Club Tournaments

[shortgame85]

Many of you play in club tournaments. Our club has its first tournament of the year, the member/member, begining this week. The format includes a team consisting of two members playing an opposing team of two members in match play format. 80% of one's handicap provides an appropriate number of strokes per player. There are 32 teams. Losing teams fall immediately into a consolation bracket. Each team has one week to conduct their match. My team's match is today, at 4:00p.m.

I thought it might be of interest to start a thread, like the one titled, "What Did You Shoot Today?" for those who would like to discuss or share with everyone their tournament rounds. Please include format of tournament, scores, strategy, etc., and anything else about your round that may be amusing or interesting.

I will post the results of my round tonight or tommorow morning whether they be good, bad or worse.

[n3xt]

Well our club starts out this Saturday with the Earl Wilcox memorial blind four-ball. You play your 18 holes net THEN your partner is determined from a blind draw between the members of your foursome. It should be interesting to say the least. I'll let you know how I shoot as I am no doubt the D player in the group.

[shortgame85]

Yesterday afternoon, I played the first match of our club's Member/Member Tournament. Two men comprise a team. They play an opposing team in match play. The best ball wins each hole. Each player receives strokes based on their handicap and the number of strokes are based, in part, off the lowest handicap of the four players. In our case, my partner had the lowest handicap, 10, and received no strokes, I received two strokes on the front 9 and two on the back, for a total of four; the other team received 3 and 5 strokes respectively.

The weather was a little windy but, warm and sunny. It was a beautiful day. We teed off at 4:00p.m.

I shall think of our match as a day when the highest handicap soundly wipped everybody else. Why do I choose to think of it that way? You'll see.

Our opponents were many year's our senior. Neither fellow could hit the ball far, but they could hit the ball staighter than hell. They could also chip and putt. They are retired and play a lot of golf. Still, I felt confident my team would prevail because my partner, who, on several occassions, had shot in the mid 70s, could take them both by himself. Plus, I knew I was capable of a few good holes a round and I was certain I could contribute to the good for the homeboys.

My opening tee shot was straight down the pike, my second was all I could ask for on the long par 4 first hole. I was just short of the green: a little chip, a good putt and we were off. My teammate hit an errant tee shot but a lovely second, but he was pin high, just off the green. No worry, we had this hole well in hand.

The better player on the other team hit a tee shot to the right into some trees. His second shot was 40 to 50 yards short of the green. His teammate, the highest handicap of us all, hit his tee shot straight as an arrow. His second shot, from quite a distance away, landed in a greenside bunker. At that moment, I felt good about my prospects.

Within a few seconds, the tide changed. My teammate, the best player of us all, hit a fat chip shot, landing on the green, but left himself a twenty footer for par. I hit my chip pin high, but a bit to the left of the cup: about 9 feet for par. The better player of our opponents hit a chip to within 7 feet and his teammate, the highest handicap, landed his bunker shot within 2 and one half feet from the cup. My teammate and I just missed our putt, mine grazing the left edge. Bogey 5 for us. And guess who made his 2 1/2 foot putt. Yup. The highest handicap player. Quiet, barely a smile on his lips, he walked quickly to his cart and road to the second hole to take the honors. We were one down.

And so it went. That fellow, with the most strokes, three on the front nine, played a legitimate 4 over on the front. My partner, I am sorry to say, left his A game at home, and was 5 over on the front. I am ashamed to say that I contibuted but one hole, myself. I didn't play horribly. However, I couldn't get a putt to drop. I grazed a lot of cups, I just couldn't get the first ones to fall.

At the turn, we were 4 down.

The match mercifully ended after 14 holes. The score was 5 and 4. I was in a state of shock. I had kept score for us all. At the twelfth hole, a 165 yard par 3, after the same high handicapper made birdie, my teammate muttered to me, "I'll be damned if his handicap is correct!" Afterward, I turned to the crafty old player and said, "Do you know what you shot?" He just looked placidly at me. I told him through 14 holes, without any strokes, he shot 6 over par. Supposedly, he holds an 18 handicap.

Did he have a great round or, were we sandbagged?

I have shot well below my handicap on occassion. My club is small and I shall not raise a question about the results or anything else. And, without question, my teammate and I did not have our best day on the course. However, there's just the tiniest niggling doubt in the back of my mind that somehow............? Nah , best not to go there. I'm going to lick my wounded pride and move on to the consolation round, the match for which we will play next week.

