Who's at fault? Match Play Mess

[golfscene]

Sorry long post

Ok guys heres the storey:

My golf club, had a mens club championship match play tournament and I've made it to the finals. One day I went into the club house and I was told the gentleman I was supposed to play had just came in to get my phone number and that he said he was going to call me later that week. This is was the beginning of september. Well I thought ok I would give him a couple of days. He never called so I went back down and asked them, for his phone number because it wasn't on the phone list and it was given to me and the guys said he came in the other day and said he was gonna call you this week. So I decided to not let anything come to chance and I would call him myself instead. I called the number I was given twice and no answer. I called a third time and I was told wrong number. Then I came down with something that made me really sick to the point that I couldn't be out for more then 1 hour before I would have to run to the bathroom so there was no golf. Once I was feeling a bit better I went down to play at the course and told the guys in the shop that he had never called me and that I was going to start school the next week. They said they would tell him to call. Well I waited and tried the number I was given again. It was still said to be the wrong number! So I decided to leave it and let him call me. Well more time passed and I have started school and go there 5 days a week and its a 2 hour bus ride home. My apponent now decides that he's gonna call me about a month after he first did. He called once when I was at school and I wasn't home so called him back and left him a message. He never called back so I called again and left another message. They he called me once more when I was at school saying that I never called him back. My mom was the one to take the message and she told me, that he was saying stuff that I never called him back and that if I had he would have gotten the message "because he has an answering machine!", as he put it. So I called once more, and once again no one answered the phone. This is about the 5th time and no one ever answered it once. I left another message saying that I'm in school and that I don't appreciate him saying things like I've never called back. I also told him to reach me after 3:30 on most days because Ill be home from school then. Also that if he want's to play against me Thanksgiving monday is a holiday here in Canada for 90% of the population and that we could get this all over and done then. I also left my cell phone for him to call, and I got a voice mail that night, which was from his wife saying I can play against you on monday. I know I talk alittle to fast, but I'm not sure how she got Russell confused with her name which is Biata (or something along those lines I couldn't quite get it). I'm going to go down to there tonight to explain the whole storey to them and see what they say.

Now who's at fault here for this hole mess? He was sapposed to call me for a long time, and when I tried to call him the phone number give to me by the golf course was the wrong one. The people knew that I had school in a week and that it was my only time to play and that they were going to give him the message. Is it his fault for not calling in the first place? Or is it mine because I became sick and have to go to school? He say's he can only play on wensdays because of work.

At this point I'm not overly concerned about winning or losing because of what he's said about me and calling me a fibber on the phone. The strange thing to me is that the whole time he say's he can't never got a single message that I left him, but his wife got the one I left him perfectly?

Should I just ask to make it a draw or give him the win? I know if I play well and he plays well, I'll beat him, but I just don't care or really want to see this guy from what he has said.
Any suggestions on what to do?

Brad

[tickyboy]

He's probably a sand bagger too....there are some guys I've seen and known that just try to sly their way through club events and ultimately life. Honestly cannot say I'd stand for any of that. Were there any deadlines for the matches? Maybe some way of talking to the handicap committee about the situation?

[TigerFrank]

I would just relax, be a gentleman and try to find a time to play the match. Don't "give him the win" or "call it a draw"...if you have to play next spring then so be it.

 

Let your clubs do the talking, let the mens club deal with the logistics but first and foremost...be a gentleman.

[Debit]

Refer the problem to the Tournament chairman/committee. Can't imagine a match being allowed to be unsettled for as long as your post indicates. Most of these things have a deadline, don't they? In the club to which I belong, players only have the period between normally scheduled play dates to reschedule or make up a match. If neither player is able to play within the specified period, both of them are DQed.

[vanquish007]

It sounds to me that your opponent might have been trying to find an easy way to weasel out of playing the final match to determine the winner of the club championship.

 

It appears that he knew you were to return to school after a certain period of time and found it convenient, 1) to not be reachable while you were still around, and 2) to"attempt" to call you after you'd already gone back.

 

Maybe he thought that if you left, and you not being able to play b/c of your absence, that he would be named the club champ by default. Not very gentlemanly in my opinion. The 'golf gods' frown on this sort of behaviour. :cheesy:

 

The 'he said, she said' part of this allows no way to really prove that your opponent is/was up to something. If it is the case though, (and it sounds to me like it is), golf karma in someway shape or form will certainly come back to haunt him!!