With the right group, a scramble can be a lot of fun. That’s how it worked out yesterday. While the group ahead of us were four good golfers who wanted desperately to win the tournament, we simply enjoyed the afternoon. That enjoyment was dampened a bit due to slow play by the “pros” ahead, but we made do.
My partners were Chris, Tracy, and Brad. Of the four, I’m probably the best all-around golfer. But Brad and Chris could launch the ball. A long way. In many directions! Having said that, we still managed 3-under for the round. A tie for last.
There was a lot of food and beer available. Free. I ate too much, although I don’t really drink very often when playing golf. I stuck with water and Dr Pepper while my partners took care of their share of beer, and mine.
Humor abounded. Every one of us hit the big ball before we hit the small one at least once off the tee. We even had a couple of whiffs, and a tee shot that rolled three inches (I’m being generous!). On the last hole Brad topped a shot which rolled about twenty yards. Another group was driving by on the way in and he jumped in the cart and quickly drove up to his ball. He picked it up and exclaimed, loudly, “I got your ball, Chris!” for the benefit of passers-by.
We started the round on a par three hole. Chris put his tee shot about eight feet from the hole. We all missed the downhill slider for birdie. On the next hole, Chris nearly drove the green. Three of us made great chip shots, but not one held the hard green. We missed that long birdie putt, too. Had we made those putts, the round might have been quite different. We probably would have been much more serious about the score.
Nah.
Putting is the bane of scramble golfers everywhere. And it all seems so simple. Four golfers get to watch each other’s putts roll toward the hole. If it misses, the next person has a good idea of where the ball should roll, right?
Well, one thing I’ve learned over the years is that everyone putts a little differently. Most scramble groups are folks who don’t play together regularly, and have no idea how their partners putt. Some people drive the ball well past the hole, others roll it just enough to get to the hole. Some putt firmly on a putt with a lot of break, and others play more break and let the ball drift to the hole. If a ball skids before rolling, it holds the line better initially, but then slows and breaks more. For all those reasons, and probably a dozen more I don’t grasp, it is hard to predict the line of a putt for someone else. Especially for someone you don’t see play on a regular basis.
I played in a scramble last year where this was readily apparent. The three other guys in my group all missed a putt which had, in my mind, a huge break. Theirs didn’t break as much as I thought they should. I rolled the ball from about fifteen feet and played it about six feet above the hole. It went in. But I tend to read putts from Newton’s perspective–I think “gravity.” I try to put the ball into position where gravity takes over and pulls the ball to the hole.
My perspective would have done nothing to help the other three on their attempts because they all have different vision of the roll.
So it was yesterday. Beyond the simple ability required to make the ball go where we wanted it to go off the putter face, we had to see the bigger picture. And we didn’t.
But we had fun. And helped raise a lot of money for Jerry’s kids.