Oh, the ecstacy of victory and the agony of defeat.

[AmenCorner]

Every single time a guy shoots better than his handicap, there are guys like you that question it. While sandbagging is about as common as speeding on the interstate, I don't think it's is fair or gentlemanly to question someone's integrity based on 14 holes of golf. Maybe the guy just had a good day. We've already established that you and your partners had bad days. Does that mean the two of you are worse than your handicap?

[DJYoshi]

Every single time a guy shoots better than his handicap, there are guys like you that question it. While sandbagging is about as common as speeding on the interstate, I don't think it's is fair or gentlemanly to question someone's integrity based on 14 holes of golf. Maybe the guy just had a good day. We've already established that you and your partners had bad days. Does that mean the two of you are worse than your handicap?

I feel you on sandbagging. I played for the 1st week 2 weeks ago. I was all excited to get back into friendly competition. It's what drove me to work so hard last year on really learning how to swing a club properly.

so I'm in the system as a 12.9 from last year. This guy said he's new to the game only been playing 1 year and it's his 2nd year. He's just joining so by default he's in the system as a 36 (don't know why they go by this). I'm like great, we've been playing for the same amount of time and should be pretty much on point together. This guy goes out and shoots an 81 on a course he's never seen in his 2nd year of playing & claims his handicap is a 24 but is in the system as a 36. he won 2 closest to the pin contests and longest drive. call me crazy but 81 - 36 is a 45 which means i'd have to shoot in the low 50's to win. it just isn't right!

[dkglf98]

2 years ago I played in a city flighted tourney and I was a 12.

I roped my tee shot 300 down the middle on hole one and parred.

On the second tee an old fogie in my group walks up to me and says he never seen a 12 handicapper hit drive like that and he was upset. I was pissed but just said we got 17 holes left, lets talk after the round. Needless to say I played to my 12.

[iacas]

I played a match last year against a guy who was something like +1 through 13 as a 9 or 10 handicap.

It is what it is. I didn't immediately assume I'd been sandbagged, and I agree with the above guy. Speculation is a slippery slope. If you think you were cheated, bring it up to the committee. Or at least look at the guy's scores on GHIN or somewhere before even thinking maybe you were cheated.

I didn't have to do those things because the guy I played was known to have up and down rounds. He'd birdie three holes in a row and double-bogey the next five. He simply managed to get lucky against me. He lost handily in the next round. I was the victim of nothing but bad timing or luck.

[iacas]

Let's put a moratorium on the sandbagging talk, or move it to another thread, because I'd like to keep this one on just the results ("How did you faire in 2008 club tournaments?") and not sandbagging discussion.

Edit: Moved comments that didn't obey this request to a new thread here .

[meenman]

Me and my wife played in a member/member best ball tournament last weekend. She got to play from her normal tees and I had to play on the blues (a bit out of my range - but fair since I wasnt the only one that wasnt used to them). The hi-lite of my day was chipping into the hole on 9 and then hitting the pin with my chip on 10.

We finished last in gross with a 113 and missed winning the net by four strokes (finished with a 70). The 13th hole (a par 3) cost us the net as we both shot 7's - I put 2 in the water and she would have done better if she had used her putter from the tee box to the hole.

Although we know most of the members that play on the weekend, it was nice to actually play with some of them for once and get to know them a bit more.

[sacm3bill]

I started playing last summer. Instantly addicted. Joined the league at my work so I could keep an official cap. Entered my first tourney with them in Feb, did ok. Second tourney, last month, was two-man best ball. Now, I have consistently worked very hard to get better, but I had broken 100 only once back in November and going into that tourney last month had not again since. Cap had started dropping a couple strokes a month but was still at 31.2. My course handicap for the tees we were playing was 32. I started out par-bogie-par-par, and ended up shooting a 93 - so basically 11 under my cap. Had a personal best # of shots from 100 yards and in, and close to a PB for fairways hit. I carried my partner, who had a slightly lower cap than me, on 16 of the 18 holes.

Only made one strategic error: On the 18th, my partner was on the green in regulation and I casually said "Don't leave the birdie putt short". He took my advice and missed it long and took 2 more to get down, for bogie. Before he took his first putt though, we knew the best I was going to get was bogie... so I should've told him to lag it close and guarantee a par. On realizing this I thought "Oh crap, we better not lose by one now!" But we ended up winning low net by 1 stroke. Sweet.

