By Bruce Braun
“Many golfers prefer a golf cart to a caddy because it cannot count, criticize, or laugh”. -Submitted by Dennis O’Sullivan.
It happened! Our league play for today was washed out by Mother Nature. Although the roster included 21 groups, play was canceled after most of us had completed only about five holes. Of note, on one of those holes, Bob Brignall, got a birdie on the 14th hole. Way to go, Bob! Although the sun came out shortly afterwards enough rain had fallen to make the course temporarily unplayable. We will resume again next week and players that paid for their round can expect a much reduced rate next week. As well, hang onto your 50-50 ticket if you purchased one. The draw will be completed next week.
If you require a explanation of the recent limousine and red carpet appearance at Beauty Bay, please read on. Several of our league members participated in the July 26 Kenora Golf Course Senior Tournament and performed admirably. The word admirably is an understatement, but this writer is not prone to exaggeration. Several of the men from Beauty Bay performed well enough to take home prizes. This explains, to some degree, some noses, deservedly, being held higher than others. Results are as follows… Keith Lake: second in flight number two. Marvin Koski: second in flight number three. Duncan Ross: second in flight number four. Peter Madott: closest to the pin on number 12. Al Kobylka came in first in the putting contest and Dan Anderson won the draw. Congratulations for the strong performance men. You did Beauty Bay proud!
This is a bit of a re-print of an article from earlier this season, edited for further clarity I hope. It explains a good way to manage your group of three so that you can compete fairly as a foursome. On any given Tuesday there is a chance that you will be in a group that does not have four players. It’s inevitable. In theory, a threesome has a slight advantage over a foursome in that there is an opportunity on every hole that one golfer gets to putt twice. This assumes that the golfer who gets to putt twice can actually putt better the second time! Strategically, whoever is playing two balls could go last having the opportunity to watch the other two players and gain some information on the putt from them. The group of three must alternate playing two golf balls every third hole to make up for the missing player. To be fair this must be done in sequence, meaning there is never an opportunity for the same person to be able to hit two balls two or more holes in a row. However, one further strategic advantage would be to have the player who is age 75+ be the player to hit two tee shots on the eighth hole. As you know, the eighth hole forward tees provide a terrific advantage of over 130 yards.
Check out the score card pictured here as a sample. Start by doing this: on the scorecard, on each hole, repeat the letters, A, B, and C, in sequence, one letter for each hole of the scramble. Then decide which player is A, B, and C. Typically, a three-person team competes in a four-person scramble by having each player -- A, B and C -- alternate being the D player. In this example, Ollie, is the missing player. So, Ted, Bob, and Stu must compensate for Ollie. On the first hole, the A player (Ted in this example) also hits for Ollie. That means Ted hits twice on each shot on the hole until the ball is holed. On the next hole, the B player (Bob) is also Ollie. On the third hole, the C player is also Ollie and gets to hit twice. On the fourth hole, the cycle begins again. There are three cycles in total to coincide nicely with our 9-hole scramble format. Further, in our league, whereby each player is to contribute two tee shots in their nine hole round, it’s important to know who is teeing off. For example, if player A is also hitting for Ollie he must declare if he is hitting for himself, or Ollie. If no declaration is made, the default is always A first. This clarification is in place to help prevent the threesome from having an unfair advantage over other teams. After all, if you can pick and choose after your tee shots then there would be less strategy in filling the requirement of two drives per player.
Have a good week everybody. See you next week.
