Don Barzini
Assistant Pro
Be interested in peoples opinions on this scenario. It's completely irrelevent now as it happened a while ago, but thought it might make for interesting discussion. Apologies if this is long!
Me and 11 other guys I know get together once a year for a friendly golf tournament. 6 against 6. A hotel stay and three rounds in total over the weekend. A mixture of fourballs, foursomes and singles. A mini Ryder Cup, if you like. Lots of beer, lots of banter. Best weekend of the year!
So it's day one and we're playing three lots of fourballs, I'm playing in the second group out. We're approaching the 14th green and me and my PP are 2 down, having been behind most of the game. The game in front of us has finished and gone in, there's a game still going behind us. Me and my playing partner (HCP 24 and 20 respectively, not the most experienced golfers in the world) are playing against a HCP8 and a HCP18. HCP8 is a very good mate of mine. Experienced golfer and ultra knowledgeable about the game - but ultra competitive as well, wouldn't give you an inch!
It's been raining on and off all afternoon but all of a sudden it utterly p***es it down. The type of rain that makes your head bleed. Within a few minutes, we're soaked through to the skin and the greens are waterlogged. There are literally streams of water running over them and when you try to putt through one, your ball just stops in the water. Me and my PP are both thinking "Should we really still be playing?" but there's no sign the other two are stopping, so we continue. We halve the hole and are 2 down, four to play.
No sign of the rain letting up, we get to the 15th green. After each having to putt through two "rivers" on the green on the way to the hole, me and PP lose that one. We're 3 down, three to play.
As we're heading to our buggies, the buggies from the game behind us are approaching. One of the guys from that game who's on my team says "The course is unplayable. We're calling it a half and going in." There are nods of agreement from their opponents. Transpires the guys on my team were 1 up and have been ahead for most of the game, but they're happy to rescind their lead and call it a half.
Mr 8 who I'm playing against turns away and mutters something, which sounds like "We aren't stopping" or words to the effect. He gets in his buggy and they head over to the next tee and tee up. Me and PP look a bit bewildered and ask our guys from the other game what we're supposed to do. Are we to carry on playing or what? There is uncertainty, some shrugging all round and in the end our guys say "It's for you and your opponents to decide".
Clearly there's going to be no discussion unless we bring it up. But in our position of 3 down, three to play, how can we do so without looking like we are angling after an (undeserved?) half? So we play on. Hole 16, par 3. Mr 8 takes a beautiful tee shot which plops down dead within a few feet of the hole. His PP does nothing of note. Both me and my PP miss the green, pitch on and find we have more rivers to contend with. No chance of halving it, so we concede and lose the game 4&2.
So, what should have happened there? The game behind us had decided the course was unplayable so called it a day. But we felt compelled to continue because of the scoring position we were in. It's highly unlikely we would have come back to halve the game from 3 down with three to play and yes the greens were the same for both sides, but doubtless the water severely affected our putting on the 14th and 15th greens.
If you were in my position, what would you have done? What about if you were Mr 8 and his PP, would you have conceded a half point from the great position you were in, or would you have played on? I didn't feel I could argue that we should half the game and head inside. Perhaps if I was more experienced I might have done.
I should point out that this was late in the day, dusk wasn't far off. No sign of rain stopping, so going in and coming back out later wasn't an option. Neither was finishing the round the day after, as we had two rounds to play that day and were on a tight schedule as it was. Doubt we'd have been able to anyway, it was a packed golf resort.
It didn't cause a problem by the way. It didn't get mentioned or discussed afterwards. Overall at the end of the weekend the points were halved, so you could argue it was vital either way. But I've thought about it a few times and wondered what the correct course of events should have been.
Thoughts and opinions most welcome!
Me and 11 other guys I know get together once a year for a friendly golf tournament. 6 against 6. A hotel stay and three rounds in total over the weekend. A mixture of fourballs, foursomes and singles. A mini Ryder Cup, if you like. Lots of beer, lots of banter. Best weekend of the year!
So it's day one and we're playing three lots of fourballs, I'm playing in the second group out. We're approaching the 14th green and me and my PP are 2 down, having been behind most of the game. The game in front of us has finished and gone in, there's a game still going behind us. Me and my playing partner (HCP 24 and 20 respectively, not the most experienced golfers in the world) are playing against a HCP8 and a HCP18. HCP8 is a very good mate of mine. Experienced golfer and ultra knowledgeable about the game - but ultra competitive as well, wouldn't give you an inch!
It's been raining on and off all afternoon but all of a sudden it utterly p***es it down. The type of rain that makes your head bleed. Within a few minutes, we're soaked through to the skin and the greens are waterlogged. There are literally streams of water running over them and when you try to putt through one, your ball just stops in the water. Me and my PP are both thinking "Should we really still be playing?" but there's no sign the other two are stopping, so we continue. We halve the hole and are 2 down, four to play.
No sign of the rain letting up, we get to the 15th green. After each having to putt through two "rivers" on the green on the way to the hole, me and PP lose that one. We're 3 down, three to play.
As we're heading to our buggies, the buggies from the game behind us are approaching. One of the guys from that game who's on my team says "The course is unplayable. We're calling it a half and going in." There are nods of agreement from their opponents. Transpires the guys on my team were 1 up and have been ahead for most of the game, but they're happy to rescind their lead and call it a half.
Mr 8 who I'm playing against turns away and mutters something, which sounds like "We aren't stopping" or words to the effect. He gets in his buggy and they head over to the next tee and tee up. Me and PP look a bit bewildered and ask our guys from the other game what we're supposed to do. Are we to carry on playing or what? There is uncertainty, some shrugging all round and in the end our guys say "It's for you and your opponents to decide".
Clearly there's going to be no discussion unless we bring it up. But in our position of 3 down, three to play, how can we do so without looking like we are angling after an (undeserved?) half? So we play on. Hole 16, par 3. Mr 8 takes a beautiful tee shot which plops down dead within a few feet of the hole. His PP does nothing of note. Both me and my PP miss the green, pitch on and find we have more rivers to contend with. No chance of halving it, so we concede and lose the game 4&2.
So, what should have happened there? The game behind us had decided the course was unplayable so called it a day. But we felt compelled to continue because of the scoring position we were in. It's highly unlikely we would have come back to halve the game from 3 down with three to play and yes the greens were the same for both sides, but doubtless the water severely affected our putting on the 14th and 15th greens.
If you were in my position, what would you have done? What about if you were Mr 8 and his PP, would you have conceded a half point from the great position you were in, or would you have played on? I didn't feel I could argue that we should half the game and head inside. Perhaps if I was more experienced I might have done.
I should point out that this was late in the day, dusk wasn't far off. No sign of rain stopping, so going in and coming back out later wasn't an option. Neither was finishing the round the day after, as we had two rounds to play that day and were on a tight schedule as it was. Doubt we'd have been able to anyway, it was a packed golf resort.
It didn't cause a problem by the way. It didn't get mentioned or discussed afterwards. Overall at the end of the weekend the points were halved, so you could argue it was vital either way. But I've thought about it a few times and wondered what the correct course of events should have been.
Thoughts and opinions most welcome!
