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When did you start playing in club tournaments /matchplay and blitz?

Tj_11

Tj_11

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Location
Charleston, SC
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ugh
I joined a club last year when we moved into the new house and started taking golf more seriously. The club offers multiple tournaments, match play leagues and also they have the weekly blitz leagues.

Obviously I'm not the best golfer but there was a thread the other day asking about "why joining a club" and ive been wanting to become more sociable and neighborly. It got me thinking about when did some of y'all start playing in these. I know most of y'all are lower handicaps but I know there are some of "me" also on the site.

Ive started taking lessons and moving towards bettering my handicap and hopefully will be able to break the 100 on the card in the early spring. I ended the season with a majority of my rounds being 100-105 and they had the 2-3 blow up holes. So with that being said, im hoping to get better so I can keep my head up while playing others in a semi competitive manner while having fun and meeting new friends.

Thanks
 
I never played anything competitive until about 10 years ago. I'm 52 now. Just played casual golf before .
 
I haven't played competitively outside of THP events and matches with friends. I finally joined my local USGA chapter and hope to enter a few of their events this year.
 
I have not played competitively either but I am really wanting to change that this year. Probably slowly with just a few events first and see how it goes. I am not really super competitive anyway so it would still be more for fun for me and that’s probably the biggest reason I never have done it.
 
My advise get in now as a 26...as you improve you will win money...or wait till you improve get in and lose money. I have never been a blitz guy but played in all the club matches we had at my previous private club. We had a couple which had a lot of $$$ in the pot.
 
Once I get back in the swing of things, I plan to : join, start working on my handicap, improve... I won't like getting my ass handed to me but I'll learn stuff on the way and that's the fun part for me.
 
Stryker said:
I am not really super competitive anyway so it would still be more for fun for me and that’s probably the biggest reason I never have done it.
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Me either, just hoping to meet some new people and maybe the competition will drive me harder to be better.

GolfTravelDude said:
I have never been a blitz guy but played in all the club matches we had at my previous private club.
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Ironic you mentioning the blitz part, I caught up to some ladies playing one day and we got to talking. She mentioned one of the blitz groups she was a part of was nothing but gossip. Maybe just the lady side of it. My schedule is pretty flexible so playing during the week I see the mens blitz guys going off, I actually schedule my tee time right behind them because of how they block it off.

chile said:
I won't like getting my ass handed to me but I'll learn stuff on the way and that's the fun part for me.
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The learning part is what im really looking forward to. Might pick up a thing or two. Hopefully I don't get my ass handed to me too often.
 
I’ve thought about joining a club but a couple things have given me pause:
- I like to go play when I feel like it and don’t want to be put on a schedule
- I’ve joined leagues for other hobbies before and it’s kinda sucked all the fun out of it. Like I used to be really into billiards (still have a 9 foot table at home though that may be replaced by a SkyTrak this year). I played for a couple years in a league and hated it. Seemed like so much drama over something that means very very little in the scheme of things
 
I joined an affiliate club shortly after I started playing. We'd play once a month at a course somewhere within 60 miles of LA with maybe 30 players. Made friends, had a chance to make a little money, like $30-40. Got my handicap at that point and was about a 25-26. As I got more into it and wanted more competition I joined a 2nd club. Since then have moved on and now am in a local men's club that has a home and away tournament with 88-100 players, skins games every Sunday, and groups of guys playing other days during the week. This is just a public course so not sure how it is at private. Point is...join now.
 
When i was 14 (I started playing at 13) my mom and I won the Parent child tourney over 10 other groups... won it 2 of the 3 years it was played
 
I started playing in club comps pretty much as soon as I joined my current club - I knew a few people, and by playing in the comps I got to know more members, started playing league matches and have never looked back

Don't worry about your handicap, everyone had to start somewhere, and don't worry about bad rounds to start with as there is a bit of a mental switch that needs to take place when you are playing competitively and I know a lot of people that have struggled when they know there is something on the line
I try to treat every comp or league match as a friendly knock to reduce the pressure and stay relaxed

If you are having lessons and start to improve, don't be surprised to be in the running for some of the comps if you have a few good days where you shoot below your handicap

Overall, just enjoy it, have fun and good luck
 
Oh and one other thing I'd add. In competition you have to play everything as it lies, and putt everything out in stroke play. From the start I always did. Never took gimmes or anything. It A) gives you a much more accurate hdcp and B) makes you better at those 3 footers that everyone just scoops up. Now when you join you are starting with a slight edge over those other guys.
 
TheDoctor said:
I started playing in club comps pretty much as soon as I joined my current club - I knew a few people, and by playing in the comps I got to know more members, started playing league matches and have never looked back

If you are having lessons and start to improve, don't be surprised to be in the running for some of the comps if you have a few good days where you shoot below your handicap

Overall, just enjoy it, have fun and good luck
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This is what im hoping my outcome will be, meeting new members and knowing the game better.

Datkison said:
Oh and one other thing I'd add. In competition you have to play everything as it lies, and putt everything out in stroke play. From the start I always did. Never took gimmes or anything.
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This is something that ive tried my best to do from the start. Especially putting out, just to get the practice. Ironically this is why I won't finish a round, if the first 5-6 holes are rough and its not my day, Ill call it quits and head to the house. No sense in playing if it isn't fun.
 
Been playing golf for about six or seven years now and just competed in my first tournament last season. Competitive golf is a different animal but it's a lot of fun. I would play in way more but my coaching schedule conflicts with most weekends that we have tournaments. Once I'm done coaching, I plan on playing in a lot more.
 
I haven't yet, but I would like to play some tournaments this year. We'll see if I can actually make it happen.
 
I played informal matches back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I used to do well. Then I stepped away from the game.

I took up the game again in 2012. I played competitively in 2013-2015. While I enjoyed the competition, I didn't like the politics of league play.
 
I started playing competitively two years ago. At the beginning I played way below my ability. I think it was because I was nervous and tournament golf was new. Now I play much better since I have more experience and I don’t get nervous at all. I came in second this past year in my club championship in the second flight.So this year I’m going to try to win it
 
No club tournaments, but I started playing charity tournaments last fall after 3 years of golf
 
I joined my local club two years ago when I got my wife into golf. For the last couple years its been strictly casual saturday evening walking 9 rounds, we made sort if a date night out of it. She doesnt play as much now as she did in the beginning so Ive had to foster other golf relationships haha. This past Summer I started playing with some new people and how have several contacts that I can setup rounds with at short notice. One of the guys I play rounds with regularly now started talking last fall about being tournament partners this year. I think in the past he played in the weekly rumble league but this will be my first fiasco with tournament play. I finally was able to get my score under 100 last fall and from the sounds of it my game is very comparable to the OP’s game. I’m looking forward to playing hopefully 3-4 club tournaments this year and continuing to improve my game.


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The first time I ever played golf was in a Men's league. I never had hit a golf ball before this. The first time I played in a tournament was about four years after this. I had changed jobs and location and one of the guys I worked with was at a local course and I went with him. When they had their first tournament I played in it with him.
 
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