[Jason Topp]

Oak Ridge Stroke Play club championship.  I'm in deep doo-doo after a rough first day.

[Brad Tufts]

As an update....played the Ross 9-holer Greenock CC in Lee, MA and Wahconah CC (Stiles) in Dalton, MA in the afternoon.

Greenock was shortish, 6030 for two trips, 68.9/120.  The greens were nice, and full of subtle breaks, but the course felt a bit cramped.  Technology and current distance standards make the trees lining many fairways necessary, and there even seems to be more trees growing up to help keep balls in their appropriate hole corridor.  Also, the best conditioned holes seem to be close to the adjacent road.  Despite these issues, a fun little course in decent shape with small, pushed up greens.

Wahconah was a very good, well-conditioned course with a nice combination of open meadow holes and several holes that twisted through wooded areas.  It seemed to have the style of other Stiles courses I've seen (Brookline GC, Thorny Lea, Taconic), a combination of large and small greens, some heavily sloped, flanking bunkers with sand flashed for visibility.  Throughout the round, the layout switches back and forth between architectural interest and blandness.  Not an overly long test at 6550, 71.9/126, the beautiful Berkshire Hill setting makes up for any lapses of attention span.

And I had a 67 and a 71!

[Lyman Gallup]

Craig Sweet:

The Missoula CC Member Guest.  It was a fun tournament the last time I played it but that was some 25 years ago.  I always like MCC.  Used to play the Barnett event over Memorial Day with some regularity.  Say hello to my college friend Skip Koprivica for me.

[Matt_Cohn]

On Tuesday, San Geronimo Golf Course in Marin.

I've played so many hard courses recently so it will be interesting to see if I can shoot as low there as I probably should. It's probably 4-5 shots easier than most of the courses I've played in the last couple of months.

[Greg Tallman]

"Saturday-Colleton River-Nicklaus for the Hilton Head Amatuer
Sunday-Second and final round"

Anthony Nysse - Just tell me you beat Jim Ferguson in this event.

[Bill Gayne]

Played 36 on the Golden Horseshoe'S Gold Course this weekend. Played skins and Wolf.

[Joe Hancock]

Shiv,

For some reason I have a notion that those Ren Fairs are also quite a cleav fest. If that is true, I'm sure your wife believed you 100%!

Slice of Americana indeed!

Joe

[Greg Tallman]

So, Anthony Nysse... Did you beat Ferguson? While I don't know you I hope the answer is yes.

[James Bennett]

It was my hopme club at Blackwood near Adelaide, Australia.  A glorious winter's day.  The couch (bermuda) is just coming out of dormancy in some places, but not on the image below of our 5th hole.  Shade issues and roots from the river red gums alongside the fairway don't assist the growth.

And for my friends in the UK, you can see that the sky can be a darker shade of blue  , even in winter  .



James B

[Jason Topp]

Oak Ridge Stroke Play club championship.  I'm in deep doo-doo after a rough first day.

Made a big comeback and then bogied the last 5 to shoot 79 and miss the cut for our matchplay championship by 2.  Arrrrgggghhh!  At least I played well enough to get nervous.  I haven't had to worry about that for a long time.

[Sean Leary]

Just got back from two days at Prairie Dunes.....Absolutely loved it.

Over 100 degrees both days (36 each day).  After KPV and this weekend, I am done playing in the heat for the year.

[Scott_Burroughs]

Shivas,

Do you have anything against straight up match play club championships?  One could win the club championship and have the higher gross score in every round.

[Jim Franklin]

Shiv -

You need to join a new club.

[Scott_Burroughs]

What's the point of flighting people if you're not going to play each flight at scratch, without strokes?  All this system does is encourage handicap padding.  

I agree.

[Jim Franklin]

Shiv -

I am a pretty good salesman so let me know what is holding you back.

[Brad Tufts]

I kind of like how my club does the club championship.  We switch each year from match to stroke play and back again, so if someone wants to win consecutive CCs, they have to do it in both modes of play.  Usually 72 or 73 is the #1 seed in match play, 77-79 being the cut for top 8.  For stroke, usually the winner is 215-220 (3 rds.), sometimes a bit under that.

During years of match play, there is a qualifying round, and a cut to 8 players, 1 v. 8, 2 v. 7 and so on.  We used to have a flighted event where the first 8 were in the championship flight, and then three others below it for those who were #9-16, 17-24, and 25-32 in the qualifying round, with all matches played at scratch.  However, they scrapped this as some really good players shot 79 or 80 in the qual. round, were #1 seed in the second flight, and won each match against 7-12 handicappers by scores like 8 and 7, and 7 and 6.

I've been 5th ('00), 3rd ('02), 1st ('04) and 1st ('06) in stroke, and 2nd ('01), 2nd ('03), and T5th (lost in rd. of 8 in '05) in match play.

[Tom Huckaby]

The glorious Santa Teresa Men's Golf Club does its highly-coveted Club Championship in a rather sane manner...

Anyone can sign up for Championship Flight, but the rules there are it's at gross.  No sandbaggers need apply.  One round of qualifying to set Top 8, then match play 1v8, 4v5, 3v6, 2v7.

All other flights are at net... match play also.  Same thing, qualifier first round for final 8, then bracket.  But they go net.

The Championship Flight is quite a thrill to win.  

