The Company Tournament

Back in August, my company had its annual golf classic, which is always a four-man scramble. I fielded a team consisting of my brother-in-law (Matt), his younger brother (Kevin), my sister's boyfriend (Mike--ooh, he does have a name!), and myself. I was by far the least experienced on the team. The tournament was actually my first full round of golf. It was a brisk Saturday morning when we all met at the driving range to warm up. I was feeling good, and was very excited to take part in the tournament with these guys that I got along with very well.

The time for the shotgun start came, and we drove our carts out to the 17th hole. The team elected me to tee off first, and when I did, I hit a decent shot (for me at that time) about 130 yds. down the right side of the fairway, my ball coming to rest just off the fairway.The other guys bombed the ball, and we ended up with a great lie about 100 yards from the hole. We birdied that first hole, and got our round off to a great start.

We had birdied eight of the holes when we made our way to the 9th green (pictured above) with another birdie opportunity. I read the putt, stepped up, and did like I had done all day for the team, give them a good read for their putts. I had read a little right to left break, but to my dismay, the ball started straight, and kept going straight, until suddenly--as if an invisible hand had pushed the ball--it broke right, and dropped into the hole. I had just one putted the ball from 15 feet, and with a pretty crappy putter, I might add. I was exstatic! For me, that was the highlight of the tournament, even moreso than what followed.

We finished the 16th hole--a par 3 with a massive green--with a par, and headed back to the clubhouse to turn in our score: 62 (-10). We were happy with the way we had played, but felt like we had given up too many birdie or better opportunities. We had reached 17 of 18 greens in regulation or better, but hadn't been able to hole out in just one stroke on several of the holes. At least, that is what the other guys were feeling. I felt so happy to have been part of a team that even birdied a single hole! When we turned in the scorecard, we were in first place, but we didn't think that we'd remain there. Another team had to be able to beat us.

Well, another team tied our overall score, but the tiebreaker was the 1 handicap hole, which we had birdied, and they had parred. We won! I couldn't believe it! It was a lot of fun, and I can't wait to do it again next year when I'll be hitting straighter, sinking more putts than I miss, and giving my team better lies.