I don’t care who I play with to be honest, as long as they have a good attitude. I do enjoy picking playing partners that are better than me though, I learn from them and it challenges me to perform better.
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It’s hard to describe the “mental island” you’re on when competing in a higher-stakes amateur event. There are no gimmies or equitable stroke control. When things go south, you’re on your own! It can definitely ruin people’s enjoyment of the game, but I love the grind.
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I’ve always tended to play golf on my “island” anyways. Not sure how of how high of stakes I’ll ever get, but I’m at least as interested to test out my mental game as I am the actual scores I produce, perhaps even more so.
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Yeah, for “casual play” there are lots of ways to kind of equalize opportunities. In our big group, we each put money in a pot, which then gets paid out for various trash bets. The trash favors the better players. The remaining pot gets split among a number of low net scores, which tends to favor the higher handicaps slightly. All in all, nobody seems to lose too much or win too much.
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Trash being sandies, barkies, cart-pathies, etc?
I love the tournament play too, especially with my ambitions. It does add a different element of pressure. The equitable strike control matters when you add it to your handicap though. Hahahaha. My first year of tournament play, I took a 10,11, and a 13, it’s very humbling.
I don’t remember them all, but I do remember Poleys (sinking a putt longer than the flagstick), Chippies, Sandies, Birdies and Eagles, with increasing payment for validation or multiples in a row. We also have additional penalty payments into the pot for Caitlins (being short of the forward markers, named for Bruce Jenner’s new identity), Mashack (no trash all day, named after the guy who did it most often), Double Mashack (Mashack, plus hitting a tee shot OB into Mashack’s property), and too many others to describe here.
Public course (all are welcome). Golfer’s architect/layout, challenging, requires thought and strategy and a whole host of shots. Early morning game. Walking. Four players that love the game, respect the rules and etiquette. Know when you’ve hit a good one and acknowledge with a “Nice shot. Beauty.” Know when you’ve hit a bad shot and to be silent. Ready to play when it’s their turn. No music. No drinking. Something on the line. Cheering each other on, yet competitive and want to win. Putt everything out. Hopefully some players better than me so I can learn. Don’t care if I lose money every time as a low handicapper- worth it to have the conditions mentioned above. Don’t care about politics, jobs, families, etc.- love of golf brings all walks of life together. All kinds of action so after the round there’s all kinds of calculating and dollar bills and quarters flying around, but you essentially end up even, especially over the course of many years. Sharing stories of heroic and bizarre shots. See you again next weekend.
This is the holy grail for me. Not sure if I’ll ever find it. Almost always have to make some compensations. I’m convinced on our death beds we will not be reminiscing about the scores we shot or even the shots we hit, but rather the walks we took with the friends we had.
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