Post by Richie3Jack on Jan 24, 2010 20:46:24 GMT -5
My high school golf team was historically very good and one of the best teams in the state of NY. This was in large part due to the golf course being right, smack dab in the middle of town, only about 1/4 mile from the high school. That's a large advantage when you are trying to develop a junior program and when kids who get into golf in HS can just make a short walk over to the course.
But, by my sophomore year I had become the #1 man on the team and our team was awful. Probaby the worst team in the school's history, going something like 4-16 on the year. To get an idea of how bad we were, I would usually come in and shoot something like -1 to +3 (9-holes) and won almost all of my matches. But then we were lucky to see somebody break 45 and our last 3 guys (6 man teams) were lucky to break 55.
Junior year came around and we saw a lot of improvement and our team went something like 12-8, but we also had a big win defeating a team that was undefeated for the past 2 years in our last match of the season.
Before my senior year, I really felt that the team could not only win our conference, but also win our section (which I'll get to in a short bit). My friends that played for other High Schools laughed at this notion, but I really felt we had the talent to do so.
New York State has a screwy High School sports program and golf is about as screwy as it gets. Here's how it works.
1. Team or individual has to qualify for the Sectional Qualifier (this is pretty easy to do).
2. Team or individual goes to play 18-hole Sectional Qualifier to qualify for the Sectional Tournament. They break down the state into 11 Sections. So kids from Long Island will not be in the same section as kids from Syracuse. There's usually about 5 or 6 sectional qualifiers for each section.
3. Team or individual goes to the Sectional Tournament which is a 36 hole event. They keep two scores, low team score and low individual.
The most a team can do is just win their Section. There is no state championship for the team. They only have states for individuals. They take the low 9 individuals from each section to play in the state tournament.
Our Section tournament was at Seven Oaks CC which is on Colgate University. Absolutely beautiful and fun course to play.
Our team my senior year was pretty strong with our 1-5 men. I was one of the best juniors golfers in the state and our 2-5 men could all shoot par on any occasion.
Our #6 man was my best friend. He was known as the smartest person you would probably ever meet. And he's the most honest person I had ever met. So much so that it sort of works against him because he will tell you exactly what everybody else is afraid to say about you.
He was also a collosal, ball breaking wise-ass. But, everybody love having him on the team.
He graduated with me as we are the same age. He joined the team in 9th grade, but was awful. Like, couldn't break 60 for 9-holes awful. The other issue is that he only played golf during the HS golf season. During the summer when other golfers improve their games, he was off fishing. I don't think I ever saw anybody fish more than he did.
So, he was awful in 9th grade. Awful in 10th grade. And then started out awful in 11th grade. But by the end of the 11th grade he started to improve and actually break 50 for 9-holes.
In his senior year he was dedicated to improving because all he wanted to do was to play Colgate (Sectional Tournament) because he would be thrilled to play such a nice course like that.
If he was going to do that, he would need the team...the same team that got laughed at...to win our Sectional Qualifier. There was also a problem, he had NEVER played more than 9-holes in one day and didn't have a golf course membership. So the only time he could practice was during the team practices.
But sure enough, he did practice a lot and not only broke 50, but became an excellent #6 man. Why? Because many #6 guys can break 50, but they are often wildly inconsistent. Shooting low 40's one day, then shooting high 50's the next day. But he kept shooting 44 over and over again. He did top out with one 43, but never shot higher than 46 that year.
All year long my buddy kept saying 'all I want to do is to make it to Colgate.'
And that more or less became our rallying cry.
Then came the Sectional Qualifier. It was a dreary, cold raining day. I came in and shot a sub-standard score...something like a 78. I knew that would get me into the Sectional Tournament as an individual, but we probably needed a better score than that to win as a team and to 'make it to Colgate.' Our #2 and #3 guys (both 8th graders) come in and shoot like 80 and 81. Still not awful and won't eliminate us, but we needed a better score than that. Then our #4 man comes in and shoots a 73.
Now, we are talking.
I had hear that our #5 man was practically out of it, having a terrible round of golf. But, they only take the low top 5 scores for the team...and the news was that our #6 man....a guy that had never played more than 9-holes of golf in one day and had never shot lower than a 43, wound up shooting a 38 on the front side.
So, our #5 man comes in and shot something like a 94 and we knew that we would rely on the #6 man to come in with a pretty decent score.
