Boring story about me winning club championship at age 15

[westhoff]

My apologies if this sucks, but I'm bored and there ain't much going on in this forum.

I grew up in a small Kansas town 100 miles west of Wichita of about 1000 people called St. John. We had a nine-hole county golf course that played to a whopping 2700 yards from the tips, par 35. To this day, I haven't played many courses that are as nice as it. Beautiful bluegrass fairways and bent grass greens, and never had to make a tee time. Membership is a little steep at $400 per year, but we managed. Even though I probably played the course over 500 times it never got old.

I played pretty much everyday after school there wasn't any snow or tornadoes and whenever I wasn't working in the summer. We didn't have a golf team at the time and I couldn't get one started because of lack of interest and idiot school board members. They finally got a golf team a couple years ago and have had plenty of players every year.

So it's the summer of '98 and I'm fifteen years old. It was the summer I first started playing in tournaments. There would usually be some kind of junior tournamentevery week at a course within an hour from St. John. I had done alright I guess, usually breaking 80 and had one 69. (wish I had more 69s when I was 15 [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]) The club championship is always the third weekend of August. 18 holes Saturday and 18 holes Sunday, 1:00 shotgun. You would basically just pick who you played with on Saturday and then the scores would determine who was in the final group on Sunday. I almost didn't play because a lot of people weren't thrilled with the idea of a fifteen year old beating them, but since there wasn't a high school golf team I told them to kiss my ass. There were basically two people I had to beat. My computer teacher, whose son and my brother are still best friends. And the greenskeeper, who I remain very good friends with. There were a few other members that were capable of shooting par. (yes, I said shooting) But not for two rounds.

I arrive at the course at about 12:30 on day 1. It's about 95 degrees with not much wind surprisingly. No driving range. I figure out who I'm playing with (just a couple members I get along with) and just stretch and putt until we tee off. We start on number two, a straight 350 yard par 4 with OB pretty close all the way down the left. It plays downwind but uphill, so if you hit driver you have a very difficult 50-70 pitch. It's best to just hit a 2-iron down to the 100-yard marker. I had just gotten a new 3-wood a couple weeks before this and absolutely loved it. I hit every shot perfect with it. I figured with the lack of wind it would be the perfect club to hit. I proceed to hit my first tee about 38 yards down the middle of the fairway as I hit about eight inches behind the ball. I'm not even sure I actually hit the ball. There was this weird silence from my playing partners. It was pretty embarrassing. So I just walk forward a little bit and absolutely crush the 3-wood this time about ten yards short of the green and get up and down. Routine par amirite? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] I play great the rest of the round and shoot 71, three clear of Tom (the greenskeeper) and another guy who I've never seen named T.J. (TJ and I would become pretty good friends) and four clear of Dick (the teacher).

I get to the course about the same time on day two and everything is the same except the wind is blowing 25-35 and gusting up to 40mph. No big deal, it's not like I haven't played in the wind everyday pretty much. I don't remember a lot about the round for some reason except remembering afterwards that I played way too conservatively. I was definitely struggling/feeling the pressure on the back nine and my lead slipped away on 17 when I missed a short par putt. Tom and TJ both parred, and the three of us were tied going to 18. Hole 9 is a straight 475 yard par 5, but back into the wind so no way of reaching in two. We all laid up to about the same spot and all hit mediocre wedges to about twenty feet. We all missed so we had a playoff! (I shot 79) OMG! I was so nervous, definitely didn't want to hit first, but of course I drew "1". We started on number 1, a quirky par 4 of only 280 on the scorecard. It doglegs about 80 degrees left, around the neighoring person's property which is OB and has a pond on the right. You either have to hit a 7-iron to right of the OB which leaves you about 100 in but leaves you kind of blocked by a giant elm tree or hit a 3-iron/5-wood over the OB with a draw. The wind blows straight across from the left, so if you hit it just a little right you're in the water. You can easily hit a 3-wood in front of the green, but it's just way to risky. I hit a 5-wood that leaks a little right into the rough but dry. Tom and TJ are both in the fairway, we are all about 60 yards out. The flag is tucked back-left on top of a ridge. They both hit the ridge and stop about twenty feet short. My wedge shot hits in pretty much the same spot, but coming out of the rough releases about eight feet past the hole. They both miss so I have a downhill eight footer to win. I somehow make contact with the ball and it hits the back of the cup and goes in! I'm pretty sure I would have been chipping for par if it didn't hit the hole. I was in total shock. I didn't scream or jump or anything. I just couldn't believe I won. It was definitely one of the best days of my life. I won the next year by a lot and absolutely sucked my senior year because I discovered sex and mary jane.

