What Kind of Competitions Are You Entering?

radiman

#TheGrandaddy2019
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So, golf has many different aspects to it. You are playing against Par, yourself, your playing partners, or a field, all depending on your interest. I know some players who play the game and aren’t concerned with what they shoot. I know players on the opposite end of the spectrum that have a full schedule of tournaments throughout the region for the summer.

Many different types of tournaments available. Charity or memorial scrambles that seem to revolve around raising money and having fun. Club sponsored best balls, scrambles, and such. These typically seem to be flighted by handicap with some net divisions. Club championships where you are possibly playing against the best of the best at your own club, or even just in flights. Then even regional tournaments, all-city, all county, etc.

My question is this, do you play in events? If so, what kind? Do you consider to be a “competitive golfer” in the sense that you plan your season around these events? Working and preparing your game for them? How important is competition to your game? Do you stick to the occasional scramble? Do you desire to step up your game and enter more events?

For me, I used to strive to enter in these bigger ticket regional events. I put a lot of pressure on myself to improve to be able to compete. These days, I am pretty much relegated to my club sponsored events and a few scrambles each year. Competition has seemed to take a back seat. For the better in my regard. I have less stress on my game the last few years and I have actually played better since abandoning my goal. As I age, I find that the field isn’t getting any older. As kids graduate college and move out of the region, there is a new crop of young kids that bomb the ball stepping up in their place.

Our club championship is coming up in the next few weeks. I will be playing in the flights, as I do every year. In the past, I would press and press to get my game to a point where I could compete against the guys shooting under par for the 27 hole event. I would usually chicken out a few days before hand and enter the first flight. This year, I am content. I think I could play the championship flight and probably finish middle of the pack. But, I have a real chance of winning the first flight.

How about you guys?
 
I started entering the MAGA (Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association not the other one) Amateur Series Events this year mainly for the competition outside of my normal league events. It's nice because I play courses I would not otherwise play - either private courses or public courses that I never play. Also, it's pretty laid back and not a lot of pressure, but still has the competition experience. Play 100% by the book and rules officials all over the course to assist.
 
The THP Budget Championship will most likely me the one and only "competitive" event I ever play.
 
I don't really play much competitive golf anymore. I used to try and play 5 or 6 VGT (local mini-tour) events a year, but with a young family the mid day tee times and entry fees just kill me. Now I play in a League with 20-30 guys, once every couple weeks. I like to play a little skins game on weekend mornings.
 
I am usually competing with myself but do play for lunch with one of my buddies.

I would love to play more competitive golf, I really enjoyed the 2018 Morgan Cup and the different formats were great!
Alternate shot is a lot of fun!
 
I play in THP Events and thats the extent of my competition currently.
 
I do a few scrambles a year, and play in the Club Championship. Just not at a level yet where I feel comfortable entering events.
 
I forgot to mention league. But, ours is pretty non-competitive. Just play your nine holes and get randomly drawn with someone else's score. $5 entry each week. Also play in a Sunday morning skins game at our course once in a while. But, that's small potatoes too. May win $10 one week or lose $5 the next.
 
At a minimum I play in two 9 hole leagues every year, and then the club championship events at those two courses.

I try to get in at least one other "serious" tournament a year, and then there are 3-4 fun scramble events. I don't get to play in the Saturday morning skins game as often as I'd like, but I'll usually be out there 3-4 times a summer too.

I'd love to find a way to play more competitive golf, but I really can't complain about what I'm getting to play now.

I'm really hoping 2020 brings some me some THP-competition rounds though.
 
I have tried to enter tournaments at my club, but our member-guest was the same weekend as my wife's birthday and our club championship is on our anniversary weekend. It looks like the member-member is the same weekend as a family reunion also, so that's not going too well so far. I did play in the match play and I have entered a league for my work. I won a match in the match play and I went 6-1 in league matches and our team won the league's regular season. We play a Ryder Cup type event on my buddies golf trip so that is the big event for me every year.
 
Just one match-play series through a local group. It’s single elimination, handicapped at 80%, and I’ve never made it past the second round. I’ve played it for the past 5 years or so.

