Golf in Amish Country
Game Two of the 1999 season was played (by all but
one Linkstur) at Tanglewood on May 8th. Boy, was that an interesting
morning!
Where's The
Golf Course?
That Saturday dawned overcast and extremely foggy
for some of us, and no alcohol was even involved (or would be, as it came to
pass). The weather was a wee bit misty at first. In fact, driving out to the
course in Amish country was a bit of a challenge in itself. Total trip time for
the Ellzys and Grant was over two hours! Let's try and pick some closer
courses, guys, eh?
Visibility had improved to about 200 yards (good
enough for Ron to see most of his drives) by the time we got to the course,
only to discover not only was this a "dry" course (at least in the
alcohol sense), but there were no riding carts!
Some of the people who'd taken up the game more recently
in life had never walked a golf course before, and some had bags that they
didn't think they could carry, so quite a bit of deliberation followed.
The outcome was that Bob Welc bought a new pair of
shoes and rented a pull-cart, Max McHenry got in his car and drove home, Roy
Craig used his own pull-cart and Steve Margetich felt it wasn't fair on his
opponent if Steve used his pull-cart and his opponent didn't, so he left his in
his trunk! And what did we get for all this? 18 holes of golf at a nice course
in European weather conditions for $26 each. What a deal!
Golf played the old way – no carts!
Last Week’s Matches
In the A flight, Herman
Ellzy took 2.5 points from Steve
Ellzy, Bob Welc took 2 from Dick Blystone, Roy Craig took all three from Ron
Jones and Mike Cwiertniewicz took
2 from Steve Flynn.
Ron had the best gross of the day, at 84, with
Herman’s 88 a close second. Roy was the only A player who mastered the
ever-changing greens, requiring only 30 putts in his masterful round. The very
same man also accumulated 24 par/birdie points, overshadowing Ron’s impressive
21.
Dick Blystone weaseled two birdies and Steve Ellzy, Steve Flynn and Roy Craig
each scraped one.
Dan Stevens, nearing the green on 18
In the B flight, Grant
Blair took 3 from Dan Stevens, Kevin Stevenson took 3 from Max McHenry, Roman Hrycushko took 2.5 from Doug
Perks and Steve Margetich took
all three from Mike Brychcy.
Roman showing his putting prowess
Roman managed best gross in the B flight, with his
95. Grant was next with 98. Roman and Grant shared putting honors, each taking
a lousy 34. The same two players also shared par/birdie honors, managing 21
points apiece.
Grant, Kevin and Roman each scored three natural
pars.
Season-to-date
A flight
Bob Welc and Mike Cwiertniewicz (due to a forfeit by Herman Ellzy) lead in match
points (5) by 1 over Dick Blystone.
Dick maintains the lowest scoring average, with 86, leading Herman by 2. Dick
also leads in par/birdie points, with 42 to Roy’s 36.
Dick and Roy share the putting title, each with 67
for two rounds (1.86 putts per hole). Dick has three birdies, two more than Roy,
Steve Ellzy and Steve Flynn.
B flight
Kevin, smiling atop the B’s
Grant Blair and Kevin Stevenson lead in match points, both having perfect records
with 6 (and they play each other at Mainland!). Next best is Doug, with 3.5
points. Grant has the lowest scoring average with 95.5; Doug is next with 97.
Grant leads par/birdie points with 46, that’s 6 ahead of Doug. The same
gentleman with the “new” eyes already leads by a wide margin in putting: 63 vs
Roman’s 72. That corresponds to a 1.75 putts/hole average. Grant also leads in
the final category, natural pars, by 9 over Kevin’s 6.
We asked Grant what brought about the dramatic
improvement in his game this year: “Well, I didn’t play at all from September
until the day before the first game at Spring Hollow. That may have helped a
bit. Oh yes: and I had my eyes fixed too…”
Grant in fine form
Filling Out Scorecards
Since we have a few new members this year, we've
decided it's a good time to review how we'd like scorecards filled out.