Hopefully this wasn't too boring. Anyone else got any awesome stories/brags?

[TripleH68]

Since noone else seems interested...

I played in a golf club without real estate for years. It was fully handicapped and we played 20 events per year. We even had the four 'majors': The Masters, Club Championship(our PGA), Canada Cup(British Open) and Northern Open(our US Open). The Northern Open was the last event of our season - a three round tournament held in northern Michigan in mid-August.

So one year we play the first two rounds Saturday at Arcadia Bluffs( Arcadia Bluffs) and the final round Sunday at Crystal Mountain( Mountain course). Handicaps are figured in and with three holes to play I am down four shots to Steve and two shots to Frank. We are all in the final foursome. After four putting 15 I am ready to quit when the fourth player in the group says "just make three pars. You still have a chance." For bearing I am a 14 at the time, Steve is a 13 and Frank a 20.

16th hole: Short, very tricky par-4. I miss the green left and get up and down for par. Steve makes par. Frank bogeys.

Steve leader. Frank -3. HHH -4.

17th hole: Extreme downhill par-3. 180 yards. Trouble behind a shallow, severe green.

Steve duffs it 20-yards into some heavy rough. Frank hits the green, long putt. HHH dumps it short into a grass bunker well below the green.

Steve hits his second shot onto the front fringe. I hit a flop that runs past the flag and leaves me 20 feet, downhill with about 3 feet of break. Steve hits a decent lag up to about 8 feet, marks his ball, makes a funny face and proclaims "guys, this isn't my ball." He marches back up the hill, finds his ball and makes a nice bogey - plus two penalty strokes for a 6! Frank two putts for par. HHH makes a dream of a par putt that was going ten feet past if it didn't hit the hole dead center.

Steve and Frank tied for lead. HHH one shot back.

18th hole: Gorgeous downhill par-5.

Frank hits it in the trees. HHH limps one down the middle. Steve is a big hitter and crushes one, might be close to 300!

Frank dumps it out and will take four shots to reach. HHH lays it up to 100 yards out. Steve is less than 200 yards in, but his ball has found a sand bunker on the right. No problem with the lip so he is inspecting the lie trying to plan a course of action. Just then Steve bends down and picks a large pebble out of the sand behind his ball! OMG! I immediately ask him what he just did and Steve replies "is that a penaltly?" Two more shots! Steve goes on to par the hole plus two more penalty strokes = third place.

On to my fate: I get nervous and dump the wedge just short of the green in the apron. Frank is on in four, but has a 30-foot downhiller. I flip me wedge shot on and it grabs, leaving me a 10-footer straight uphill. Frank lags it up and taps in for bogey.

The club of sixteen guys is all gathered around the green and everyone knows if I make it I win the tiebreaker(last nine hole total adjusted). If I miss it Frank wins outright. I have never hit a putt so well in my life. Right edge to dead center. BINGO! I threw my putter in the air a la Jack Nicklaus and congratulated Frank on his effort down the stretch. Steve never lived down his rules infractions! And the drinking lasted well into the night.

GOLF IS THE GREATEST GAME.

Cliff notes: Golf clubs without real estate are a great idea. And I won.

[tuq]

Both good stories. Don't think nobody read them just because they didn't respond. HHH, good links, well described. That Steve guy sounds like the type you see in the illustrated books on golf that is always breaking rules and doing everything wrong.

Probably the most interesting story I've been involved in was when we won our second state title in a row in high school via a 10-man playoff consisting of two fivesomes. But 1) it's fairly long, 2) I'm not sure if I can write it that interesting, and 3) I'm sure I've written a cliff's notes version of it somewhere here before. After 12K posts I think I've written about everything at least twice. [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[Butcho22]

This is me caring, good read.

[Skooch]

Love the stories. Anyone else have any good ones?

