The Intentional Club Throw Scramble Partner

[Mr. 82]

Before I say anything else, mostly because you can't read tone in a post, what I am about to share with you is meant to be funny/hilarious, et al.  Let's not get into the weeds of how you think this guy's behavior is wrong, rude, or negative in whatever way you think it is.  I came away from the experience just laughing and saying, "whatever dude."

So a buddy of mine asked me to play in a scramble today for a local charity.  It was a last minute pairing with some lifelong friends of his, both of whom are pushing 60, and are average golfers.  I had never met either of the guys I played with today before, but since they are life long friends of my good buddy, I treated them with the utmost respect, because if they are good friends with my buddy, that's good enough for me.

Anyway, we tee off, and I tell a few jokes while we wait on the group in front of us between shots, and we're having a good time, no one really taking the scramble all too seriously, because frankly, none of us is worried about the score.  We hit a few good shots, a few bad shots, and if we make a birdie here or there, then good.  These guys I would tee it up with anytime, anywhere, especially since they are friends with my buddy.

So we get to the 4th hole, which is about a 286 yard par 4 that has a pond in front of the green, so in my case I have to lay up with a 7 iron off of the tee, and then hit a wedge into the green over the pond.  So I strike a perfect 7 iron right down the middle to about 80 yards to a back left pin.  To give you better details, the lie on this fairway is a downhill one, that funnels to the pond, and the grass is cut really tight.  So it's probably one of the harder 80 yard shots you'll ever attempt.  And as we got set to hit, I made the comment to my playing partners that this was a tough shot, because of the downhill lie and the tight lie.  Mostly my typical running commentary I make in scrambles.  FYI, if you ever play in a scramble with me I do this throughout the round.  Comment on my shots, comment on your shots, comment on the break in the putt, the type of shot I need to hit, etc.  I'm a neverending chatterbox in a scramble, because it's meant to be fun, and hey, I wanted to go into broadcasting, so since I could never break into that, my fall back is color commentating on any scramble I'm in.  Anyway, I digress.  So I manage to hit a solid shot and leave my ball about 10 feet from the hole taking the pressure off of my playing partners.  So the next guy steps up and commences at chunking his wedge shot and watching his ball make a perfect 10 point landing in the pond.  Hey, it's a scramble, who cares if you hit a bad shot.  But this guy says, "hold on a second."  He doesn't scream obscenities, shout foul language, or curse or anything, but he goes back to the cart, and grabs a random club out of his bag and the next thing I know his throwing this club into the lake with every ounce of strength he has.  I kind of just stand there in shock, and don't remember saying anything at first.  But then he sort of looks at me, and I guess I had this WTF look on my face, because he says to me, "that was my club toss club."  Without missing a beat I say to him, "well, that WAS your club toss club, cause it's gone now." (Yeah, I know, thank you Captain Obvious).

I sort of just laughed at it all, and we got to the green, and I don't even remember how the rest of the conversation went, but this guy did say to me, "I always keep a spare right handed club (he plays left handed) in my bag to toss whenever I hit a really bad shot.  I don't remember if I said anything in response, but it was one of the most bizzare moments on the golf course for me ever.  And it was wierd too, because he never screamed or said anything about the bad shot.  He just grabbed the random club and let it fly, and then went right back to playing golf like nothing had happened.  I mean, I guess if you want to waste a perfectly good golf club in the water then that's your prerogative.  And again, I found it more comical than anything else.  The guy was otherwise quite pleasant company.  We had a great time playing in our scramble.  I just thought I'd share this strange sequence of events, because inside I was laughing my tail off.

[Miketheripper]

That is a pretty strange reaction, I've played with a few people, my brother included, who have flown into a rage after a bad shot and destroyed clubs they were actually using at the time, I guess this is a better option.

 

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[hckymeyer]

If you ask me that's genius.  I'm not a club thrower, but I play with a couple guys who are.  One of them probably has to fix/replace/reshaft at least 4-6 clubs each year.

The only problem I see is that if you have the discipline to calmly walk back to your bag to grab your "tossing club" than you should probably have the discipline to not throw it in the first place.

Great story though!

[Shankster]

I had something like this. Was playing in a rather we’ll say festive scramble, I had went to the goodwill and picked up a 1 iron from the civil war era. (Probably more like a 1970’s knock off).

Everyone had to take a shot with it on the 13th hole. Most everyone didn’t hit a very good shot. And one of the dudes chucked the thing as high as he could in the pine trees. It never came down, and all of us were dying laughing.

[palvord]

Hey, sometime you need to sacrifice something to the golf gods. May as well be a club you don’t actually use. Genius move to have the sacrificial club prepared and ready to go just in case!


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[bluesmandan76]

That’s like the story I heard about a preacher who always played with a guy who would do his cussing for him. Preacher hits a bad shot, tells his friend to cuss the ball, club, whatever. Friend lets it fly.

FYI I’m a preacher, and it wasn’t me!


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[fozcycle]

Ingenious Gswag, I’m sure that he got the throwing club at Goodwill for a couple bucks.


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[bens197]

Golf people are weird.

On another note, for a guy who seems to be a solid player is it odd that you’re batting leadoff on a scramble foursome?


