Wednesday, August 08, 2007

The Member-Guest Tourney

This has been a marathon of sorts. We had the family reunion in Albuquerque, Tiffany Campbell's wedding in Denver, and then the member/guest tournament here at the local country club.
Dan and Julie came for the weekend with the little Granddaughters. What a weekend. Friday night was the 'couples event' followed by supper at the clubhouse. It's a four person scramble meaning we all tee our own golf balls and then three of us pick up and lay down by the best shot. We continue like that until we hole out. The women get to use the 'front' tees or 'red' while the men use the 'whites' or the 'middle tees' which are back further. The use of further back tee boxes by the men make it so we use a good combination of both men's and women's shots. Around the green we all have about the same chance of having a shot that everyone else can use. It was fun to be able to spend that much time with Julie and Dan. They are so very family oriented, are great parents, and they're fun to be with.
The next morning Marilyn and Julie were in a two person scramble at 9 AM followed by a luncheon. Women have luncheons. Men don't have luncheons. I would never say the words.."We played golf and then had a delightful luncheon" just like I would never take a shower and shout upstairs to Marilyn.. "I can't find any clean panties to wear." Yes, I digress, let me continue.
The men played 18 holes starting at 1:00 on Saturday which was followed by a prime rib dinner. The girls joined us for that.
Sunday morning we played 18 more starting at 9:00 AM. I don't make a habit of Sunday morning golf especially because it's usually announced from the pulpit that Cliff isn't here because he's playing golf, as it was last Sunday.
The format for this tourney is such that even duffers like Dan and I have a chance. My game usually consists of a few pars, maybe a birdie or two, a lot of bogie's and a couple of complete meltdowns which keep my average up. The said format is called a quota point system. You get 1 point for a bogey, 2 points for a par, 4 points for a birdie, 8 points for a hole in one or eagle, and10 points for a double eagle. They assign each player a quota based on your combined average. Dan and I needed to get 20 points on Sat. We got 28. They averaged those two and gave us a new quota on Sunday of 24. We got 35 points. We were 19 over for the tournament. Which tied us for something. I think someone said 8th. Winning is never the goal when I play golf. The golfing is fun but more so the camaraderie and family and business discussions that go on continuously. I think you'll find out more about a person by playing 18 holes of golf with them than by any other method. You'll find out if they think the rules are for everyone or just others, and how they handle themselves in both victory and defeat. This on very nearly every hole. Dan didn't take up the game until about 2 years ago but shows that he already knows what golf is all about. Golfing is for sure not about the golf.

16 comments:

Rachel said...

I'm totally lost with all the golf talk Cliff. All I know about golf is what teeing off is, and what a hole in one is. I'm sure it would be a fun game though.

I'm glad you got to enjoy the time with family and have fun. That's what it's all about!!

You really should do a luncheon sometime. They are quite nice!!

Ralph said...

Cliff
Sounds like everyone had fun. Please, please, please, invite me out for a dinner not a luncheon.
Ralph

nora leona said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
nora leona said...

I'd like to be invited to the luncheon AND the dinner. Rachel and I will skip the golf and go shopping instead.

(sorry about the delete -- I left out the word 'golf' the first time. Of course Rachel and I skipping and shopping sounds more fun)

Jamie Dawn said...

I'm with Rachel and Nora.
I read every word of this post, but I must admit that my mind couldn't fully process all the birdies, bogeys, and various eagles.
I'd much rather attend a luncheon.
It sounds like you had a wonderful weekend.
I think you are probably right about golf being a good indicator of what a person is like. You see how they handle frustration and wounded pride.
You won't ever be heard talking about luncheons and I won't ever be heard talking about fixing a transmission.

Peter said...

"Golfing is for sure not about the golf."
You never said a truer word Cliff, specially about how well you win or loose, perhaps you could try a prime rib Luncheon!!!!

Anonymous said...

I was such a failure on the golf course that I break out in a sweat at the very mention of the word. Still I rejoice in reading what a good time everyone had.

You are right, I had never thought about luncheon, but men don't use the word when discussing the noon-time meal. They say things like, "Rotary meets at the lunch. hour." certainly never the Rotary Luncheon.

True_Floridian Momma said...

I'm glad "golfing is for sure not about the golf" because I never really liked to golf, but I sure do like to chat......*hmmm* maybe I should take up the game of golf then...teehee

whew, you've had a lot going on and I thought I was the only super busy one this summer!!

Anonymous said...

Cliff,
You lost me at birds and eagles. I mean, I like their music, but that's about it.

Glad you got to spend some quality time with the kids.

Lee said...

Golf's a great game. I've not played for ages, though. It's one game where your opponent is yourself (I was going to describe it a different way, but couldn't without causing a few eyebrows to raise!)...one only has one's self to blame for a bad shot...well, that and the ducks that just flew over or the kangaroo that hopped across the green! ;)

Miki said...

Cliff, you had better get that watch fixed. But if not, there are a few houses for sale in the neighborhood. Not enough farmland here in good ole Patchogue, though!

Thanks for the joke, it brightened my day and made me smile!

Unknown said...

I think I follow Lee's train of thought. Snicker.

We prefer putt putt, or Klingon croquet (that's how you play croquet if you don't have a nice flat lawn. Make the terrain part of the game...) Or that game with the PVC pipe and golf balls on a string. But I do like me some nice rare prime rib...

Jamie Dawn said...

You ain't got nothing new posted.
I hope you are all dealing with this god-awful heat okay. Take care and don't golf again until it cools down.

Jim said...

Hi Cliff. I enjoyed the last part of this post a lot. I sure am glad you came in 8th. How many teams were there? [Or was I not supposed to ask?]

When Mrs. Jim and I first moved here we were invited to a "New Member" tournament which was also a scramble.
Each team had a really good member recruited to make things more interesting.

When we finished, our team had some 10 plus or minus under par.
Then I saw Mrs. Jim come in and I asked her how they did.
She said, "Oh, we made par. Didn't everybody?"
Her team was in last place, they got a trophey for 'needing the most improvement.'
..

EV said...

Your marathon sounds like a great time, Cliff!

Cliff said...

Jim: I believe there were 36 teams in all.