A Golf Classic Amongst Friends
Approximately 35 years ago some of my high school buddies and their brothers got together to play golf. Actually, some of us were co-workers at a local bowling alley going to a rival high school. There were maybe 16 of us. Some golfed a few times a week while others might get out a couple times per year. We would sneak on to the course in the evening and wade in the lakes to find dozens and dozens of golf balls. The end result is that we would play 9 holes in a friends only golf tournament once a year.
Some of us were fairly decent on the course. We could shoot low 40’s for 9 holes while others might shoot in the 60’s. As some of us started college, a few of our newfound college buddies joined us in our once a year tournament or what we often referred to it as our classic. Herein lies the problem though. As a fun once a year get together for a golf tournament, the same few golfers would win year after year. Most of the golfers were out to have a good time while others were highly competitive. I guess I would put myself on the competitive side while also wanting to have fun.
We were all about the same age but we had two brothers playing who were a few years apart and then because it was all in the family, their dad played as well.
Bring on the Beer
Did I mention there was alcohol involved? Did I mention there was only one brand of alcohol – beer involved? Maybe I should mention the beer is 7 ounces and comes in a green bottle. I think I’ve given enough hints.
Oh yeah. No one was shooting in the low 40’s for 9 holes. Not in our classic. Not after a handful or more of beers. I will say one thing though. As stupid as we may have become on the course and knowing that might happen, we had designated drivers. Our girlfriends and by now some wives were kind enough to both take us to the course and pick us up. At the end of the night (we always played twilight golf) we would have a cookout. Luckily this is only a once in a year thing. Did I mention our girlfriends and wives are dolls?
Because we were seeing the same winners there had to be a change. We came up with a few rules to start off with. Better than that we came up with a trophy. A trophy to be given to the winner where he would get it engraved and keep it for the year. The winner of our friendly tournament would plan the next years outing, choosing the golf course and date. Oh ,the winner of the classic would also be able to create their own rule for use in next years tournament.
What’s Golf without Rules?
So here are a few rules we put into place:
- One free mulligan if you are drinking the good 7 ounce beers.
- If you par the hole, you drink a full 7 ounce beer or 12 ounce yucky beer. If you birdie the hole, you drink 2 of the good 7 ounce beers or 2 of the yucky 12 ounce beers.
- The winner of the golf tournament would only be able to play with 3 clubs while everyone else would play with a full set. This would severely handicap (pun intended) the winner of the previous year’s tournament.
This helped to level the playing field somewhat. It was a constant work in progress in an attempt to get some other names on the trophy.
- Didn’t hit it past the ladies tee? Drink one yummy 7 ounce beer.
Many of my friends started having kids. They might miss a tournament here or there because of scheduling difficulties. Same with friends that had jobs where they had to travel. With most, you would see them back the following year. Friends flying in from California or Colorado. With some, they gave up the game of golf or family came first. Completely understood.
Yet we still saw the same winners so we made a change to a rule to make the prior 3 years of winners only able to use 3 clubs. That did the trick. We started to see new winners. But friends started bringing some of their neighbors or co-workers. We didn’t want a ringer, neighbor or co-worker to win on their first outing in our friends tournament. ie one of my buddies had a co-worker who played on one of the lessor known men’s golf tours. As previously mentioned, we might be missing a friend or two depending on the year. So we didn’t mind seeing a new golfer join us from time to time. But we created another rule.
- To be eligible to win the trophy, you must play in our “classic” three years in a row. On the third year you are eligible.
The winners made a new rule year in and year out. Our trophy added an extra level. Wish we would have had a trophy from year one but we can’t go back in time. One guy won the tournament but didn’t get his name engraved on the trophy. His excuse (seems weird to me) is he didn’t want to win because that would force him to have to arrange the following years tournament. Thus a new rule evolved.
- 2nd place finisher plans the next years tournament.
We had a couple of ties along the way for first place after 9 holes. We would play an extra hole to determine the winner. The competitiveness was there because if you finished in 2nd you were arranging next years tournament.
