Golf stories thread

[tshore]

Any golfers among you? Every golfer has a story (or more ) to tell, and I'm sure other Pelicanites would love to read them

Here's mine. In the longstanding tradition of golf writing, it will not be short, so get comfy...

I had played for a couple of decades now to a handicap of between 5 and 8. My best rounds are maybe 2 or 3 over par, with my best ever an even par 71.

I joined my club about 12 years ago. Every year the club would hold it's official Club Championship, played in match-play. A stroke-play qualifier would narrow the field down to 16 players in the championship flight. Every year I would make it through the qualifier, but get knocked out in the match play in the early rounds. As a 5 or 7 handicapper, realistically I just really wasn't good enough to advance much further; the winner was generally a 2 or better.

As the fall of 2006 rolled around and the Club Championship got underway, my game wasn't in tiptop shape, but I somehow felt that this might be the year for me. No reason, just a feeling.

The qualifying round brought the usual result - a mid-pack seeding in the field of 16. Going into the first round, my swing seemed to be coming together, my putting felt ok, and I was really confident about the match. Well, maybe not...I started off bogeying the first 4 holes to go three down, then snap-hooked my drive on the 5th out of bounds. I was staring 4-down in the face, and my swing just felt totally alien - like I had never played the game before.

Then I hit my second drive on the 5th, and POW! It clicked. In one swing, I had found it. I followed the drive with a seven iron to 30 feet, and drained the putt for a half. I won the next three holes to draw even, and won the match 3 and 2.

My next match was against the defending champ and top seed, a very solid player who had knocked me out of the tournament a couple of times in prior years. This year, he had no chance. He didn't play well, but it didn't matter, because I did, and won 5 and 4, draining a 25-footer for birdie to close him out. My putting, so often the source of despair for me, had suddenly become deadly.

I won the next match, the semifinal, 4 and 3. After 12 years, I had made it to the finals! That was the good news. The bad news was my opponent Dave - a local legend, a 2-time champ, and a guy who could hit the ball 300+ yards - 50 yards past me. A great guy, but good - he'd shot 69 to get into the final.

The final was played over 36 holes - morning and afternoon rounds. As I stood on the first tee of the morning round I felt good, especially about my short game. My opponent had beaten me in this tournament a couple of years earlier, mostly because I didn't putt a lick. I figured he might expect that again, and if I started making putts, he might get rattled.

Over the early holes, the match was tight. We were both even par and all square after 7 holes. Then he bogeyed 8 and 9, and I found myself 2 up at the turn. He dropped another hole at the 11th with a bogey, and when I holed a 20-footer on 12 for birdie, I was 4-up. And starting to smell blood.

My confidence got a test on the very next hole, as I faced a scary-fast left-to right breaking 10-footer for par and a halve. Nothing but net... Still 4 up. Really feeling it now, I dropped a 20-footer in for birdie to win 14 and go 5 up. Then Dave bogeyed 15, and I was 6 ahead. I gave one back on 16, but found myself standing on the 18th tee still with a 5-up lead - and needing just a par to shoot 69.

After good drives we both missed the green. He chipped up but missed his par putt. My pitch onto the green left me with about an 8-footer. 8 feet away from a six-up lead at the break, and 8 feet away from my first ever round in the 60's. I'll remember that putt for as long as I live. Downhill...a little left to right. I remember striking the ball and watching it roll...staying outside the hole, then breaking in a little, then a little more, then...bang into the center of the cup.

I love the smell of 69 in the morning! It smells like...victory!

The afternoon round became an exercise in anxiety management. How do you follow up a morning round like that? I couldn't, but fortunately my putting stayed true, and even though I was 4 or 5 over after 11 holes I was able to hold my lead. Dave wound up hitting into trouble on the 12th, and conceded the match on the 12th green.

It was, I think, the best day of golf I've ever had, and one of the best days of my life, period. I think sometimes about how that first round went, about how that one swing seemed to change everything. A metaphor for life, maybe? Golf can crush your heart. So it's good to know that sometimes it really is a great, great game.

So that's my golf story. What's yours?

[pwd72s]

I don't golf. But in pool? I'm very experienced in racking balls....

Pool players have bigger balls!

