It's a Dirty Job
On Friday, I shot a 6-over 78* in a golf tournament!
* as part of a 4-player scramble
As luck would have it, my summer mentors are both avid golfers who play annually in a charity golf tournament the firm sponsors, so they invited me to play this year. Um, hell yeah!
The tournament was at Poppy Ridge, a 27-hole course adjacent to the vineyards of Livermore. Each 4-player team would be playing a scramble, which means that everyone on the team tees off, then everyone plays their ball from the best of the four tee shots, then everyone plays their next shot from the best position, etc.
To warm up, four of us, including my mentors, headed to the course for an early-morning nine. It was the first time I had been on a course in at least a year, so I was nervous about embarrassing myself. These guys were all solid players, about 15-20 handicap. If I had to guess, I'd say I'm about a 35 handicap, so I was clearly the worst of the bunch. To up the ante, we paired up for a team best-ball skins game. I wouldn't be much help to my partner. To put a finer point on it, I wasn't any help to him, as I failed to win or halve a single hole. He minimized the damage, but we still lost 3 to 6.
I was especially bad early, scoring triple bogey on the first four holes before finding some semblance of game. I ended up shooting a respectable 8-over for the remaining 5 holes for a 56. At least I was warmed up for the tournament.
The best part of the round - other than being on a golf course on a work day - was the golf carts. They all had GPS in them, with the course fully mapped, so you always knew how far you were to the pin, the nearest hazard, and even the carts in front of you! I'm not sure I ever want to play again without one. You could even enter your score on them, which would enable us to see a live leaderboard during the tourney.
After brunch, it was tourney time. My team's best player was a 20 handicap, and the rest of us were kinda like me, so we had no illusions about winning. We just wanted to stay in the 70s and score at least one birdie. We ended up accomplishing the first goal, scoring the aforementioned 78 (the winning team shot a 57!), but we fell short of our second goal, in oftentimes painful fashion.
On one hole, I hit an iron shot to 6 feet, my best shot and the team's best approach all day. I took the first putt and misread it left, and the three subsequent putts each got further right but still missed. I wanted to cry. We had other putts for birdie throughout the day, but this was by far our best chance, and we blew it. One of my teammates took another try for the heck of it, and he poured it right down the middle. Sigh.
My other highlight shot was on a 160-yard par 3, where you could pay five bucks for a chance to earn raffle tickets if you hit it on the green. I entered and put it on about 20 feet from the hole, and one of the tickets I earned won me a $50 gift card to the Cheesecake Factory. :P I ended up hitting the putt to a foot for a tap-in par.
All in all, I played pretty well, though it was so easy hitting off the fairway every shot, even if I hit a nasty shank the previous shot. Scrambles rule! It's amazing how much less frustrating golf is that way. I'm proud to say we actually used my tee shot five times, including a 230-yard drive into the fairway to start the round (the GPS told me so). That eased my nerves since the team was required to use each player's tee shot at least twice in the round, and I was genuinely scared that we'd be forced to settle for some crappy shots at the end to fulfill my requirement.
Good round or bad, I can't think of many better ways to spend a day than to slap it around for 27 holes while drinking a couple of cold ones under the sun, but to do it on a work day... I know the job isn't supposed to be very hard this summer, but this is ridiculous. The tournament also had wine tastings scattered throughout the course that were hosted by sponsors, and we had a big dinner banquet afterwards. As a participation gift, I went home with four bottles of Miner wine and four engraved wine glasses. Not bad for a hard day's "work."
P.S. Because of the tourney and a rafting event the next day, followed by a Sunday sorting through our recently arrived wedding photos, I have yet to see Dark Knight, so on the off chance you haven't seen it yet - and based on the record opening box office, that's unlikely - let's makes plans to see it... soon!
* as part of a 4-player scramble
As luck would have it, my summer mentors are both avid golfers who play annually in a charity golf tournament the firm sponsors, so they invited me to play this year. Um, hell yeah!
