What Do You Expect?

Last month I played in a match play event that pitted me against a 7 handicap.  Ok, she had to give me 13 strokes.  One would think one could do something with that.  Well, one can always hope.  I lost 3/2.  I came home and my husband asked me how I played.  Not well I said.  He looked at me and cautiously said, now don't get mad at me for saying this but what did you expect?  You don't practice, you haven't played as much as you normally do and you don't take lessons.  I did not hit him with my putter.  I hate it when he is right...

Formats for Tournaments...Can You Ever Satisfy Everyone?

I have been in charge of many of our major tournaments over the years.  From our Member Guest, to our Member Member to our Solheim Cups. I know that's a sentence fragment but just go with it.  The women always accept the Solheim format which is 6 holes scramble, 6 holes best ball and 6 holes alternate shot.  But when it comes to a tournament like the M/G or M/M, whoa, does the bitching start.  I can see how the M/G format should be more player fun.  But for me, the M/M means it's a team event with big prizes and the TEAM should earn it,  My goodness you would think the world is coming to an end when I want to in some way count both players scores, even on a divided format.  Here's what we've tried:

Songs About Strong Women

As I posted on my last blog, we are hosting a breast cancer charity golf tournament with the theme of Hear Me Roar.  Roar is a Katy Perry song.  What I'm going to do is put together a song list for my iPod with songs about strong women.  I asked my FB friends to email me with ideas for songs.  This is what we came up with:

The Golf Game Calcutta but Done a Woman's Way

You might want to think about adding these two events to any of your tournaments.  We do these two at our member guest.  The first event is the Calcutta but as we women call it, "The Horse Race" to the finish!  If you're unfamiliar with a Calcutta, it's basically you bet on teams that are participating in an alternate shot event.

Strategery in Tournaments

I think the word "strategery" is a newly created word by the politicos but that's neither here nor there.  We had our fall Solheim Cup last week.  I picked two captains of whom I was sure would make the event very competitive.  It was very interesting in how one captain picked her team as opposed to the other.

The Walmart Golfer

No offense to Walmart.  I love Walmart and I shop there all of the time.  But each month or so I inevitably get a mass emailing with "New Pics of the Shoppers at Walmart!"  And inevitably the pics are of people in outrageous clothing, inappropriate clothing for their body types or lack of clothing with numerous tattoos and piercings.  So what does this have to do with golf?

Create Your Own Golf Tournament

Caveat...if you've never put on a golf tournament, then it would be wise to get help.  Hopefully this site can give you ideas.  5 years ago I was feeling my hormones raging and then began raging (to my husband, the dear thing) that our pro shop cared diddly squat about couples' golf tournaments.  I was on the golf committee at the time representing the women's golf association.  I said something to the pro about not having any couples' 18 hole golf outings.

The Golf Bi*ch

I play almost every Sunday with my husband and another couple.  I've played with other men as partners in tournaments.  I've seen them throw clubs, curse, beat the ground, even break a club AND get drunk.  But this is not a behavior you see in women...oh yes it is!

Golfers Are Self Centered

Now why would you say that?  Because it's true.  My husband asked one of his oldest friends to come play in his member guest.  His friend's wife is also one of my dearest friends.  Of the four of us, she is the only one who doesn't play golf.  Not that we intentionally or consciously did this but all the three of us that golfed did was...talk about golf.  My dear friend would leave and go read a book.  Another example, please.  Well, how many times have you had to listen to a golfer go through every hole of a round they've just played?  Ahem...listen up husbands.  Or, you're riding in a cart with someone and all they do is talk about what they just did or what they need to do to improve on the next shot.  Shut the F*CK UP!  I'm trying to play my own game here!  The fact of the matter is NO ONE ELSE CARES ABOUT WHAT YOU JUST DID!  I'm starting to get like Elaine on Seinfeld with the exclamation points. 

But since you're reading my blog, I've got you sort of trapped and will tell you about my almost Adam Scott moment.  Once a year we have a bracketed match play event we call our President's Cup.  We start out with the lowest handicapped person in the flight playing the highest handicapped player.  I'm a 19 and I played a 15 so she had to give me 4 strokes.  I make the turn 6 UP.  I said to myself, self, keep focused.  Just win a few more holes and you can put this away.  Not my usual philosophy.  My usual philosophy is "one shot at a time sweet Jesus, one shot at a time."  My husband says that's blasphemous.  Well, if Zac Johnson can thank God.  But the truth is I don't think God really is worried about my golf game.  I digress.  I tie 10.  Hit the ball in the water on 11 (loss), hit the ball in the water on 12 (loss), two chunks on 13 (loss).  So I'm now only three up.  Tie 14 with a 9 (wasn't pretty) and hit it in the water on 15 (loss), now two up.  Pulled, shanked and lost 16 even though I've got a stroke (loss), tie 17 and go into 18 one up.  I DID NOT WANT TO PLAY EXTRA HOLES.  Get a hold of yourself you dick nose (sorry, a popular phrase my husband uses).  Well, ladies and germs, I had a stroke on the last whole, a long par 5.  I get on in 4, she's on the fringe in 3.  She three putts and I one putt for a par and the win!  The crowd roars! 

Don't you just hate playing like that?  And don't you hate reading about it?

A Woman Who Loves Golf

The "doers" and the "don'ters...

We have 80 members in our women's golf association.  Of that 80, 24 have volunteered to do something to help the organization STAY an organization.  I recently posted on my blog all of the volunteer jobs we need to fill every year.  But of those 24 that have volunteered,

We Need Volunteers!

It is the job of the vice-president of our women's golf association to get all of the volunteers for the up coming year.  Sometimes it's easy...sometimes, well, nearly impossible.  I work, I have kids, I travel, I'm here only 3 months out of the year, I've volunteered every year for 10 years! Enough already!

Themes for Member Guest or Member Member Tournaments

(3/2014 I've updated the list of tournament themes from suggestions out of the comments.  For further info on some of these themes, please see the comment section.)  Our women's golf association is always on the look out for new themes for our member guests and member member tournaments.

Your Very Own Solheim Cup

About 5 years ago as president of our women's organization, I decided to try and have our very own Solheim Cup.  The men's group had been doing their Ryder Cup thing for a while and as we have quite a few competitive women in our group, we decided to give it a go.

You, Your Spouse and Golf, A Very Combustible Combo

It's like when you were a kid and for Halloween you'd add vinegar to baking soda...You knew that sooner or later that combo was going to boil over.  Well, that can be what happens when a woman plays golf with her spouse.