Ruth and I decided to get more involved this year in the activities associated with our condo and the Tullymore Golf Club we joined. Last summer we spent most of our time settling in. Now that we’re settled, we’re more involved.
I’ve signed up to play in several golf tournaments including both a single match play and a doubles match play event. Match play is a scoring system for golf where a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they beat their opponent(s). This differs from stroke play, where the total number of strokes is counted. In match play the winner is the player, or team, with the most points at the end of play. You’re concerned with winning each hole rather than focusing on your total score. It’s got a different feel.
I played in a few match play events when I was teaching. That was in the 70’s. Back then I played in Kalamazoo’s city-wide match play tournament. I never won the event but remember a few things about it. It rotated between the city’s two eighteen-hole layouts, Milham Park and Eastern Hills. I was in my twenties and walked both courses.
During one of the rounds at Milham, I made a thirty-foot putt to win the seventeenth hole to tie the match. We tied the eighteenth hole, and I won the match on the nineteenth. I played my next match the following day and lost to a kid about ten years younger than me. It was in the nineties, and I had worn brown corduroy pants and a brown and gold golf-shirt. I sweat through both. Not my best golf course clothing decision. I can still see the pile of wet clothes where I peeled them off in our dining room on my way to the shower. When I picked them up on my way back through, there was a puddle on the floor.
Another year, when we played Eastern Hills, my first match was against a fellow teacher, Irv. After nine holes of play, I was up four holes. I thought I was going to run away with a victory, and I felt badly about having such a dominating lead. After all, Irv was my friend, and I was beating him like a drum. Wrong.
Irv went on to win the next seven holes in a row, and I was eating humble pie when the match ended on the sixteenth hole. He was up three holes with just two to play. The lesson learned that day was “keep your pedal to the metal”. Show no mercy when you’re trying to win.
The match play events at Tullymore are setup by a blind draw. I drew my doubles partner for my first singles match. He’s been playing well, and I’ve been playing poorly. I originally thought the title of this blog would be “One and Done”, because once you lose, the tournament is over for you. If you win, you remain in a field that has been cut in half. This continues throughout the summer until there are just two players left.
I knew I had to get off to a good start, because I find the back nine to be more challenging than the front. I won the first four holes, not because I was playing well, but rather, because he was playing poorly. I lost the sixth hole because we couldn’t find my ball and I had to go back to re-tee. I lost two strokes there. When we made the turn, my lead was down to two. After eleven, we were tied. The remaining seven holes were determined by who made the fewest mistakes rather than who played the better golf. Ironically, or perhaps it was Karma, my opponent lost the sixteenth hole the same way I lost the sixth.
I did my best to avoid trouble when my opponent found his. I wasn’t concerned with my score as long as I scored lower than him. That strategy resulted in a win for me. I was up two holes with only one to play when we shook hands.
I didn’t play good golf but I’m in the top half of the players. Time will tell what happens next.
