Handicap zone
The great American golf tournament isn’t the U.S. Open, the Masters, the PGA Championship, not even the Ryder Cup with its $750 daily tickets.
It’s the member-guest tournament, many of which are played this time of year.
It brings together all that we hold dear about golf: the good shots we sometimes hit, the camaraderie, the sense of competition, wagering and, of course, an abundance of alcohol.
The member-guest also reveals the inflated handicaps some golfers carry because it’s so important for them to win shop credit and calcutta cash that they bring a guest from faraway who proceeds to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt he’s not a 13 handicap, but more like a 3.
The hosting member may also be guilty of selective score keeping on the GHIN app to inflate his or her handicap.
(The member-guest tournament) brings together all that we hold dear about golf: the good shots we sometimes hit, the camaraderie, the sense of competition, wagering and, of course, an abundance of alcohol.
If you have played in a member-guest, you know that person. If you’ve played in a member-guest and don’t know that person, then you are that person.
Each member-guest has its own personality, tee gifts and format, but many now favor the nine-hole match-around, allowing more interaction among players and more opportunities to gripe about someone’s handicap or the guys who were so hungover from the night before they screwed up the entire flight by failing to win a hole in one match.
The highlight tends to be the shootout between flight winners who generally play alternate-shot sudden death until someone either does something heroic or four-putts to lose the whole thing in front of a gallery made up of those players who didn’t advance and a few members who showed up to watch and grab a free drink when no one was looking.
Some places take it more seriously than others. The most fun events allow music, maybe have someone doing color commentary over a loudspeaker as the playoff lurches toward a conclusion and, win or lose, it is a great relief when it’s over.
For the winner, it can be a memory for a lifetime, especially if you’re the guy who holed a 30-yard pitch shot that rolled down two tiers on a green and into the hole when everyone watching thought his team was about to be eliminated.
For everyone else, the memories go with them too and may last longer than the pullover and the shoe bag that came with the event.
And, as nice as winning a few bucks in the parimutuel feels, the best feeling may be when the member and his guest decide to do it all over again next year.
Ron Green Jr.
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Top image: Barbara ivins-georgoudiou, GGP