Despite the rain, it was a fabulous day.
Mountain Ridge was in great condition, with firm & fast fairways and greens, despite the rain.
Since we were concerned about the rain we decided to tee off and skip lunch.
On the first tee, which has a magnificent view of the course and mountains to the west, I asked Ran what his handicap was.
He became very evasive and stated that handicaps weren't important and that we should just make a match.
He asked for 12 shots.
Again, I asked him for his handicap.
And again, he responded with evasive and deflecting remarks.
I figured that he was about a 9-12 handicap and since I'm a 5, I figured that giving him somewhere between 4, 5, 6 and 7 shots would be fair.
I again asked him for his handicap. He said that he thought 12 shots would be fair. I stated that I thought 4 shots would be fairer.
Being a generous host, I told him that I'd give him three matches, at 7, 8 and 9 shots.
He said that he thought 9, 10, 11 and 12 shots would make for a better match.
Now, what Ran didn't know was that I knew what his handicap index was, but, I never told him.
Reliable sources indicate that his index is 8.8. I'm 4.2 From the blue tees at Mt Ridge that means that I should give him 5 shots.
I stuck to the 7, 8 and 9 shot match with emphasis on the 9 shot match.
Why did I do this you ask ?
I did it because, if I won, giving him 4 shots more than he deserves, would send the message that it doesn't matter how many shots I'm going to give him, I'm still going to beat him.
So, we've hit a few balls at the range and are about to tee off when I say to him, "do you want to play two balls off the first tee" ?
He recoils in feigned shock and responds, "don't they play USGA rules here ?"
# 1
I say, "OK, we'll just hit one"
I then tee up and as I'm about to swing, I hear, "are you a little nervous and tense ?"
To which I respond by drilling a drive down the middle of the fairway.
Ran tees up and as he's about to hit, I ask him, "what was that you were saying about being nervous and tense?".
He responds by duck hooking his tee shot deep into the left rough.
Now, Mountain Ridge has ferocious rough.
We get to his ball and it's sitting up with a perfect lie.
I say to our caddy, "Hey, I know he's my friend and an out of town guest, but, leave his ball alone, this isn't Pine Valley"
Ran now proceeds to pitch it out from the deep left rough all the way over to the right rough, after which I say in a loud voice, "he's a little limited when it comes to course management". I hit an iron to about 12 feet, Ran pitches up to about 11 feet, I rim out, he misses and with his shot we're all even.
Ran doesn't hit a fairway until the 9th hole.
Let me rephrase that.
Ran doesn't hit his own fairway until the 9th hole.
Yet, every time he's in the rough he's got this great lie.
On the second hole, after he's hit a HUGE snap hook adjacent to the 9th tee, the master of course management pitches it into the rough on the opposite side of the fairway. I hit a choked 3-wood onto the green, and with his stroke, Ran is 1 down.
The third hole is one of the pivotal holes in the match.
I hit a 3-wood, 9-iron to 15 feet, Ran snaps his 3-wood into the left bunker, and hits a great fairway bunker shot about 40 feet from the hole. Ran then runs his approach putt about 6-7 feet past the hole.
He looks at me with those sadness in his eyes and I give him the putt for a half.
This would later come back to haunt me under the "no good deed goes unpunished doctrine"
# 4 I hit a choked 3-wood 25 feet from the hole, Ran is off to the right, then over the green and I'm 2 up.
# 5 Ran has pushed his tee shot two towns over and I'm 3 up.
# 6, one of the great par 5's in amateur golf.
Ran has now conceded that he can't hit his driver straight, so he tees up with a 3-wood and almost goes out of bounds.
I split the fairway.
The 6th hole has a great cross bunker cut into a sharp elevation approximately 80 yards from the green.
With the wind and rain in my face I tell Ran that normally, I'd lay up short, but, because it's him, I'm going to go for the upper plateau. I hit the shot slightly heavy, high and with a cut. I comes down in the bunker 90 yards short of the green.
Ran scrapes his second but finds another great lie in the rough, hits a low liner 3rd 10 yards short of the green.
The 6th green has to be one of the great greens in golf, with spines, slopes, contours and segments.
I say to TEPaul, Ran's shot is very difficult with the pin all the way back left, because he's got to traverse that big spine on the left.
If he doesn't, he'll come up short and have an impossible putt, and, if he hits it too hard, he'll go over the green.
Ran hits it too hard and the ball goes over the green, on the fringe, up against the high rough. He's got no shot.
I've hit a good bunker shot onto the green and have a straight putt up to the hole which I leave a little short.
Ran holes his shot, a shot that's so beyond his ability as to defy the golfing gods.
With 1,000 balls he couldn't duplicate that shot.