1.
A
typical scorecard has spaces for four competitors' gross scores on it. We don't
use it that way. Let's use an example to explain how we'd like things done
(this is all to make Bob's life a little easier on Saturday evenings when he's
tallying everything up and checking it). Grant is playing against Bob. Grant's
name goes in the top slot and Bob's name goes in the 3rd slot. That
gives a blank row beneath Grant and a blank row beneath Bob. Got that one?
2.
Write
each player's playing handicap in parentheses after his name. For example, we
would write: Grant (28) and Bob (25).
3.
As
each hole is completed, while waiting on the next tee, fill in each player's
score for the most recently played hole. The preferred manner for this is to
use Arabic numerals with the gross number of strokes in a larger font to the
left side of the box and the number of putts (included in the gross) in a
smaller font to the top right of the box (like a superscript). Using dots for
putts is discouraged, as this can get messy and hard to decipher sometimes.
4.
At
the completion of nine holes, add up the gross strokes and the putts and fill
them in, in a similar manner, in the 9-hole total column.
5.
Matches:
The difference between the two handicaps is calculated (3 in the case of Bob
and Grant) and the person with the higher handicap typically receives one
stroke on each of the lowest handicap numbered holes. (Unless the difference
exceeds 18 strokes, in which case the higher handicapped player gets at least
one stroke on each hole!) In this case, Grant would receive one stroke on each
of the three toughest holes. After the completion of each hole, it is readily
apparent who won that hole. It may also have been tied. At the end of nine
holes, the person with the most wins gets one match point. This process is
repeated afresh on the back nine with one more point going to the winner. Then
the full eighteen is tallied and the person with the most wins is awarded one
more point. Let's say Grant won 6 holes on the front nine and Bob won 3 holes.
Grant gets a point. Then on the back, Grant only wins 2 holes and Bob wins 5.
The other two are halved. Bob gets the point for the back nine. When we add up
all eighteen holes, we find that Grant and Bob each won 8 holes, so they each
receive another one-half point. So they end up with 1.5 points each.
6.
Par/Birdie
Points. This is why we left a blank row beneath each competitor's scores. We
now look at each player's playing handicap (maximum of 36) and adjust his gross
score on each hole by his handicap allowance for that hole. Let's say the first
hole has a stroke index of 5. Grant's 28 would entitle him to take 2 strokes
off his gross score at that hole (28-18=10, so he gets one stroke at every hole
plus an additional stroke at the 10 hardest holes). That resulting (net) score
gets compared to par for that hole. Now, if this net score is greater than par
for that hole, the player receives zero par/birdie points for that hole. If the
net score is equal to par, he receives one point. If it is equal to birdie, he
receives two points. If it is equal to eagle, he receives three points, and so
on. This number of par/birdie points gets entered in the lower box. At the end
of the stipulated round, these numbers are added up and entered into the
appropriate totals column.
7.
Birdies.
If you are in the A division, any gross birdies (or eagles) you score should be
circled.
8.
Natural
Par/Birdies. If you are in the B division, any gross pars, gross birdies or
gross eagles should be circled.
9.
Once
back in the clubhouse after the round, Bob will hand out scoresheets, to which
all totals should be transferred.
Handicaps and
groupings for May 22nd, at Mainland
|
1st Group |
|
|
|
|
Herman E.(12)
vs Bob W. (24) |
|
|
|
|
Mike C. (25)
vs Roy C. (24) |
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
2nd Group |
|
|
|
|
Roman H. (25)
vs Max M. (26) |
|
|
|
|
Steve F. (21)
vs Steve E. (13) |
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
3rd Group |
|
|
|
|
Ron J. (16) vs
Dick B. (16) |
|
|
|
|
Steve M. (35)
vs Dan S. (36) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
4th Group |
|
|
|
|
Doug P. (26 )
vs Mike B. (36 ) |
|
||
|
Grant B. (28)
vs Kevin S. (32) |
|
||