I do our clubs parent/jr tournament and this year is coming up in a few weeks. The clubs MGA is mostly way outside of my age category (much older) so it doesn’t appeal to me.

My work has a 9 hole league in the summers that I may try next year. I missed the boat this time.
 
I play in about 10 scramble tournaments every year, and about half through and during work :banana:

I play in a ryder cup type tournament at my home course "Town vs Country" where its the townies vs all the hillbillies that don't live in town. Town usually wins, the Country won this year for first time in 5 years.

This weekend is "The Northern", a matchplay tournament. The first round is a qualifying one, then you are flighted, after that you have to win 4 matches to win your flight. It's a lot of golf. I won my flight a couple years ago and won my nice ping golf bag.

And I play in my local club championship which we restarted last year after not having it for over a decade. I won last year with a 75 in the rain and heavy wind, was a horrible day and only 18 people played. This year we will have both net and gross winners. And are expecting quite a few more people playing this year.

And finally myself and buddies play a yearly skins match, and then a poker tournament after. Is quite a blast that one, but I hurt for days after, lol.
 
I played in one event this year that I loved, a blind draw scramble that had a $156,000 Calcutta. I also played in three city league senior events this year where local clubs take 6 of their best players against 13 other teams from the area. The courses rotate each Thursday for 11 weeks. I had planned on playing in more of these, but they took up more time than I would like, and often we go up to our cabin on Thursday afternoons for the weekend. They started at 1:30 pm, which meant leaving home by noon and the dinner afterward got me home at about 8 pm. I played decently in these non-handicapped events, shooting, 75, 77, 74 on courses I hadn't played ever or in at least 25 years. The downside for me was I'm playing with people I don't know(or necessarily enjoy being with for 4.5 hours) and will likely never see again unless it's at one of these events. I likely won't play in any of these next year unless they are short a man and need me, I'd much rather play with my buddies or my daughter.

I had planned on playing in the the club championship this year but we will be out of town checking on construction at our Florida condo. The senior club championship is also something I could play in the following weekend, but we are again up at our lake home for the weekend with another family.
 
i really don't seek out competitive golf. mainly, i just hate to lose. like, pick-up-my-toys-and-go-home hate to lose. it brings out the worst in me, so i try to avoid it. to the point that it annoys me on the first tee when somebody in the foursome turns out to be a "game" guy. you know that guy, the one who always has to have some sort of game to keep him interested. i've been looking forward to the opportunity to play all week, but this guy only gets interested when there's the possibility that he can beat other people.
 
i really don't seek out competitive golf. mainly, i just hate to lose. like, pick-up-my-toys-and-go-home hate to lose. it brings out the worst in me, so i try to avoid it. to the point that it annoys me on the first tee when somebody in the foursome turns out to be a "game" guy. you know that guy, the one who always has to have some sort of game to keep him interested. i've been looking forward to the opportunity to play all week, but this guy only gets interested when there's the possibility that he can beat other people.

Some of my friends are like that. I am not. I don't mind a friendly wager. Like lunch or some drinks. But, there are times where these guys have lost $1k in a round of golf. They aren't even good golfers which makes it even more of a crap shoot. No thank you. Plus, my wife would murder me dead if I came in and told her I lost a significant sum of money.
 
I dont have to enter a competition to enjoy it, but I do like it when it comes up. If it's a scramble, individual, etc I will concentrate some more I have found, but some of my best rounds have been just relaxed playing with no competition or anything on the line.

Every now and then I get the itch to play in something like a qualifier or big local tourney but if I don't play in it or dont qualify I take it for what it is.
 
In regards to non-THP events, I usually play in 6 - 8 local tournaments per year. May do one scramble a year with the others being either individual or 2 person best ball.
 
