First Tournament - Disappointed

[RandomRaiderTTU]

Well, I took a chance this past Memorial Day weekend to play in my first real tournament. I had played in a few scrambles up to this point, but this was 2-man Lowball and we'd be playing for a good purse.

I partnered with my step-father and we played at a golf course where he was once a member and knew everyone out there. He is about a seven handicap and I'm a 14-15.

I told him initially that I didn't want us to get into it unless we had a legitimate shot to compete. Not to win...but I wanted to be able to compete with other players at our level. It is usually pre-flighted to handicaps.

Well, we get out there and Championship and 1st flight are pre-flighted, the remaining ~17 teams are in an "open" division that will get flighted after the first round.

As if that wasn't enough to bring in the sandbaggers...add this.

The format for these two flights will be...whatever your team is behind the leader after the first day, you get half the shots back. Leader shoots a 71 and you shoot a 73? The next day you get 1 stroke taken off your total. Same goes for after Sunday's round.

Basically, all you have to do is shoot well on Monday.

Well, if that's not enough, after we get done with our round on Saturday where my step-father proceeds to carry us to a 72 (I helped on about 6 holes), we find out that not enough people showed up in the first flight, so they got bumped into open division and now it will be 3 flights...same scoring method.

Where are we??? 1st flight. There is not a single person in this flight that I could get within 5 strokes of if we played heads up.

We go out Sunday and I played my butt off. My partner was a little off, but we manage a 73. Played with a team that shot 66. Great.

Of course, Monday rolls around and we are dead last.

We knew we were done the moment we saw we were in the first flight.

It could have been worse I guess though...one of the teams in the second flight got second place because of the scoring method used, but if you added up their scores for each day, they would have gotten first.

OUCH.

About the only good news I could take out of this was that I played great for two days in tournament style play. I probably shot 3-5 under my handicap on Sunday, and maybe 1-2 under handicap on Monday. Conversely though...probably shot 4-5 over handicap on Saturday.

[Leftygolfer]

The format seemed crazy. But who cares?? It was fun I am sure and you played well. That is all you can do.

[TN94z]

That is why I don't like mulitple day tournaments like that. We play in some 2-day scrambles and it is all a guessing game. You out the first day and get your score. THe second day you are flighted based on that score. If you are not the leader of the flight, you can shoot well enough to catch the leader plus whatever number they draw after the tournament. After it is over, they draw a number from 2-7 and that is the number of strokes better you can shoot.

For example, team 1 shoots 80 and leads the second flight. Team 2 shoots 85 and is second place of the second flight. They draw a 3 out of the hat. Team 1 can shoot as low as a 77. Team 2 can shoot well enough to get to 80, then they get the 3 strokes that were drawn and can also shoot a 77. This makes it somewhat fair, but the problem is sandbaggers. They will shoot bad the first day, get in a lower flight, shoot what they need to catch the leader of the flight and then they get the extra strokes as well.

The good thing is nobody knows what number is going to be drawn because it happens after the rounds are over, but it doesn't take much math to figure out what you need to shoot. This is the biggest reason why I want to play tournaments on my own where I can shoot for number one and not have to worry about this stuff.

[RandomRaiderTTU]

And thus starts my quest to be a good enough golfer to play in the Championship flight!

At least then, in that flight, you go out and shoot balls to the wall for however many days the tournament is and let the chips fall where they may.

We did have fun though. Like I said, I'm not mad...just disappointed.

They provided one helluva ribeye dinner on Sat. night and then we had catered BBQ lunches on the following days, plus $50 in "tournament bucks" that we could use in the pro shop or in the bar. Add to the fact that we played with good people for 3 days.

If we get put in the flight where our handicaps match everyone else's, we win...but thems the breaks I guess.

[TN94z]

And thus starts my quest to be a good enough golfer to play in the Championship flight!

And this is why I still play in them as much as I don't like the formats. It is always fun and it is actually fun trying to guess the number to shoot. The food is usually worth the entry fee and we always cut up while we are playing. They are fun...just hard to win

[MiniMoe]

We play in a few tournaments like that as well out here in Texas. I always want to play champ flight because the good players that like to sandbag are going to be in first flight. Sometimes the first flight score is better than in Champ flight.

A good friend of mine has a quote about weekend two day scrambles and best balls..."I don't mind losing, I just hate getting out cheated."

[billm408]

..."I don't mind losing, I just hate getting out cheated."

Awesome quote!

I've played in a few events like this and my expectations are just to have fun. Anything beyond that only leads to disappouintment. RandRaider- as long as you had a good time, that's all that really matters.