Now, instead of winning the hole with ease, I have to make a six footer for a halve, which I do.
# 7 we both miss the green and halve the hole.
# 8 Ran snaps another beauty off the tee that hits a tree and comes down not only in play, but again, with a perfect lie in the rough.
I hit a good drive down the left side that goes 1 foot into the rough and my lie is horrible.
We both hack it down the left side into the rough. We both hit the green.
However, I'm below the hole, Ran is 25 feet above the hole.
I've told TEPaul, Ron, Jim and Ran that you have to be BELOW the hole at Mountain Ridge.
I putt up to six inches, ran blows his putt 11 feet past the cup.
Incredibly, the putt falls in on the low side and with his stroke, he's only 2 down.
# 9
We both hit the 9th fairway. Ran snaps his second, I catch the rough over the right fairway bunker, make a bad choice with club selection and lucky Pierre wins the hole. He's only 1 down.
# 10. He snap hooks another into the trees and it spits out into the most benign rough you can imagine.
Another perfect lie. He snaps his second left of the green, I push my iron from the fairway into the right bunker.
He up and downs it, I don't and we're all even.
# 11 He snaps another into the left rough and again has a great lie with an open shot.
He hit it to 140 from the center of the green, 127 from the hole.
Now I must tell you, the hole is cut on a front right mound. Hit it short and you'll be back off the green, right and you'll be in a bunker or deep swale, long and you have a very difficult putt. Ran proceeds to hit a shot that defies physics. It lands on the mound and stays there, 10 feet from the hole. Just to show you how impossible this is, Ron has hit his shot 10 feet short of the green and 25 feet from the hole. He putts up onto the green, whereupon the ball comes back down and he's now 2 feet further away, he tries it again, same result, finally he wacks it and the ball sails well past the hole. Jim, chips from short left of the green and the ball goes past the hole and down off the right flank of the green onto a chipping area, from which he takes a few wacks at it.
Tiger Woods couldn't hit the shot that Ran hit.
Ran can't hit the shot that Ran hit.
To add insult to injury, he gets a shot and is now 1 up.
# 12 Ran snaps another one that hits trees and comes down with a perfect lie and hits his second just left and short of the green.
# 12 is a dogleg right. I hit a good drive that with the wind and rain doesn't get past the dogleg
I'm totally blocked by the pines/spruces. Ran tells me that I can always chip out
I've got NO shot. Then, I decide to take my driver, choke it up and punch a 140 yard shot under the branches (I've got about 4 feet) left of the pond and onto the back of the green. I execute the shot and we're all even.
# 13 Ran, predictably, snaps a huge duck hook that's going deep into the swamp when it hits the one oak tree on that hole and drops down into a decent lie, Ran has to lay up short of the creek and does so. Now, he hits a rescue/utility/3-wood that miraculously bounces onto the green 15 feet behind the hole. I hit a 3-wood from the fairway just short, chip up and make par.
Ran misses his putt and with his stroke we're still even
# 14 I hit a good iron that's drawing in until it hits the right side of the green and instead of bouncing left off the slope, kicks right, one foot off the green in deep rough.
Ran hits his utility/rescue/3-wood with a big hook but the ball remains on the far left of the green.
I hit a good L-wedge that almost goes in the hole but runs 8-10 feet by.
Ran makes a great, sweeping approach putt, I miss and he's 1 up
# 15. You guessed it, he hits another snap hook that hits a tree and comes down in the first bad lie in the rough all day.
I say to the caddy, "what, moving his ball and giving him a good lie was becoming too much work for you"
Ran is unable to reach the fairway. ( more great course management) I hit an iron pin high and we're all even.
# 16 I hit a good iron 15 feet from the hole.
Ran hits a shot out to the right that somehow rides the wind, hitting 6 inches onto the green, rolling down the right side slope just 3 feet outside of my shot. six inches right and he's in a bunker or heavy rough.
He misses. I have the line, hit the putt and don't hit it hard enough, it's right on line but short.
Disappointingly we half the hole.
# 17, a great par 5. I hit a big drive down the right side. Ran hits a drawing 3-wood that comes to rest in the left rough.
He blades his utility/rescue/3-wood into a crossing creek. I've hit a good 3-wood 140 yards from the green.
Ran now calls TEPaul over for a ruling. Seems he's confused as to where he has to drop the ball.
I inform him, from the point of entry, back, keeping in line with the hole. Ran's apparently directionally challenged as he searches for the ideal drop spot. He then proceeds to hook his next shot that miraculously stays 3 feet short of a nasty bunker.
I push my approach into a bunker where it plugs.
Ran hits an approach 15 feet above the hole.
I hit a good bunker shot that runs down the slope under the hole by 4-5 feet.