I quickly started to figure things out and it came down to us and our old nemesis, Skaneatelas HS (Tom Scherrer's HS, a rich kid's school and usually the best team in the state) to make it to Colgate.
I basically figured that all our #6 man had to do was shoot a 50 on the backside (38-50 - 88) and we go to Colgate. If he shot a 51, then we are supposed to tie and go into some type of crazy playoff, but I was confident that we were going to Colgate.
As our #6 man finishes his round all he says to me is:
'Don't tell me, Richie. Don't friggin tell me.'
I didn't know what to make of it and then he said 'okay, tell me.'
'Well' I replied...'if you shot 50 on the back side we are good. If you shot 51, then we might have a problem.'
He slams his clubs to the ground starts kicking his bag. I thought he was joking because we both got a kick out of duping the other and then coming back and say 'just kidding.'
But, he wasn't joking....he shot 51.
So, here's a guy that had nevr played more than 9-holes in a day in his life, who goes out and shoots a career low 38 on the front side and then shoots his high score on the backside of 51 .
Anyway, we did tie, but the Skaneatelas coach had power and didn't want a playoff and instead wanted us to compare cards and we wound up not going to Colgate. Total bullshit.
And to make matters worse, the clubhouse and pro shop close down, it starts raining really hard and our bus driver went around the town and got lost and we couldn't get ahold of her and had nowhere to sit but out in front of the clubhouse while it was cold and raining.
We didn't make it to Colgate and we felt really bad for our #6 man who wanted to go there so bad. After awhile, I decided to practice some putting out on the practice green while the rest of the team were sitting by the clubhouse.
And nobody is saying a word.
Eventualy our #6 man says:
'Y'know coach...I hate to say it...but the only Colgate I'm going to see is the fucking toothpaste.'
Nobody said a word.
And then our #4 man starts bursting out laughing and we all start bursting out laughing and laughed for quite awhile and actually had a fun trip home.
But, I think there's a few things we can learn from this.
1. Appreciate what you have sometimes. Colgate is a really nice course, but it's not God's gift to golf. Yet, my best friend would've died to play there just once. So when you're playing a course and maybe the greens are a little slow or you're tee time is running 5 minutes late, remember that there ARE some people who would love to be playing golf at that course or any golf right now.
2. Sometimes the moment does define you and sometimes that is a good thing. My buddy took a negative and didn't allow it to impact the rest of the team negatively. Instead, he made himself the butt of the joke to cheer the rest of the team up.
3JACK
But, by my sophomore year I had become the #1 man on the team and our team was awful. Probaby the worst team in the school's history, going something like 4-16 on the year. To get an idea of how bad we were, I would usually come in and shoot something like -1 to +3 (9-holes) and won almost all of my matches. But then we were lucky to see somebody break 45 and our last 3 guys (6 man teams) were lucky to break 55.
Junior year came around and we saw a lot of improvement and our team went something like 12-8, but we also had a big win defeating a team that was undefeated for the past 2 years in our last match of the season.
Before my senior year, I really felt that the team could not only win our conference, but also win our section (which I'll get to in a short bit). My friends that played for other High Schools laughed at this notion, but I really felt we had the talent to do so.
New York State has a screwy High School sports program and golf is about as screwy as it gets. Here's how it works.
1. Team or individual has to qualify for the Sectional Qualifier (this is pretty easy to do).
2. Team or individual goes to play 18-hole Sectional Qualifier to qualify for the Sectional Tournament. They break down the state into 11 Sections. So kids from Long Island will not be in the same section as kids from Syracuse. There's usually about 5 or 6 sectional qualifiers for each section.
3. Team or individual goes to the Sectional Tournament which is a 36 hole event. They keep two scores, low team score and low individual.
The most a team can do is just win their Section. There is no state championship for the team. They only have states for individuals. They take the low 9 individuals from each section to play in the state tournament.
Our Section tournament was at Seven Oaks CC which is on Colgate University. Absolutely beautiful and fun course to play.
Our team my senior year was pretty strong with our 1-5 men. I was one of the best juniors golfers in the state and our 2-5 men could all shoot par on any occasion.
Our #6 man was my best friend. He was known as the smartest person you would probably ever meet. And he's the most honest person I had ever met. So much so that it sort of works against him because he will tell you exactly what everybody else is afraid to say about you.
He was also a collosal, ball breaking wise-ass. But, everybody love having him on the team.