The tournament was at Poppy Ridge, a 27-hole course adjacent to the vineyards of Livermore. Each 4-player team would be playing a scramble, which means that everyone on the team tees off, then everyone plays their ball from the best of the four tee shots, then everyone plays their next shot from the best position, etc.
To warm up, four of us, including my mentors, headed to the course for an early-morning nine. It was the first time I had been on a course in at least a year, so I was nervous about embarrassing myself. These guys were all solid players, about 15-20 handicap. If I had to guess, I'd say I'm about a 35 handicap, so I was clearly the worst of the bunch. To up the ante, we paired up for a team best-ball skins game. I wouldn't be much help to my partner. To put a finer point on it, I wasn't any help to him, as I failed to win or halve a single hole. He minimized the damage, but we still lost 3 to 6.
I was especially bad early, scoring triple bogey on the first four holes before finding some semblance of game. I ended up shooting a respectable 8-over for the remaining 5 holes for a 56. At least I was warmed up for the tournament.
The best part of the round - other than being on a golf course on a work day - was the golf carts. They all had GPS in them, with the course fully mapped, so you always knew how far you were to the pin, the nearest hazard, and even the carts in front of you! I'm not sure I ever want to play again without one. You could even enter your score on them, which would enable us to see a live leaderboard during the tourney.
After brunch, it was tourney time. My team's best player was a 20 handicap, and the rest of us were kinda like me, so we had no illusions about winning. We just wanted to stay in the 70s and score at least one birdie. We ended up accomplishing the first goal, scoring the aforementioned 78 (the winning team shot a 57!), but we fell short of our second goal, in oftentimes painful fashion.
On one hole, I hit an iron shot to 6 feet, my best shot and the team's best approach all day. I took the first putt and misread it left, and the three subsequent putts each got further right but still missed. I wanted to cry. We had other putts for birdie throughout the day, but this was by far our best chance, and we blew it. One of my teammates took another try for the heck of it, and he poured it right down the middle. Sigh.
My other highlight shot was on a 160-yard par 3, where you could pay five bucks for a chance to earn raffle tickets if you hit it on the green. I entered and put it on about 20 feet from the hole, and one of the tickets I earned won me a $50 gift card to the Cheesecake Factory. :P I ended up hitting the putt to a foot for a tap-in par.
All in all, I played pretty well, though it was so easy hitting off the fairway every shot, even if I hit a nasty shank the previous shot. Scrambles rule! It's amazing how much less frustrating golf is that way. I'm proud to say we actually used my tee shot five times, including a 230-yard drive into the fairway to start the round (the GPS told me so). That eased my nerves since the team was required to use each player's tee shot at least twice in the round, and I was genuinely scared that we'd be forced to settle for some crappy shots at the end to fulfill my requirement.
Good round or bad, I can't think of many better ways to spend a day than to slap it around for 27 holes while drinking a couple of cold ones under the sun, but to do it on a work day... I know the job isn't supposed to be very hard this summer, but this is ridiculous. The tournament also had wine tastings scattered throughout the course that were hosted by sponsors, and we had a big dinner banquet afterwards. As a participation gift, I went home with four bottles of Miner wine and four engraved wine glasses. Not bad for a hard day's "work."
P.S. Because of the tourney and a rafting event the next day, followed by a Sunday sorting through our recently arrived wedding photos, I have yet to see Dark Knight, so on the off chance you haven't seen it yet - and based on the record opening box office, that's unlikely - let's makes plans to see it... soon!
posted by Chang Kim at Sunday, July 20, 2008
5 Comments:
man, why am i writing all these stupid secondary essays? i should be studying for the lsat!!
You know, that 6-over 78 only counts if you signed that scorecard.
Yeah, golf carts are a lot of fun; I refuse to play without one.
Let me know when you decide to watch the Dark Knight.
i'm tired and i hate you
that's all
<3
Hey we still gotta play Stanford.
The most I ever played was on a miniature golf course. My uncle and a few other relatives were into golfing. Hope that you had fun. Take care.
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