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I managed to hit a hole-in-one on the windmill hole once. And I can't stand that one with the lighthouse. I never make par on that one.

[widgeon13]

Do they make Fuchs wheels to fit my golf cart? I want 7 and 9's

[mattdavis11]

Have shot 69 twice, both times when I was playing 4-5 times a week, and with good players. If you don't play with people better than yourself, you never get better, IMHO.

Anyway, I've been lucky to play 4 times a year, if that, for the last 6-7 years. I don't practice anymore. I've played 4 times since August of 2006.

In November of 2006, I teed it up for the second time in 3 months. When I was warming up, I found that I had a good draw on the ball, and felt it was going to be an ok round. I think I hit 6 greens on the front, making 3 birds and 2 bogeys. I couldn't make much, but I'm not a great putter so 1 under at the turn was nice. The back nine went along kind of like the front until 14. I lost my drive into a hazard that I didn't think I could reach with a 1 iron, and made bogey. At that point I was 1 under for the day. I made birdie on 16, and par on 17, so I was 2 under on 18 tee, a par 5. I had to get to 3 under to shoot 69. I hit 3 wood of the tee and a wedge to 20 feet above the hole. I was putting for eagle and 68. I three whacked it and shot 70!

One of my favorite nines was in a skins game. We had just played 18 holes and I got whipped pretty good after shooting a decent round of 75. We had a carry over on 18, so back to one we went. On my tee shot on one, the shaft on my 1 iron snapped at the hosel. I was pissed, my bread and butter was ******* gone! The guys I was playing with knew I was done, I knew I was done. I made par, but that was no concellation. We kept on playing. Pissed off, and half wasted (we drink beer when playing, lots of beer) I yank driver after driver, hole after hole (I never hit driver more than twice in a round) and nut it each time. It got pretty damned fuzzy, and I can't remember where I made birdies and bogeys, but I was 3 under 5, 2 under after 8, and tapped in for birdie on 9 to win a bunch of money, piss off the guys I was playing with, and shoot 33. I had to have someone take me home.

[gprsh924]

Not as too many great golf stories, but countless great caddy stories. There are a number of members that I have caddied for dozens of times over the last 5 years, so I can be pretty honest with them, which makes things fun. One guy is the worst 15 handicap I have ever seen. He plays to a 15 because half the time he is about a +2 and the rest of the time he is about a 32. He hits his first shot into the rough and he has some trees blocking him. However, he has a tiny little window. He is basically talking to himself outloud and asks "what are the chances I can hit this shot". I quickly reply "50-50". He just shoots me a look like "thanks as*hole" and then proceeds to hit it straight into the tree. Follows up with a duff into the sandtrap on the next shot, then holes out from the sand to save par.

There is also the time the same guy had an easy 4 foot put on 18 to save a bunch of points. If he made it, he got back to even, if he missed, he and his partner lost over $1k. He missed it.

Another time I was caddying for a guest that was absolutely terrible. He hit into a sandtrap on a hole that was at the corner of the property so there were roads on two sides of the whole. On the walk to the hole he is talking about how if he can just get up and down, he can save par. So he settles in for the approx. 15 yard sand shot and takes his fairly full swing. He takes absolutely no sand and picks it clean. The ball sails over the fence, over the trees and right into the middle of the intersection. I don't know how he didn't hit a car. I am usually pretty good at keeping my emotions in check while I am caddying so I don't piss people off, but I couldn't help it on that one. I just started cracking up, using the rake to keep me from doubling over. Luckily the rest of the group followed suit and the guy didn't get too angry.



Its almost caddy season...I can finally start making some money again instead of hemorraghing cash like I'm the federal government. In the first pic I am in the foreground on the right, my best friend in the middle and his little brother on the right. The second pic is my two best friends.

[sammyg2]

One time I tee-d up a brand new golf ball and proceeded to hit it directly into the water hazard. After a few choice words, I teed up another brand new ball, and hit it into the water.
More swear words, and I grabbed another new ball from the bag.

My partner suggested I use an old golf ball. I said, "an old golf ball? never had one of those ....".

[VINMAN]

I suck at golf. Thats my story.








