The best and worst of pairings..

[Tcann32]

I play more as a single than I do with my golfing buddies. Doesn't bother me a bit. Especially with the season closing out, I have to play in about 3 hrs to get a full round in. If it looks like I'll get paired up, I'll grab a cart.

 

Friday I got paired with an awesome guy. He was a bit older, super friendly and funny. I played well that day and he seemed to genuinely enjoy watching it. He said he did anyways. He was a real confidence booster, and he said I boosted his confidence as well. He was a good golfer on all accounts. A little wild off the tee, but for 62, he was a bomber. There were a few that he made it out to 265-270. He actually hit his Cobra LTD higher than I've seen anyone else launch it. He was an equipment nut as well.. I sensed this when I noticed he was gaming some Snell MTB's. Then he commented on my Miura's and even less likely from the general golf population.. He goes "Oh hey, Scratch 1018's, I've had those wedges!". He wasn't reading off the clubs either.. Naturally the thought came up.. "WRX?!" haha

 

Fast forward to yesterday.. I pull to the club house and see one guy getting into a cart, guessing I'll probably be sent out as a twosome with him, so I grab a cart, and head out. I watch his swing from a bit of a distance.. BAD. Full on head rotation in the back swing up to the sky, then full on shoulder and knee drop to an OTT contact. He literally followed the club head with his head throughout the entire swing. Magically, it didn't go 100 yards off line, so I gathered it was one of those "swing your swing" moments. He was also playing from the blues.. there was about 15 mph winds and it's a wide open track. It doesn't make the par 4's and 5's much less manageable, but out of the 5 par 3's, 4 of them are over 200 from the blues.. The shortest one ends up at like 160 or something like that, but had plenty of other attributes to overcome its short distance.

 

I say I'm all for playing from the blues, and crush my first tee shot. The guy got pretty excited, but it wasn't so bad. Yet. After the 2nd tee shot, he starts asking questions when he fails to carry a hazard that I made it over by a good margin. When I say excited, I mean.. this is what I'd expect my two year old to carry herself like, if I gave her a redbull and few extra tablespoons of sugar. I've seen people on some "uppers" act more calm than this guy. Not a tantrum or anything like that.. Just talks a million miles an hour. Doesn't actually ever stop talking. Not during my swing, during his swing. Not while putting, never, and always really fast.

 

Anyways, he asked his questions, and I don't offer unsolicited advice, but if you ask, I'm happy to help too. I'm not an instructor, but some things are pretty basic, like.. don't come over the top at a 60* angle, and don't follow the club head back and through with your head. I tell him to try coming a little more from the inside. Now, this where I am enlightened as to how the rest of this is going to go.. He's a close talker. If you haven't seen Seinfeld, that's a person that is literally in your face talking. It makes me uncomfortable. Something about it gets me within one brainwave and muscle fiber of taking a swing because it makes me feel like he's either going to try to kiss me, or like he's in my face yelling, which he was, it just wasn't anything negative, but both of those things just seem to trigger that involuntary reaction. I'm trying to answer his questions and he keeps getting closer, now I'm just thinking "he's not mean, he's not mad, but I swear to God if his nose touches mine, I'm going to push him down."

 

Luckily, it didn't. I taught him how to swing from the inside a little better, and he hits a dead straight shot about 260, and it was like he was going to explode. It's a par 5, I lay up to 140. I have a PW in hand and can't miss right, which is my miss, and I hit it a little open and weak and come up a few yards short. He asks what I hit, I tell him a PW. He goes: "well, why? shouldn't you at least hit a hard 9, maybe even an 8i? I'd hit an 8i, how'd you expect a pw to get there?" I hold back the response of "Well, I hit my driver about 40 yards further on average, so our distances are probably different." He tells me to try it again, and i stick it to 8'. "Well, I just don't get it, how can someone actually be able to do that?".

 

I walk up to my first shot and chip to 5'. He's about 15' away, and this is the first time I noticed him putt. He was putting one handed. He misses his put.. "that was close! did you see how close that was? I can't believe it didn't go in!" I couldn't help it, "Well, you hit it one handed, how do you expect to make anything?" then I set up to putt, assuming he would shut up. Just as I'm about to hit the ball, his ball comes racing past mine. "Oh sorry, I wanted to show you I could do it." I miss the putt, and don't feel out of line blaming him on that one.

 

Next hole I have a 12' birdie putt with a good chance of making it, and he stands at the hole and starts explaining that he putts one handed because if he uses both hands, he hits it too far. Keeps going and going. He walked around the hole chasing his ball on the 4 attempts he tried is 3' double bogie putt, just tearing up the green with spike marks around the hole. Sure enough, my ball was left center of the cup from 3' out. Hits his mark, and lips out.

