I’ve always believed if you don’t know who’s the worst player on your team – any team – it’s you. I played in a thirty-six hole four-man scramble over two days this week and felt that way more than once. Turns out I wasn’t.
It’s not a stretch to call The Villages, Florida the golf capital of the world. There are 711 holes of golf spread over 55 total courses with more on the way. There are at least three sets of tees on every course. The thirteen championship courses have five sets. There’s something for everyone who has an interest in the game.
A few years ago, I was playing on one of the championship courses with men I didn’t know. The youngest one rode in my cart and when I asked what tees he hit from he said, “The black.” “The black” is the longest set. As he was preparing to tee off, the starter came out of the starter shack to watch him hit. He whispered, “I’ve been working here seven years and I’ve never seen anyone play the black. I just had to watch him tee off.” He did hit the ball a mile, but that’s all he could do… drive the ball. The rest of his game was poor, and I beat him by several strokes. Knowing what you are capable of is extremely important. He didn’t have a clue.
This week’s tournament featured 136 players on four-man teams set up by the golf pros. I don’t know how we were assigned to teams, but we had to provide our handicaps to the officials, so I expect we were set up with four players of differing handicaps. We met for the first time a few minutes before we teed off on Tuesday afternoon.
Long story short, we shot eight under parr the first day with eight birdies and ten parrs. At the end of day one we were in twelfth place out of thirty-four teams and, potentially one stroke out of the money. The format required we use at least two drives from each player, and we had no trouble reaching that goal. We had them all in on the tenth hole.
When David and Michael were playing on their high school golf teams, I told them the key to scoring well was to be able to “get down in three” from 150 yards or closer. I still believe that. It makes no difference what club you have to use from 150 yards as long as you can reach the green. I used an eight iron when I began that conversation. I find myself opting for a five wood upon occasion these days. As long as you don’t let your ego get in the way, pick the club that suits you best.
The tournament was on an executive course comprised of three parr fours while the remaining were all parr threes. Getting down from 150 yards in three shots, or less, served us well.
The second day’s layout was longer and more difficult. Once again, we had all of our required shots in by the end of the tenth hole. The challenge was getting into the hole. We only missed one putt that was less than eight feet long, but we had difficulty getting it close to the hole in one. We finished seven under on day two for a two-day total of fifteen under. We didn’t know it at the time, but seven under was the sixth best round of the day. In the end, we finished in ninth place.
The Farmers Insurance Open paid $245,700 for a ninth place finish this year. I played San Diego’s Torry Pines several years ago, so I have a soft spot for that tournament. The Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando paid $351,000 for ninth place and The Masters ponied up $450,000. We didn’t win anything near that. Our ninth place finished netted the four of us $8.50 each…$1.50 short of our $10.00 entry fee.
We didn’t plan to get rich but wanted to finish with a respectable score. We finished “in the money”, worse than some but better than most. I’m already looking forward to next year.
Teamwork very important