Some of my friends are like that. I am not. I don't mind a friendly wager. Like lunch or some drinks. But, there are times where these guys have lost $1k in a round of golf. They aren't even good golfers which makes it even more of a crap shoot. No thank you. Plus, my wife would murder me dead if I came in and told her I lost a significant sum of money.

but you don't know what kind of "game" guy you're getting. is it the friendly wager guy? or is it mr. pissing contest?

earlier this year a friend gave me a referral. ended up being a good client, and the client loves to play golf. we go out for the first time, i bring somebody and he brings somebody to round out the foursome. and of course he's a game guy. fine, he's the client, whatever he wants to do. we decide to play carts with handicaps. only his guy isn't much of a golfer, and says he doesn't want to play the game. so it's my cart vs my client. we go up several holes, but then he finds his game and starts making good use of his strokes. when it looks like he might have a chance, he starts talking and moving and making noise while our cart is hitting. he starts talking a bunch of sh1t. just generally being the guy i don't like to play with. needless to say, i've conveniently been too busy to accept his invitations for rounds after this...
 
but you don't know what kind of "game" guy you're getting. is it the friendly wager guy? or is it mr. pissing contest?

earlier this year a friend gave me a referral. ended up being a good client, and the client loves to play golf. we go out for the first time, i bring somebody and he brings somebody to round out the foursome. and of course he's a game guy. fine, he's the client, whatever he wants to do. we decide to play carts with handicaps. only his guy isn't much of a golfer, and says he doesn't want to play the game. so it's my cart vs my client. we go up several holes, but then he finds his game and starts making good use of his strokes. when it looks like he might have a chance, he starts talking and moving and making noise while our cart is hitting. he starts talking a bunch of sh1t. just generally being the guy i don't like to play with. needless to say, i've conveniently been too busy to accept his invitations for rounds after this...

Sorry, I meant when playing with friends. A little out of context on what you were describing now that I think of it. That would drive me crazy.
 
I really like competition but, like @McLovin, I hate for that guy to come out on the golf course. It's great for sports like baseball or boxing but I just can't maintain my composure on the course with that kind of head and it will just cycle into a tailspin of frustration and really high scores. I'm scratching the itch by playing in non-competitive leagues and games with friends. It's much more enjoyable since there are really no stakes to an after work 9-hole league, a weekend wager, or (the best yet) a competitive THP event where one bad shot is negated by like 10 awesome things you get to experience.
 
Over here we play a lot of Stableford scoring competitions. The club run a couple every month, which are handicap qualifiers , and we play stableford in friendlies. Also we play a fair amount of match play, against other members and against other clubs. I keep a score three times a week, and it is always stableford. Stableford is quicker , you do not have a putt for an 8, and you pick up when you can not score a point.
 
I really like competition but, like @McLovin, I hate for that guy to come out on the golf course. It's great for sports like baseball or boxing but I just can't maintain my composure on the course with that kind of head and it will just cycle into a tailspin of frustration and really high scores. I'm scratching the itch by playing in non-competitive leagues and games with friends. It's much more enjoyable since there are really no stakes to an after work 9-hole league, a weekend wager, or (the best yet) a competitive THP event where one bad shot is negated by like 10 awesome things you get to experience.

I haven't played in a ton of different tournaments. But, I have played in a few over the years. Thankfully, I have never run into a guy like that.
 
I haven't played in a ton of different tournaments. But, I have played in a few over the years. Thankfully, I have never run into a guy like that.

Yeah, hope you never have to deal with that. Hopefully other guys who have that type of personality know themselves well enough to understand that maybe ultra-competitive golf isn't for them. One of the worst things I'd hate to do is start getting down on myself and have it affect other players. In the very few (and not even high-level) tournaments that I have played in, I've seen a few guys get rattled by people in the group who were cursing up a storm and slamming their clubs, etc. Even though you could tell they were cursing themselves, it really brings the mood of the group down and takes others out of their zone.
 
I play city level gross only events both as a single and sometimes 2 man better ball type events.
 
My club has a bunch of cool scramble, best ball, and big hole type tournaments that I'll get into with some friends just for a mess around day with good people. Same goes for the invitational, just a fun day. The only tournament I play in that is somewhat serious is our club championship. Some guys take it very seriously and I used to, until I saw how detrimental that is to my game. My flight is pretty laid back and generally we're cheering for each other to play well so in that context I enjoy it a lot. Besides, the course is closed for the weekend unless I'm playing so I'll opt to play.
 
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