Incredibly, Ran makes the downhill, sidehill putt.
My putt looks like it's going in, catches the rim, does a 270 and stays out.
With his shot, Ran is now 1 up.
# 18 a long, uphill, dogleg right with a huge Oak guarding the inside elbow.
It's cold, raining with the wind in our face.
Ran walks up onto the tee with his 3-wood and driver.
After 15 minutes of fidgeting with each club, he selects the driver.
My spirits are immediately buoyed as there's out of bounds left.
Ran now blows his tee shot far right, deep into the Oaks.
Again, good fortune smiles on him. He's got a good lie and an opening back to the fairway.
Now, he and TEPaul engage in another one of their many conversations about club selection, distance, and what shot to hit.
I then remind Ran and ask him, IF, on the first tee, was he talking about USGA rules or some other version of the rules.
Ran and TEPaul chuckle
Ran then smothers his recovery, he's still in the right rough, blocked from a direct shot at the green, by the trees.
He then tries to pitch into the fairway with his ball skimming across the fairway and into the opposite rough. I now comment to the others, " He's a master at course management" Ran laughs.
I'm in the middle of the fairway, in a shallow divot, blocked by the huge Oak, pin cut far back right.
Ran is feeling slightly better when he sees my shot.
I take out a driver, there are lots of comments by all. Then, I hit it absolutely perfect, low, rising and cutting, when the ball catches a tuft of wet rough on top of a fronting bunker and stops dead. Six inches higher and I'm on the green putting for birdie.
It's been raining the entire time and the greens are getting soft to the point that they'll hold balls hit from the rough.
And, they're slower.
Ran hits his next shot to the far back left of the green 40 feet from the hole.
He has a big rainbow putt that under normal circumstances can't be stopped by the hole.
I use the wrong club to pitch with, a sand wedge, when I should have punched my pitching wedge and come up 20 feet short of the hole. Ran's putt stops 3 feet below the hole. I miss my putt by an inch. Ran now has to make a 3 footer to hold on to a win.
Much to my dismay, and after a long, long time lining up, he barely makes the putt, but, he makes it for the win.
Now I think back to the 6-7 foot putt I conceded on # 3 and ask myself why I was so generous.
Neither one of us distinguished ourselves with our golf.
Both of us hit some great shots, but, overall, I'd say that our games were substandard.
The fact that Ran got 4 shots more than indicated didn't bother me, I should have beaten him with 9 or 10 shots had I hit my irons slightly better.
In our defense, it was wet and cool with a little breeze and we were trying to rush to avoid the heavy stuff.
But, it was a great day, with great company on a great golf course.
Cliff Moore, the extraordinary Superintendent visited us on the course from time to time and joined us for dinner.
We had great conversations about Mountain Ridge, golf and golf course architecture.
Someone asked Cliff about the changes made since his arrival about 7 years ago, and the planned changes for the future.
Ciff basically said that the golf course is only going to get better, that the club is on the right track to improve the course in an orderly and planned manner and that Ron Prichard has done a great job with his past and current master plans.
Cliff is an ideal Superintendent, young, enthusiastic, dedicated, knowledgeable and a good golfer.
Mountain Ridge is fortunate to have him and I think Vice Versa.
While I did run into a few people I knew at the restaurant, one incident stands out.
I noticed the waiters rearranging a big table not far from us.
In walk 10 good looking women, who sit down at that table, but, two seats are empty.
After a half hour a young fellow comes in and sits down, leaving only one seat empty, the seat at the head of the table.
Their waiter approaches them and starts to take their order.
I get up and go over to the waiter and tell him to stop taking their order since all the men in the restaurant are jealous of the young fellow who just sat down with all these gorgeous women. I tell the young fellow to get up... and get out as I'll be taking his place.
They all say, "sit down and join us" I do, but, I tell them that I can't stay long as I have friends from North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with me. One women says, "I go to school in Philadelphia." I say, "Where" She says, "Drexel Univeristy"
I call TEPaul over to the table. I turn to the young lady and say, "this is my friend Tom Paul, his great, great grandfather,
A.J Drexel Paul founded your school." At first, she doesn't believe me, but, TEPaul reassures her that, yep, his great, great grandfather founded Drexel.
Unfortunately, the night ended too soon as we all had to go our seperate ways.
We could have stayed and discussed golf, GCA and Mountain Ridge for days.
It was really a terrific gathering of friends united by a common bond, golf, GCA and GCA.com.
Thanks again to Ran for putting up and maintaining the site.
As to trying to swindle me out of 4 to 7 shots, I wouldn't expect anything less, I'm only disappointed that I didn't hit my irons a little better when I needed to, otherwise it would have been over before you got to your last two shot holes on # 17 and # 18.