I had a great playing partner when I lived in Dallas. Simon was a 6-handicap. At the time, I was somewhere around 18, bouncing above and below on a regular basis. We played a match each weekend for a dollar, and that single bill went back and forth. I couldn’t compete against him in stroke play, but heads-up in match play I could handle things pretty well.
When we paired up in tournaments, though, I could use only 11 handicap strokes. That’s because we had a club rule which allowed for partners to have no more than a five-stroke differential. That always put us in a higher flight than I normally would have played in. It really didn’t matter. We always played well as a team, and kicked butt.
Before tournaments, we usually had a Calcutta bid. Each team is posted, and everyone has the opportunity to bid on “owning” that team. Depending on how the team finished, the “owner” got a cut of the Calcutta pool. We generally went high. Not at first, mind you, because people saw I was playing higher up the food chain than I should. After we won a couple of times, however, we became a hot property. It sometimes reached the level that I couldn’t afford to even bid on myself. Cash only, and I seldom carried more than $100 with me.
Anyway, we were quite the Ham & Egg team. Although I wasn’t scoring well in general (my scores at the time ranged from 78 to 108 in the handicap book), I could pull off some good ones. Simon was solid, but when he hit a bad one, I generally hit a good one.
I remember one par five where we played a two-man scramble. Neither drive was very good, and Simon put his second in the water. I put mine in the woods 200 yards short of the green. We arrived at my ball to see it lying in some muddy water, and decided not to take relief because it would have carried us further into the woods. I opted to hit first in hopes of getting the ball somewhere close to the green. I swung my 3-iron and closed my eyes to keep water and mud out. I asked, “Did you see it?”
“Look on the green.”
It was two feet from the hole. The two guys we were paired against almost cried. “What did you say your handicap is?” Easy birdie.
We did the same in better ball, alternate shot, whatever format. For some reason, we simply clicked as a team. My best shots always seemed to counter his worst.
I have yet to find another partner like Simon. I keep hoping Bogey will get some time to get his game in shape so we can partner up. I miss having all those pro shop credits to spend.