But yes shivas, doing it all at net is pretty lame.

[Scott_Burroughs]

My club championship is the same way (as the two recent posts) this year for the first time in my 11 years as a member.  All previous were 2 rounds of stroke play.  Once they tried to make it 4 rounds of stroke play over 2 weekends, but no one could make all 4 rounds (we married/kids/duties/vacation dudes).

The current pro (same who tried 4 rounds of play) wants it to be 'tougher' to win than just 2 rounds of stroke play, so we had to do 2 qualifying rounds to make champ flight for top 8, then match play from there, and those who lose in opening rounds still get to play on final weekend (tourney for 'beatens').  I assumed that was my fate as the #8 seed (those who played w/ me at KPV would never believe it....I'm playing much better now) playing #1 (former college player, a 0), but he dropped out and I play another guy I know I have a better chance at beating (provided I can ignore his annoying 'methodical' pace of play).

[JR Potts]

At least you get to compete.  I, as a Junior Member, have been thrown out of our Club Championship after finishing 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th over the last 6 years.  After 40 years of permitting Junior Members to compete we have been banished.

All Junior Members were thrown out.  Interestingly enough, spouses of Members are permitted to play.

So, Shiv, at least you are getting a chance to compete.

[Brent Hutto]

Wait, just so we're clear here, I think the Championship Flight has both a gross and net winner, but all the other flights are net.  But it's the principle of playing in anything where in any flight, the lowest score doesn't win that I just can't stomach.

You're not making sense, Shiv. I thought you started off by saying that the Club Championship was decided by net scores. Everyone agrees, that wouldn't make any sense at all. Now here you're saying that the Club Champion is indeed the person who shot the lowest gross score, i.e. exactly what you and everyone else expects it to be. What's your beef?

I'm having trouble imagining what your desired format would be. So there's going to be a dozen or two guys contending for that Club Champion title (decided by gross score). That's all good, right? Yet you object to the fact that there are net competitions going on simultaneously, no? Do you want them to close the course for the week and only let those Club Champion contenders play?

If you're playing a straight-up $20 game with your buddies one Saturday, does it offend you I'm over on the next hole playing a $5 Nassau and giving some guy two a side?

If I'm ever in Chicagoland I'll check to make sure you're out of town so I don't accidentally offend you by playing in some kind of handicapped game while breathing your air, OK?

[Brent Hutto]

OK, I'll stipulate it's an injustice for your friend in the C flight to give some guy two strokes and lose the flight because it's contested at net. Sandbagging is a crime against humanity and sucks, to boot.

So let's say they contest the C flight at gross. Some guy who's really a 6-handicap sandbags his way to a 10 in order to get bumped out of the B and sneak into the C flight. Then he beats your 8-handicap friend straight up and wins the C flight anyway. Sandbagging your way into a higher flight is also an injustice, is it not?

[JR Potts]

Net Championships are not "championships" but tournaments that I have no interest in playing!

[Brent Hutto]

Net Championships are not "championships" but tournaments that I have no interest in playing!

We all have our standards, Ryan. If you're good enough to play for the Club Championship of course you have no interest in hacking it up with the bogey golfers in the D flight (whether they play with or without strokes). That's why it sucks that they won't let you play in the Championship like a Member or a Spouse.

Heck, I won't play in scrambles because it's not real golf but it's no skin off my nose that other people seem to enjoy it. Just let me tee off ahead of them and they can hit and giggle until dark  

[JR Potts]

I'm all for guys getting shots by flighting them.  However, the Club Championship, anywhere, should not be dependent on how well a players plays relative to his handicap.  D-flighters should be paired in the D-flight and then play straight-up.  Same goes for C-B-A and Championship flights.
Make E, F and G flights if need be....as long as there are enough guys to make a competitive flight.  If you are the worst player in your club and can't compete in the worst flight without your handicap, then get better or sit that event out.

For other tournaments, using a handicap is fair game.  In fact, I have no problem giving up shots as long as the guy I'm playing as some handicap integrity.  But for Club Championships, handicapping and shot taking is a major "no-no" in my opinion.

[Brent Hutto]

Make E, F and G flights if need be....as long as there are enough guys to make a competitive flight.  If you are the worst player in your club and can't compete in the worst flight without your handicap, then get better or sit that event out.

I suspect I'm going to have the same problem in our Club Championship this weekend as I did in the Match Play a month earlier. There are dozens of active high handicappers in our club but none of them want to enter the tournaments. The highest flight (eight guys) in the Match Play ended up being the indices from 16.0 to 24.something and then we played straight up. So in the first round I got matched against the guy with the 16.0 index and mine was 20.6 or something like that. Predictably, I only lasted fifteen holes before bowing to the better player. A buddy of mine with a 21 index managed a first-round win over the first 16-capper he faced but was obliterated by the next one. Even in match play you can't give up five strokes and win very often.

Now this week we'll have an even worse time of it in the biggest stroke-play event of the year. I'll be giving up three, four, five strokes per round for 36-holes of medal play. Ideally, a dozen of so of the 20-25 handicappers would sign up and we could have a grand old time playing straight up. But since that isn't going to happen I'm happy that a winner will be declared for both Gross and Net within the flight.

So I appreciate the advice to stay home in the air conditioning but fortunately our club doesn't take quite as hard a line on the matter.

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