We all enjoyed the tournament or we wouldn’t come out year after yer. What routinely happens is the few groups that finish ahead of the last group would gather around the 9th or 18th hole (if we started on the back nine). Besides teeing off on the first hole with everyone watching, finishing on the last hole with a dozen or so guys hanging around the green can bring the butterflies. Even after more than a few beers.
One year one of our friends got up to the last hole and I believe he was either 2 shots or 3 shots ahead. I’m thinking 3 shots. Because of the way our rules work, the beers finally caught up to him. Needless to say he didn’t win that year.
The weird thing with our rules is that if you finished in the middle of the road on each hole, meaning you didn’t have the low or high score on a hole, you weren’t drinking any beer at all. So of course we had to make a rule to change that.
- Non-winner or non-loser of the hole drinks 1/2 a beer.
I don’t particularly care for this next rule but I didn’t win so I had no say. It would help to even things out all the more though.
- Previous 3 winners use 1 club and everyone else uses 3 clubs.
I’m thinking somewhere along the way some of our rules were negated rather than a new rule being added. Away from the tournament, we started playing golf with some of my friends kids. Kids that were getting out of high school and into college. No one could compete in our tournament unless they were of drinking age and even then they would have to play for 3 years before they were eligible to compete for the trophy. Yes, there are fun golf games you can play but we wanted to keep this tournament our own.
Some more rules came into play, even though it seemed to be getting harder to come up with a good rule.
- Play with the same ball the entire round and for every shot and get 2 strokes off final score
One of my friends sons who we played with from time to time was a struggling golfer but started to play with us and brought along some of his friends. Ever play with someone who can hit the ball 50 yards+ past you but they can’t keep the ball in the fairway? Boy if they could straighten out their shots. They were all out of college at this point. My does time fly.
- Hit a crappy shot on the tee box and you may take a mulligan by drinking a yummy 7 ounce beer.
In yet another attempt to level the playing field, the recent winners of our classic were going to have all the more difficulty in repeating as winners.
- Previous 3 winners tee off one tee box back
Bring on the Next Generation
Seems like we are having less and less of the original golfers and more of the younger group. A little upsetting but its great to see the tournament continue. By no means have us old geisers (now in the mid to upper 50’s) given up the game. There were probably 8 of us at the last tournament with one out of the country and a couple with scheduling conflicts. The remaining groupings are made up with the younger folks.
- Steal a tee shot. Person with the black ball marker may steal another golfer’s tee shot (but not their ball). That person must tee off again and gets the black ball marker to use.
I’m not sure if this next one was a rule made by a winner but it is very fitting.
- Previous year’s winner to drink one full, 1 year old yummy 7 ounce beer before 2nd tee shot. Honoring the founding fathers of the classic.
I’m guessing you may be asking if I’ve ever won the classic? Yes. I was lucky enough to honor the founding fathers this past year.
And here is my rule:
- Anyone can tee off from the ladies tee box on any hole, but must drink a full 7 ounce yummy beer before doing so.
This past years classic was bittersweet. One of our founding fathers passed away. The father who played with us from the very beginning. His two sons, also founding fathers played the classic this year.
We had a close tournament this year. First of all the beer was hard to come by so we offered an alternative beer. I do have to say though, we drank the original yummy beer out of choice. A few of us knew we were close after about 5 holes. I fell apart on the next hole. My buddy and one of the younger kids (probably 28 years old) were just about playing neck to neck but the kid was not eligible. As we got to the last hole my buddy found out he needed a par to go into a playoff.
The kid handed him a black poker chip and made my buddy re-hit his driver. Similar length but in the rough. His next shot landed about 5 yards in front of the green in heavy rough. He had a tough time with the chip but had about a 15 foot putt for par. You could feel the pressure. Needed to drop this putt. Our group as well as those in front were all watching in anticipation. The putt looked to be on line but at the last moment veered and just missed the cup.
The winner. My buddy’s son. The torch has been passed and we couldn’t be more happy.