Because I was playing so well I was worried there might be suspicions of the "S" word, but it was never brought up. I understand now that people can have good rounds here and there without being accused of anything.

Anyway, starting around the time of that tournament something clicked, and I'm finally making progress in my ball striking. This month my cap is 5 strokes lower, and 9 of my last 12 rounds have been 100 or less, including one 91. Pretty stoked, and looking forward to entering many more tourneys.

Just need to drop 26 more strokes by June to be "scratch within a year".

- Bill

[Fourputt]

We had our first tournament the end of March... a team event that is more of a get acquainted event for new members and something to get the competitive juices flowing again. It's a 5-man scramble with all teams computer matched so that the total team handicaps are about equal across the field. It's fun, but it isn't a tournament that one takes very seriously... more social than competitive.

I'm playing the first individual competition of the season today and tomorrow (April 19 & 20). It's a stroke play tournament called Heaven and Hell, where the course for the first round is set up easy and we play the forward tees, then for the second round the setup is difficult and we play the middle tees. I'll report back when I see how it goes... looking forward to testing out my slowly improving swing.

[shortgame85]

We had our first tournament the end of March... a team event that is more of a get acquainted event for new members and something to get the competitive juices flowing again. It's a 5-man scramble with all teams computer matched so that the total team handicaps are about equal across the field. It's fun, but it isn't a tournament that one takes very seriously... more social than competitive.

Good luck to you.

[Ruari]

Club knockouts: just got knocked out of the singles (see the 'how did you shoot this weekend' thread). Cocked up the scoring and lost by one hole.
Regular weekend events: a nice two-spot a couple of months ago, earned me £75 - £35 more than the winner (it was the only one on the day). No medal wins yet but one Saturday Stableford.
Incidentally, how are the British players finding the new 'full handicap difference' rule in matchplay? (I don;t know if the Americans already play this).

[shortgame85]

Played the next match in our club's member/member tournament, today. Two members constitute a team and play against another team in match play. The weather was heavily overcast, temp in the mid to high 60s.

We played a pair much more skilled than me. One fellow was a scratch golfer. I am pleased that my play was much better than in our previous match: I struck the ball better, I found more fairways with my driver, insured that our team split a couple of holes and won a couple of holes for our team. My partner played better than he played in our previous match, as well.

However, the scratch golfer had a great day. At the turn we were down by three. We split ten, I won eleven, we split twelve and thirteen but, then the scratch golfer birdied fourteen and fifteen magnificently and, thus, ended our match. Score: 4 and 3.

We didn't lose the match as much as they won it; and they won their holes with birdies. Keeping our real score, my partner had a 68, or 5 over, after 15 holes; I was 73 after 15. I was playing to my handicap. We were defeated by a highly skilled player who shot 1 under after 15 holes. His partner played well, too. Both of those fellows were a pleasure to compete against. While I wished we had won, I know we gave the match our best.

[Ruari]

Lost in the 1st round of the singles. Through to the next round of the Foursomes (alternate shot). 4BBB pairs on Sunday.

[jamesbei]

Won the Cross Country golf!!!!, a sort of warm up comp playing from wrong tees to greens, quite funny but not overly serious, 14 holes i shot 2 over!!! best round yet this year, swing is gradually getting back to where it was in september!

[BASHERBAKER69]

I played a match last year against a guy who was something like +1 through 13 as a 9 or 10 handicap.

That happens, especially when you compete in the 10 handicap and below matches. Off 10, its obvious that you can play, and if you have a great day you may only drop a couple of shots. If the opponent has a bad day, then the result can look a bit dubious in a matchplay situation where the low handicapper is giving shots away!

[Ruari]

Sean and I won our 4BBB Pairs match Sunday and are through to the next round.
Mostly his doing - he played a blinder and all I had to do was tag along, make up the numbers and pass on the odd encouraging word!
Saturday Medal - was cruisin' nicely till the 12th, which has a tee right by it. Normal practice is to wait till those on the green have putted out but one of those on the tee was unaware/ignored/whatever. Hit his tee shot and yelled 'fore!' as I was taking my stroke. Cost me three shots on that hole (double-hit, left short, grrrrr!) plus a coupe more because I was seething for the next few holes.
Finished second in the division with net 71 - level par. Could have been 65 or 66 but there you go.