[BigSoonerFan]

Personal Brag 1 :-)

I grew up in Oklahoma and played a lot of junior high golf there. My junior year I moved to Indiana and played my last two years. The guys on the team told me that the conference championship was the biggest tournament of the year, but it obviously didn't mean much to me. The first tee was a bit intimidating though, as I played with the three best players in the conference (I was playing #3, but our #1 and #2 players didn't like the pressure, so the coach played me at #1). All three guys were "preppy" golfers, dressed finely, nice bags, clubs and shoes. Back then I couldn't hit the ball out of my shadow. I scraped it around the course (bending my left arm more than those women from the early 1900s and slapping at the ball), barely hitting my drives 210 (no kidding) and depending on my short game to save me. I started slow and was spinning my wheels. Things got better on the eighth hole as I amazingly drained a sixty-footer for bogey that put me at three over. After a birdie at nine and somehow making par through the back nine, I finished with 74, hitting about four or five GIRs and beat everyone by two shots (or more). I still remember one of teammates of my opponents asking what he shot. After he said 76, his teammates said "That's low score on the board. You might win this.". As my opponent pointed toward me and said "No, I think he got me.", his teammate stared at me and I walked up the hill to the clubhouse, dressed in blue jeans and old beat up tennis shoes...

Personal Brag #2
In college I played in our club championship and everyone was talking about the defending champion and how he was going to run over the field. He was a stockbroker with a +1 handicap, spending some weekends flying down to get lessons from Leadbetter, improving on his Nick Faldo-like swing. I didn't play with him the first day, which was probably good, since he shot 69 just like the previous year. I managed a 72 to stay within striking distance. The next day we played together. I scraped another even par front night and he shot three over to pull us even. The back nine was as much fun as I've had playing (with the obvious ending). A bunch of people (30-50) for the small course ended up following us around as we traded the lead for awhile. My opponent wasn't generally well-liked and most of them just wanted to see him lose I think. I don't remember a lot, except I birdied the 13th to tie, he birdie 14 to go ahead and I birdied 15 to tie again. I remember the 20 footer for par on 16 to give me the lead when he bogeyed. On 17 I played too conservative and dumped my tee shot in the bunker behind the green and I was stunned when he did the same. He got a bad lie and ended up hitting it in the creek on the other side and I coasted to an exciting win for me.

Family Story
My dad was a horrible golfer, absolutely horrible. I'm glad he introduced me to the game and I tried to help him, but it didn't do any good. He had the biggest loop slice swing I'ver ever seen. Sometimes his divots would be 45 degrees left of his target line and he'd still hit it in the right rough. He managed a 23 handicap when we played in my junior high years (he quite out of frustration years later). One year he played in the city championship. He was in the last flight (seventh) obviously. (I may have told this story?) There are four courses in the city, one round at each, and after three rounds he had a 15 shot lead in his flight, managing to break 90 three times (having only done it a few times in his entire life). Everyone obviously thought he was a sandbagger, despite me telling them how much he really sucked. :-) The last day he almost gagged it all up, shooting a 105 or so and winning by 1 or 2. Of course, then everyone thought he was throwing off. Good times.

Personal Beat #1
I was playing in my first club championship as a kid and playing a career round (-1 after 11). Then came my first case of the shanks. I finished with a 78 and broke about six or seven clubs coming in. I had to borrow a few clubs to play the second day...

Personal Beat #2
Last day of a junior high tournament. I had a ten footer for par for my first finish in a tourney (third place). As the ball lipped out, I yelled "God" and looked away, and then yelled "Damn" as I saw the ball roll off the green and 30 yards down the hill. I after I chipped on and two putted for triple, my coach came by and told me how pleased he was to have heard my yell fromt he parking lot.

Hopefully these weren't too boring...

[JTrout]

I'm enjoying the stories. Keep them coming.

[POKEROMGLOL]

In junior golf we had 2 types of tournaments, the regular ones and the "Masters" ones, which is what all of the really good kids played in.

I was 18, my last year to play junior golf, and usually just played the regular ones because I really only played for fun and they were a lot cheaper. Also, the Masters ones were all over the state (Texas) and I wasn't interested in traveling. But this one was in my hometown at an awesome course (Shady Oaks Country Club), so I figured I'd play in it.

My tee time is at like 9:30 and so I show up about 8:45. I am pretty happy with my game tee to green and putting, but have been battling the chipping/bunker shanks for way too long. It is horrible, if i hit greens I can shoot mid 70s, if i don't i can shoot 90s.......not a good thing to have going on. My goal was to break 80 and I honestly didn't think it was going to be happening.