He graduated with me as we are the same age. He joined the team in 9th grade, but was awful. Like, couldn't break 60 for 9-holes awful. The other issue is that he only played golf during the HS golf season. During the summer when other golfers improve their games, he was off fishing. I don't think I ever saw anybody fish more than he did.
So, he was awful in 9th grade. Awful in 10th grade. And then started out awful in 11th grade. But by the end of the 11th grade he started to improve and actually break 50 for 9-holes.
In his senior year he was dedicated to improving because all he wanted to do was to play Colgate (Sectional Tournament) because he would be thrilled to play such a nice course like that.
If he was going to do that, he would need the team...the same team that got laughed at...to win our Sectional Qualifier. There was also a problem, he had NEVER played more than 9-holes in one day and didn't have a golf course membership. So the only time he could practice was during the team practices.
But sure enough, he did practice a lot and not only broke 50, but became an excellent #6 man. Why? Because many #6 guys can break 50, but they are often wildly inconsistent. Shooting low 40's one day, then shooting high 50's the next day. But he kept shooting 44 over and over again. He did top out with one 43, but never shot higher than 46 that year.
All year long my buddy kept saying 'all I want to do is to make it to Colgate.'
And that more or less became our rallying cry.
Then came the Sectional Qualifier. It was a dreary, cold raining day. I came in and shot a sub-standard score...something like a 78. I knew that would get me into the Sectional Tournament as an individual, but we probably needed a better score than that to win as a team and to 'make it to Colgate.' Our #2 and #3 guys (both 8th graders) come in and shoot like 80 and 81. Still not awful and won't eliminate us, but we needed a better score than that. Then our #4 man comes in and shoots a 73.
Now, we are talking.
I had hear that our #5 man was practically out of it, having a terrible round of golf. But, they only take the low top 5 scores for the team...and the news was that our #6 man....a guy that had never played more than 9-holes of golf in one day and had never shot lower than a 43, wound up shooting a 38 on the front side.
So, our #5 man comes in and shot something like a 94 and we knew that we would rely on the #6 man to come in with a pretty decent score.
I quickly started to figure things out and it came down to us and our old nemesis, Skaneatelas HS (Tom Scherrer's HS, a rich kid's school and usually the best team in the state) to make it to Colgate.
I basically figured that all our #6 man had to do was shoot a 50 on the backside (38-50 - 88) and we go to Colgate. If he shot a 51, then we are supposed to tie and go into some type of crazy playoff, but I was confident that we were going to Colgate.
As our #6 man finishes his round all he says to me is:
'Don't tell me, Richie. Don't friggin tell me.'
I didn't know what to make of it and then he said 'okay, tell me.'
'Well' I replied...'if you shot 50 on the back side we are good. If you shot 51, then we might have a problem.'
He slams his clubs to the ground starts kicking his bag. I thought he was joking because we both got a kick out of duping the other and then coming back and say 'just kidding.'
But, he wasn't joking....he shot 51.
So, here's a guy that had nevr played more than 9-holes in a day in his life, who goes out and shoots a career low 38 on the front side and then shoots his high score on the backside of 51 .
Anyway, we did tie, but the Skaneatelas coach had power and didn't want a playoff and instead wanted us to compare cards and we wound up not going to Colgate. Total bullshit.
And to make matters worse, the clubhouse and pro shop close down, it starts raining really hard and our bus driver went around the town and got lost and we couldn't get ahold of her and had nowhere to sit but out in front of the clubhouse while it was cold and raining.
We didn't make it to Colgate and we felt really bad for our #6 man who wanted to go there so bad. After awhile, I decided to practice some putting out on the practice green while the rest of the team were sitting by the clubhouse.
And nobody is saying a word.
Eventualy our #6 man says:
'Y'know coach...I hate to say it...but the only Colgate I'm going to see is the fucking toothpaste.'
Nobody said a word.
And then our #4 man starts bursting out laughing and we all start bursting out laughing and laughed for quite awhile and actually had a fun trip home.
But, I think there's a few things we can learn from this.
1. Appreciate what you have sometimes. Colgate is a really nice course, but it's not God's gift to golf. Yet, my best friend would've died to play there just once. So when you're playing a course and maybe the greens are a little slow or you're tee time is running 5 minutes late, remember that there ARE some people who would love to be playing golf at that course or any golf right now.
2. Sometimes the moment does define you and sometimes that is a good thing. My buddy took a negative and didn't allow it to impact the rest of the team negatively. Instead, he made himself the butt of the joke to cheer the rest of the team up.
3JACK
