4 ball tournament ?

[cruzthepug]

I've never been one to play tournament golf except for the occasional 4-person scramble, but I'm playing in a 4 ball event this weekend at one of the local country clubs that I have never played. It's a 2 day event with a practice round on Friday, my question is during the practice round should I just go play or should I try to take some notes about the course, like where not to miss it around the greens, etc.

What do y'all do?

Both my partner and myself have been playing pretty good as of late, we played a 9 hole 4 ball match against a couple of guys last Friday and put up 6 birdies. I'm sure there will be a lot of much better golfers, so I'm not sure what kinda chance we really have to compete, but we'll give it a shot.

[David in FL]

Cool!

If you want to do well in the tournament, I'd absolutely take the practice round seriously and try to learn as much about the course as possible.  Remember though, the course isn't closed down for your use during your practice round like it is for the pros, so please don't spend 20 minutes hitting multiple shots, mapping the greens and otherwise holding up regular play.  You do want to have a plan for each hole though that takes advantage of each of your strengths, while considering your weaknesses.  But that's easily done by playing at a relatively normal pace and making notes along the way.

Tournaments are a blast, and a 4-ball with a partner with whom you enjoy playing is a ball.  Have fun!

[MS256]

For a practice round I make sure I try to hit the borderline shots that I will probably attempt if my team already has a good ball, just to see what's possible, so I won't be biting off more than I can chew and trying something I can't do. I'm not a note taker but I don't have any trouble remembering the holes.

Most of the charity scrambles around here also sell 2 Mulligans per player and some sell a "throw" (that doesn't count as a stroke).

With all of those Mulligans it usually takes about 21 under to have any chance to win.

Unless I'm just considering it a donation to the charity I don't play in them because too much cheating goes on. I do enjoy two person scrambles where there is another team in each group to exchange scorecards.

[David in FL]

For a practice round I make sure I try to hit the borderline shots that I will probably attempt if my team already has a good ball, just to see what's possible, so I won't be biting off more than I can chew and trying something I can't do. I'm not a note taker but I don't have any trouble remembering the holes. Most of the charity scrambles around here also sell 2 Mulligans per player and some sell a "throw" (that doesn't count as a stroke). With all of those Mulligans it usually takes about 21 under to have any chance to win. Unless I'm just considering it a donation to the charity I don't play in them because too much cheating goes on. I do enjoy two person scrambles where there is another team in each group to exchange scorecards.

He's not playing a scramble..... It's real golf.

[MacDutch]

Notes yes!

Pay attention to the placement of the flags. This to make sure you hit it somewhere to get a good chance for up-and-down. Not only when you miss the green, but also when your first shot was a bad one and you need to scramble anyway.

[MS256]

Originally Posted by David in FL

He's not playing a scramble..... It's real golf.

Ahh. You are right. That's what I get for being in a hurry and seeing the scramble part but missing the four ball part.

One of my pet peaves is people that can't or don't read...And now I find out I'm one of them.

[cruzthepug]

Just home from the practice round, a lot of great info stored. Really glad we got to play the extra round since I had never played the course before. A lot of doglegs with blind tee shots the you can get way out of shape missing drives on the wrong side. We played from the tips although we were told the some holes would play from one box up, hopefully the couple of par 4's that played ~450 from the back tees.

[cruzthepug]

Well, I've got a lot to learn. I didn't feel nervious on the first tee until I pulled my tee shot into the trees, then hit my second fat, hit my pitch short and made double on the first hole. My partner did basically the same thing. We struggled all day. Can't really explain it, we both played pretty good Friday during the practice round. I tried not to let what the other twosome was doing effect my game but it's hard when they are hitting it way past you every hole and made the turn 4 under.

I guess on the up side, we will be split into filghts for todays round. I wasn't able to stay to see how the flights worked out, but from just looking at the posted scored we should be in pretty shape going into today. Best thing was we beat the guys we have a little side bet with by 3 shots and that was really our goal, to beat them.

Today will be a good day

[Fourputt]

Originally Posted by cruzthepug

Well, I've got a lot to learn. I didn't feel nervious on the first tee until I pulled my tee shot into the trees, then hit my second fat, hit my pitch short and made double on the first hole. My partner did basically the same thing. We struggled all day. Can't really explain it, we both played pretty good Friday during the practice round. I tried not to let what the other twosome was doing effect my game but it's hard when they are hitting it way past you every hole and made the turn 4 under.

I guess on the up side, we will be split into filghts for todays round. I wasn't able to stay to see how the flights worked out, but from just looking at the posted scored we should be in pretty shape going into today. Best thing was we beat the guys we have a little side bet with by 3 shots and that was really our goal, to beat them.

Today will be a good day

You have found the great secret to tournament golf:  No matter how much you plan and practice, your game is still going to be based on where the tee shot goes.  Play the game as it works out, play to have fun - if you can't do that then the pressure will get you every time.  Play within yourself - don't worry about what anyone else is doing because you have no control over that.  Trying to keep up with the Jones's in golf is a ticket to the bottom of the leaderboard.

[cruzthepug]

Much better results today, got off to a good start. Perfect drive down the middle, hit my second to 6 feet and made the putt for birdie. We played like ourselves today and although we did leak some oil coming in and gave a few shot away, we ended up with a second place finish in our flight (starting the day 2 shots back). After we were done, we were a little upset with the way we finished and felt we threw away a 1st place finish, but a team came in 8 shots better than yesterday and we ended up 7 behind them, so the couple of shots we pissed away really didn't effect the outcome.

Can't wait to play in another tournament with this format.

[Fourputt]

Originally Posted by cruzthepug

Much better results today, got off to a good start. Perfect drive down the middle, hit my second to 6 feet and made the putt for birdie. We played like ourselves today and although we did leak some oil coming in and gave a few shot away, we ended up with a second place finish in our flight (starting the day 2 shots back). After we were done, we were a little upset with the way we finished and felt we threw away a 1st place finish, but a team came in 8 shots better than yesterday and we ended up 7 behind them, so the couple of shots we pissed away really didn't effect the outcome.

Can't wait to play in another tournament with this format.

Just one additional comment.  I've played in the type of format you did this week, with one exception.  There was a stipulation that any team in the second flight which improved their score by more than 7 strokes from the previous day would be automatically bumped up to the first flight.  This was to minimize the chances of anyone sandbagging to win anything in that second flight.