P.S..... Golf is not a sport! and golfers are not "athletes"

[mattdavis11]

Originally Posted by VINMAN

P.S..... Golf is not a sport! and golfers are not "athletes"

I agree. Golf is just a good excuse to get loaded and say fuch a lot.

[Buckterrier]

Real short story here...

I SUCK

[Buckterrier]

Originally Posted by VINMAN

I suck at golf. Thats my story.








P.S..... Golf is not a sport! and golfers are not "athletes"

Sorry vinman, didn't see your post, wanna play sometime?

[gassy]

When I was a caddy my dude ripped his tee shot into a tree and a racoon fell to the ground and ran off.

I was driving my cart one time and some guy totally fuched his tee shot up and it was a direct hit on my finger holding on to the steering wheel. Fracture! I was glad it wasn't a foot higher. Never saw it coming.

[gprsh924]

Originally Posted by gassy

When I was a caddy my dude ripped his tee shot into a tree and a racoon fell to the ground and ran off.

I was driving my cart one time and some guy totally fuched his tee shot up and it was a direct hit on my finger holding on to the steering wheel. Fracture! I was glad it wasn't a foot higher. Never saw it coming.

Reminds me of another one. My friend was forecaddying (the golfers are in carts, you run ahead and spot the ball) for a group of old guys. He was standing next to a tree about 100 yards out. As the guy hit his drive, my friend lost the ball. The next thing he knew, the ball hit him square in the top of the head. He fell to the ground and had a decent sized cut on his head. The golfers sent him back to the clubhouse, and he proceeded to drive home, quite woozy. His mom then took him to the hospital and he got some stitches. He still frequently gets crap from us today, 3 years later.

[widgeon13]

I was at a business conference at Pinehurst some time ago and was playing Pinehurst #2. A beautiful day probably 80 degrees, sunny, a Donald Ross course, well known as one of the best. I'm playing with a good friend from the Boston area, a real gentleman and the four of us are all pretty solid golfers (8-10 handicaps).

We were walking down the fairway and our caddy is two steps back an one to the left, a nice fellow, southern black gentleman, carrying two bags.

Just a very relaxing fun day on a beautiful course, not a cloud in the sky. My playing companion says sort of in a kidding tone, "What do you think the poor people are doing today"?

Without missing a heartbeat, our caddy says, "Carrying your ******* bag mister".

Neither one of us said anything until after we walked off the green.

Maybe you had to be there to really appreciate the scene and tone of the comment but we still talk about that story to this day. For those of you who might never have visited Pinehurst, the caddy's are very proper, quiet, quite professional as they are doing this every day and most of their lives. They see and hear a lot about life, especially things they will never experience.

This guy was just thinking out loud. We gave him a pretty good tip.

[livi]

And be the ball, Danny..nahnahnah..dahdahdah

[gassy]

Where do you caddy gprsh924? When you're done with school let's play a round somewhere. I suck butat least the beer will be cold.
Christian.

[gprsh924]

I caddy at St. Charles Country Club. I'd be down for a round of golf once I am back in Chicagoland, and don't worry, I suck too.

[widgeon13]

Originally Posted by gprsh924

I caddy at St. Charles Country Club. I'd be down for a round of golf once I am back in Chicagoland, and don't worry, I suck too.

Did you ever know a guy by the name of Jack Turk at St Charles, little short SOB, real PITA.

[tshore]

A couple of bonehead things...

I was playing at Ballybunion New about 10 yrs ago, and I left my bag on the forward tee, then went back to hit off of the back tee. I was hitting 3-wood, and even though the bag was directly in my line, I figured it would not be an issue.

Of course, I catch the ball thin, and hit it straight into my bag, or, more precisely, into the clubheads sticking out of the top. Incredibly, the ball hits my graphite-shafted driver right below the clubhead and snapped the clubhead clean off! To add insult, that is a two-stroke penalty.

Another time, playing in NY, my playing partner forgot to put the parking brake on the golf cart. Preparing to putt, we turned around and watched as the cart started rolling down the hill toward a pond. There was nothing we could do but watch as it rolled into the water and settled in 3 or 4 feet deep.

[gprsh924]

Originally Posted by widgeon13

Did you ever know a guy by the name of Jack Turk at St Charles, little short SOB, real PITA.

Nope, may have been before my time, I've only been there for 5 years.