So I am on the putting green assessing my opponents. Obviously I see about ~10 guys who are well known, scratch, college scholarship guys. They all look like tremendous douchebags. They are super serious and I see lots of popped collars and giant David Duval Oakley's on even though it is overcast. I make fun of this by acting super serious, popping my collar, and putting balls from the top of an extreme hill WAY too hard to where my ball goes about 90 feet. I tried to act like it was an accident and I just misjudged the speed of the greens. Screwing with overly serious people is something I just can't resist.

So anyway, I tee off and hit my approach to 4 feet on the first hole. I obviously lip out the putt because I am nervous and the ball hit a sand granule that was on the face of my putter. I par #2 as well, which is a great start for me. I go onto hack the next 4 holes, making >10 foot putts for bogey on all of them. I par 7, hitting the green and 2 putting. Then #8 is a disaster. 2 great shots on a par 5, bladed chip from 30 yards, chunked sand shot, 2 putt double. I rebound with a scrambling (putting from way too far off the green than i should) par and end with a 40.

I am happy with the way I am hitting it and start to execute a bit better on the back. Easy pars on 10 and 11. No12 is a 230 yard par 3 and i hit a terrible worm burner shot that finds its way between two bunkers and rolls up to 15 feet. Very lucky....2 putt par. #13 is a tough, long narrow hole and I hit a great drive and 4 iron to 30 feet. And drain the putt...Birdie! I start to think about it and I realize I am now +4 thru 13, which is way better than expected. The next two holes are par 5s and I play them well with the exception of a nervous, yippy wedge from 60 yards that led to a 3 putt from 50 feet, and a good par save from 8 feet on the next one. +5 thru 15.

The par is 71 and all I am playing against is breaking 80 really and have been enduring this kid who shot -2 on the front talking about how great he is. He doesn't seem to be doing so hot on the back, but I am not really paying attention. 16 is a tiny par 3, but it is devilish with no room for error. I stick it to 6 feet and make a tough left to right straight down hill slider for another birdie. back to +4. I am getting pretty nervous now because I have never really played well in a high profile tournament like this. On 17 I nervously slice my ball into the trees. I slice an AWESOME shot through an opening that is going right at the pin. I start to freak out thinking it might be stiff and one of my opponents tells me it is good. I get to the green and my ball obviously is 10 yards over the green, an impossible chip for even a good chipper. Oh crap...I can't chip. I completely duff the first shot. Then I chunk the second shot and it lands in the rough and trundles onto the green and 10 feet past the hole. So incredibly lucky. I drain the putt for bogey (light fist pump). I had been thinking I might be able to sneak into third place if others had bad days, but figured I was out of it now. The last hole I striped the ball down the middle on a 420 yard par 4. It is downhill so I only had an 8 iron left, but the second is back uphill and the pin is tucked in between two bunkers. I aim 25 feet right of the hole right at where my friend is sitting after finishing just in front of me. I hit it dead perfect and am 25 feet for birdie. I hit the putt dead perfect and the last revolution drops in the cup for a -1 35 on the back 9 and a +4, 75 overall. I do a nice solid fist pump and am pretty pleased with myself.

As the scores came in, I thought I might have a good chance at that third place. After all but 1 group had come in, I was still in first. They right the first two scores down, a 79 and an 82, no problem there. The last guy is a good golfer and I am sure he had me beat. They write down a 7 first real slowly, and a 6 after it. I won? I had won a golf tournament? I was pretty much shocked.

Obv. my girlfriend(now fiance) was on her way to becoming a DI golfer and had about 40 of the cool Crystal trophies, but mine meant a lot to me.

I have always been a passionate golfer with what I believe to be some natural talent. To finally win a bona fide real tournament was definitely the best golfing experience of my life.

[westhoff]

[ QUOTE ]
I make fun of this by acting super serious, popping my collar, and putting balls from the top of an extreme hill WAY too hard to where my ball goes about 90 feet. I tried to act like it was an accident and I just misjudged the speed of the greens. Screwing with overly serious people is something I just can't resist.

[/ QUOTE ]

Rofl, I would totally do something like this. I would just stand on the range and chunk wedges and top drivers until everyone started looking at me.

Good stories guys, keep em coming!

[Proline Fiend]

Westoff, this is a great story, omg i looked at the title and i was like, OMG is he talking about me. I was the junior Interclub at Breezy Bend when I was 15 ages 12-18 is the category. I had a 1 foot putt to win and i was shaking like a mother [censored]. The next year, i have a one stroke lead, block my drive left OB, and pop lose by 1. Good Story though [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]