[TEPaul]

Here's what Dan Hermann said to me on another thread:

"Tom - Come on out to Elverson..  I'll play you match play straight up, and you'll beat me 8&7"

I seriously doubt that but in my competitive career I never got beat all that bad except a couple of times and they definitely were memorable AND educational for a lot of reasons. Even more memorable and educational were a few matches I should have won and didn't.

Isn't match play golf a total grin?

[TEPaul]

Here's a trick question and if somebody doesn't get it in the first five posts, I'll be shocked but the question is---how bad can you technically lose a match?

Here's another trick question---how can you win a match from the tee?

[Joe Bausch]

Ok, I'll bite:  I always thought 10 and 8 was the largest margin of victory.

[Dan Herrmann]

How bad - well, you could be DQ'd for showing up late for your match.

But if you actually play, wouldn't it be 10 & 8, assuming an 18 hole match?

[Tom_Doak]

I always thought it was 10 & 8, but if there is some way to incur a penalty on yourself after finishing the ninth hole so you can lose 10 & 9, I am sure that someone on this board will know about it.

[Andy Troeger]

The first match I ever played was as a 7 year old in a pee-wee tournament. After winning a match I lost to the #1 seed 5 & 4 in a 9 hole match.

I beat the kid the next year though!  

[Carl Rogers]

I got beat 4 & 3 by an 11 handicapper whose was 1 under par ( I was 1 over par when closed out.)  What do you learn from that  besides not to post your low scores?

[Lloyd_Cole]

Tony Pioppi beat me pretty good last year, but the worst loss I ever had was against an old pal from NYC who was an assistant at Maidstone for a while in the 90's. I think it was 9 and 7, maybe not that bad, but it was over quickly! I won the afternoon match 1 up and consider it probably my best win ever!!

[Kalen Braley]

Tom,

1 and 18.  Do something to get yourself DQ'd on the 1st hole!! 

[Dan Herrmann]

Carl - I hope he posted that score as a "T" score.  Always be on the lookout for guys with that "R" after their GHIN index

[Cory Lewis]

I got beat by a guy who is now on tour when I was 18 playing in the State Am.  He beat me 8 & 7, made 5 birdies and an eagle and I didn't think I'd played that badly.  Obviously he was destined for greater things.  

[George_Bahto]

In 1986 I was 56 years old and was really playing well.  I had a pretty good streak going and had dropped down into the low single digits.

I survived to the scratch finals in the club championship at The Knoll - we had some pretty good players.

I really didn’t have too much of a problem in the earlier matches but in the club championship finals I was facing a hot-shot who was playing to a plus-3 (or something close). This guy played every day and was about 40 years old.

I was still in my small business and scrambling to get rounds of golf in during the week.

This guy totally killed me - I mean I was so embarrassed!

He closed me out on the 12th hole of the second round of the 36 hole final.

I had never been in that position before even though I was playing a lot of matches and I guess I was pretty nervous being in that lofty position. I was so intimidated when he got a flying lead early in the match, I never really got it going.

PS: 3 months later he was put into a witness protection program and was probably hustling down in Florida someplace.

[TEPaul]

TomD:

Pretty fair guess there but one can actually lose every hole on the first nine, then discover something like fifteen clubs in his bag to which the maximum match play penalty of a two holes gets ADDED on to the STATE of the match which means a lose of 11 and 9. 

I've been beat 7 and 6 a couple of times once by Johnny Applegate, a pro in the old annual Callaway Matches of the Philly pros against the Philly amateurs and once by Jay Sigel in my first Crump Cup.

The odd thing in that Crump Cup is when he beat the shit out of me like that on the walk back to the clubhouse he actually conceded the match to me. I've always known the Rules well enough where I said to him: "Ah, Jay, I don't believe you can do that under the Rules of Golf." But for reasons I'm sure I will never fully understand or ever bother to ask about I think I was playing his opponent the next day.    I guess I felt like---well shit who am I to ask what the hell this deal is about? If they tell you to tee it up in the Crump you pretty much tee it up and keep your trap shut. 

[Pete_Pittock]

Hint,
There are some golf penalties which adjust the status of the match,

Worst beat, six and four in a handicap match where I received six shots and lost all those holes.

Worst tournament beat was at Astoria where I lost my opening championship flight match on the 15th green looking at a 2 ft birdie as my opponent flies a wedge over the right dune into the hole for an eagle. The next day in first flight I was giving up about 50 yards on the drive and finally outdrove my opponent on the 16th only to have him hole out from 140 for eagle.

[wsmorrison]

I played in our West Course match play championship (full handicap) this year.  In the first round I was up against the champion from the previous year.  I had to give him 8 strokes a side.  He shot 1 over on the front and we didn't make it to the 12th hole, for a real 8 and 7 loss.  Good thing the 11th green is near the clubhouse.

