It’s great when someone comes up with a fun idea for a Golf Tournament.  On Labor Day I played in a Golf Tournament that has become a tradition at my club.  It’s called the Sadie Hawkins Day Tournament.  I don’t know how many of you remember the Al

Capp comic strip Li’l Abner.  He created Sadie Hawkins Day, the one day a year when the women ask the men to marry them.  In this case, a woman asks a man to be her partner for the tournament.  Each team consists of 4 people, 2 men and 2 women and you cannot play in the same foursome as your spouse.  The format is a 4-man Scramble and the team handicap is the sum of the individual handicaps divided by 8.  The rules are simple.  Each team member hits their drive.  As a team you chose which shot to count and all 4 players hit a second shot from that chosen location and it repeats choosing the best shot each time until the ball is holed.  The only caveat is the team must choose at least 1 drive from each player on the front 9 and again on the back 9.  There can be a certain amount of strategy involved.

 

I feel fortunate that Diana asked me to play and we have played together in this tournament in previous years.  We always have a good time.  Like any tournament, you want to win, but the real object is to have fun and enjoy the day, the company, the golf.  There is however pressure to perform.  You are now part of a team.  Not only do you want to play well for yourself, but you don’t want to let down your teammates.  Most of all, as a team, you don’t want to finish dead last.  But never let any of this get in the way of having fun.  Believe me, we can’t make a living playing golf, so we really play for fun.  It’s just a game.

 

I don’t remember who said this: It’s just golf,  It’s not life or death – it’s more important than that! 

These tournaments begin with a shotgun start.  Sometimes you start on an intimidating hole – the luck of the draw.  You get to your first tee and hope the proper swing comes out.  We all have at least 3 swings: the driving range swing, the practice swing and the one that counts where you hit the ball.  I didn’t have a bad day driving, although not as long as I can sometimes hit.  I hit a few good second shots but my 3 metal was not having a good day.  My chipping and putting was improved compared to my last few rounds but again not up to some of my previous standards.  That’s golf.  It can change from day-to-day, from shot-to-shot.

 

No Matter what, I had a fun day in the sun, enjoying the people I played with and realizing how fortunate I was to be playing this great game.