 

I decided I was going to be as silent, and as blunt as possible for the rest of the front. I was nice at first, but I couldn't take it anymore. I told him I'm only going to play 9. My plan was to go in the club house for 5 min and let him go through on the back. He goes, oh ok, I'm only gonna play 9 then too. When we finished 18, I said I had to run, and raced as fast as I could to the club house and made sure he left before starting on the back. I was, and still am frustrated, as I was swinging really well and played well outside of a few major distractions.. I went 42 on the front with several botched opportunities, and a 38 on the back when I was finally free'd. There was a pairing about a hole and a half ahead of us as well, so there was no where for me to go if I split off as a single. He was gonna catch me on every tee box either way eventually..

 

Praying the trend of good people continues and that this was a bad encounter..

[HatsForBats]

I too play a lot of single golf pairing up with others. It is rare to get a very bad pairing but they do happen. We have a sub in one of my leagues that I asked never to be paired with again. The guy shows up late, never stops talking and is very racist.

[Ferguson]

The second guy makes me feel uncomfortable. Hope you showered after that round.

[Tcann32]

The second guy makes me feel uncomfortable. Hope you showered after that round.

 

To be completely honest, I did haha. He didn't spit when he talked, so that was a plus, but man.. It's not easy to make me feel uncomfortable. I don't have a bunch of phobia's or anxiety of people or anything of that matter, not that there's anything wrong with that either, but it was really starting to test me. I almost felt bad for how angry I was because I knew he had no idea that he was.. crazy, but it was less than enjoyable out there with him. Usually golf is enjoyable enough on it's own that I wouldn't be bothered by anyone, but when you literally can't ignore someone, I'm not sure how to handle it lol.

[jmill88]

If I'm not with my normal golfing buddies, I much prefer to play by myself.

[augustgolf]

WOW....back in 1980, I went to play my PAT, and the 1st time it was held, by the time I got to the golf course, it had been raining, turning to sleet, and the PAT was called off, but the course allowed 2 other contestants and myself to walk 9 holes (all we could take, it was so miserable) because we wanted to at least see some of the course, and it was a couple hour drive to get there, just no way to have called early to find out if it was still being held.

 

Fast forward to the next attempt, about a month after the first. The PGA Section, to their credit, did the other 2 guys and myself a favor, and paired us up. The 4th player, Vern, got put on my cart.

 

Now, the first 2 and I had a pretty good bet going amongst ourselves to keep our mind on scoring, and not the result of the PAT. Vern, however, wasn't too prepared to play a PAT. Since he was riding with me, every hole we (Vern & I) had to hunt down his ball. It got pretty difficult to keep my mind on what I was doing.

 

Long story short...the other 2 guys and I all walked into our PAT with no problems....poor Vern, shot something like 97, 106.

 

And Vern was a great guy! His boss called me up about a year later, and asked me what to do about Vern, since he didn't seem capable of ever getting his card?

 

I told him that golf needs more Verns....he could be a great asset to any course, just not as a player, but his people skills were outstanding.

 

I wonder what happened to him, but I wish him well, wherever he is!

 

 

Best pairing??? I played with 3 pros who I knew as I was growing up in my first professional tournament after I turned pro.

 

I ended up shooting 65, beating all 3 of the others, and felt happy and sad at the same time.

 

Happy, because it verified my belief in myself and my ability to play with other professionals.

 

Sad, because the people I looked up to as I was growing up, were proven to be beatable.

[TravelingGolfSticks]

I play much more as a single than with a group. Couple weeks ago I was playing a colder morning thinking no one would be out and about. I passed up a couple groups and the rest was wide open. Or so I thought. I got to 15 and saw another guy playing alone. Didn't think much of as he was on the green and I was just teeing off on the hole which was a par 4. When I pull up to 16, which is a par 3, he is still putting. Figured he wasn't that good but only had two holes left. I was in no hurry and was waiting for him to drive off but he just sat there. I finally hit my shot and as I pull up and get out to finish the hole, he gets out too and starts talking. He continues this the entire time I'm playing the hole. After I finish he asks if I want to play the last two holes together. At this point I realize why he is playing so slow. He was drunk. It's not even noon yet and this guy is almost stumbling drunk. I reluctantly say yes, but in the back of my mind I'm thinking this could be interesting to watch. Well, as it turns out, he was a talkative drunk, and pretty funny to watch. His left foot kept coming out as he swung and he kept making poor shots. It was hard not to laugh. When we finished, he asked me if I wanted to go to his house and drink a few beers and watch football. I declined saying that I was from over an hour out and didn't want to drink and needed to get back anyways.