[PThomas]

My dad once whipped off a belt that had about 5x the typical density of a regular belt and beat me silly.

Does that count? 

reminds me off the time i was down my block at a friends house...we were going to play baseball in the front of the house...the other kid's dad told us we shouldn't, we might break a window...no we won't we said..

a few minutes later i watched the bat sail out of my hands and break the big picture window of my friends house.....despite running away down the block in what surely must have been the fastest 100 meters in human history, my dad did still use his belt on me when he found out what happened....

[John Moore II]

Tom,

1 and 18.  Do something to get yourself DQ'd on the 1st hole!! 

Without going back and re-reading the rules, its very hard to get yourself totally DQ'd in match play. I recall there being a few ways for it to happen, but its very rare. John VB would know for sure, I suspect.

--On that same topic, I don't think you could lost 11-9 like Tom said. Since you all ready lost, you can't lose the same hole twice, and unless you have hit from the tee on 10, you will not lose 10 by having too many clubs either.

Worst beating--At least it felt like the worst, I lost 1 down to a guy I had to give up 16 shots to, I swear to this day if he posted scores using Equitable Stroke Control, he would have been no more than a 10 and I would have beat him at least 4 and 3. But whatever, I got hosed.

[TEPaul]

"--On that same topic, I don't think you could lost 11-9 like Tom said. Since you all ready lost, you can't lose the same hole twice, and unless you have hit from the tee on 10, you will not lose 10 by having too many clubs either."

Think about it John. You're coming off the ninth hole and you've lost every hole on the front nine. What is the state of the match at that point?

[John Moore II]

"--On that same topic, I don't think you could lost 11-9 like Tom said. Since you all ready lost, you can't lose the same hole twice, and unless you have hit from the tee on 10, you will not lose 10 by having too many clubs either."

Think about it John. You're coming off the ninth hole and you've lost every hole on the front nine. What is the state of the match at that point?

You're dormie in the match. But the 14 club rule does not apply to hole you are going to play, only on holes you have played, and you've all ready lost every hole, even with 15 clubs. You've all ready given youself the penalty by playing poorly. No further penalty

Edit--I may be wrong with what I said, but the decision is not clear as to how it would affect a match like the one we described. Either way, they guy who was 9 down after 9 is in deep doo-doo.

[TEPaul]

You're dormie in the match. But the 14 club rule does not apply to hole you are going to play, only on holes you have played, and you've all ready lost every hole, even with 15 clubs. You've all ready given youself the penalty by playing poorly. No further penalty"

John:

Even if most people think it's the way you do, you being nine down aren't dormie, your opponent who is nine up is dormie. And the point is after you've played nine holes and lost every one of them and you discover you have something like fifteen clubs the maximum two hole penalty in match play is not added on to a particular hole it's added on to the state of the match which at that point is you being nine down with nine holes to play.

[Bill Brightly]

Hackensack's 13th Hole is over water. So when you get killed in a match, (7-6 or worse) it's called not making it over the water...

Jimmy McGovern was only eligible for 4 club championships, when he turned 18 years old up until he went pro. He won all four, but I did make it over the water against him! Most did not.

Once I had his little brother in a quarterfinal match, and on the practice tee he says: "Billy, I do not want to be rude, but win or lose I gotta walk off the course to go to some damn thing with my wife" ...Anyway, he was 5 under after 12 holes and I did NOT make it over the water...

[John Moore II]

You're dormie in the match. But the 14 club rule does not apply to hole you are going to play, only on holes you have played, and you've all ready lost every hole, even with 15 clubs. You've all ready given youself the penalty by playing poorly. No further penalty"

John:

Even if most people think it's the way you do, you being nine down aren't dormie, your opponent who is nine up is dormie. And the point is after you've played nine holes and lost every one of them and you discover you have something like fifteen clubs the maximum two hole penalty in match play is not added on to a particular hole it's added on to the state of the match which at that point is you being nine down with nine holes to play.

Indeed, the person who is up is dormie. But I still don't think you would lose 11-9, it just seems too wierd. But like I said, after reading the Decision, that may be how it happens.

[Jon Spaulding]

I was beaten by Tobias Funke, the local "analrapist " in our club championship last year, 3&2. He could not beat me 2 times out of 100 in stroke play, on a good day. It was an absolute embarrassment. Perhaps that's the beauty of match play.

[Mike_Cirba]

Jon,

Thank you for my new tagline.

I'm crying in laughter and now have a brand new reason to promote match over medal play.

[Bill_McBride]

In the 2005 Kings Putter at Stevinson Ranch - or was it 2006? - Paul Thomas won the first six holes and beat me 7 & 6 in a singles match on the Sunday.  On #16 I made the only hole in one of my 50+ year career.

It was that kind of day.  I woke up with a serious blister under my right big toe and had to perform surgery in the pro shop with a box cutter and a box of Band-Aids.   

But no excuse, Paul played great. 

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()