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[Mr. 82]

1 hour ago, bens197 said:

Golf people are weird.

On another note, for a guy who seems to be a solid player is it odd that you’re batting leadoff on a scramble foursome?


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is it odd that I'm "batting leadoff on a scramble foursome"?

Well, it was just a threesome in this case, and the way this scramble was set up, I played from one tee further back due to everyone 55 and over being up one tee from us younger pups, so I imagine hitting first was just a formality.

Having said that, and due to the fact that I play in scrambles once a week from March through September, I've changed up the order many different ways, depending on who I am paired with, and I've discovered over time that if I hit first, especially on approach shots, and stick one close, that it frees up everyone else to lose the nerves and just swing freely, with no pressure to hit the shot of their life and just relax and hit the ball.  You'd be surprised at how differently people swing depending on the order, and what their mindset is when standing over a shot with 3 sets of eyes looking on.

Putting is a different matter though.  I almost always try and go last, because if I can get 3 solid reads at a putt I have a better chance of making it.  But again, if I sense a tremendous amount of anxiety on the part of my playing partners I will putt first to relieve some of the pressure of the moment.

You'd be surprised how much of a psychologist you become playing in many scrambles.  Confidence in your game tends to sooth the anxiety of your partners, and having played this game for so many years, I tend to take a leadership role in scrambles.  Part of that is confidence, but part of that is seeing everyone else in my pairing just looking at each other with no one usually ever willing to take the lead and take ownership of it.  But on rare occassion I've been the beneficiary of being the "C" player in the group, and gladly allowing my more skilled partners to dictate terms of order or what shot we play.  Those few occassions were a ton of fun too, because we were choosing between 2 or 3 different makeable birdie or eagle putts, which often times came down to whether you wanted a 10 footer with a left to right break, or a 12 footer straight up the grain.  Good times!

[bens197]

is it odd that I'm "batting leadoff on a scramble foursome"?
Well, it was just a threesome in this case, and the way this scramble was set up, I played from one tee further back due to everyone 55 and over being up one tee from us younger pups, so I imagine hitting first was just a formality.
Having said that, and due to the fact that I play in scrambles once a week from March through September, I've changed up the order many different ways, depending on who I am paired with, and I've discovered over time that if I hit first, especially on approach shots, and stick one close, that it frees up everyone else to lose the nerves and just swing freely, with no pressure to hit the shot of their life and just relax and hit the ball.  You'd be surprised at how differently people swing depending on the order, and what their mindset is when standing over a shot with 3 sets of eyes looking on.
Putting is a different matter though.  I almost always try and go last, because if I can get 3 solid reads at a putt I have a better chance of making it.  But again, if I sense a tremendous amount of anxiety on the part of my playing partners I will putt first to relieve some of the pressure of the moment.
You'd be surprised how much of a psychologist you become playing in many scrambles.  Confidence in your game tends to sooth the anxiety of your partners, and having played this game for so many years, I tend to take a leadership role in scrambles.  Part of that is confidence, but part of that is seeing everyone else in my pairing just looking at each other with no one usually ever willing to take the lead and take ownership of it.  But on rare occassion I've been the beneficiary of being the "C" player in the group, and gladly allowing my more skilled partners to dictate terms of order or what shot we play.  Those few occassions were a ton of fun too, because we were choosing between 2 or 3 different makeable birdie or eagle putts, which often times came down to whether you wanted a 10 footer with a left to right break, or a 12 footer straight up the grain.  Good times!

Good logic.

I think I’ll take this and try it out this year. We play at least half a dozen scramble events throughout the year and my partners are typically guys who shoot 85-95 but hit it far without any radar. I am usually the “A” player but this may in fact help us out in the long run. Pretty cool.

[Mr. 82]

3 hours ago, bens197 said:

 

 

Good logic.

I think I’ll take this and try it out this year. We play at least half a dozen scramble events throughout the year and my partners are typically guys who shoot 85-95 but hit it far without any radar. I am usually the “A” player but this may in fact help us out in the long run. Pretty cool.
 

 

 

One final story for you.  I played in a church scramble last year, and was paired with 3 guys who literally hadn't played golf in years, and it was essentially, "we'll take your shot, Phil," for 18 holes.  By the 2nd hole I truly was just swinging without caring, because I knew it was basically my ball all day long.  I guess when I truly don't care about the results, and felt ZERO pressure to perform, because truly the worst shot I would hit would still be the option taken for the group, it freed me up to just grip it and rip it.  And without caring, we were -8 on my ball for that scramble.  But I played last pretty much all of that day, and putting was fun with 3 guys who literally couldn't gauge speed or break on anything, so I got little to no reads.  But by the 2nd hole I said screw it and just hit shots without really caring.  I still have no idea how we ended up -8, but let's just say that I was lights out on my game that day and making putts from everywhere.

And thinking we had no shot of winning turned into the most hilarious awards ceremony afterwards, as they had a gross winner and then the top 3 net teams were awarded trophies.  Well, when you are a 6 handicap paired with 3 guys who probably said, "I have no idea what a handicap is, because I haven't played since Obama was in office." your goals for net score are probably somewhere around even par.  When they called our name for 3rd place net, I just laughed.  But it was worth it though, because one of the guys I played with and was in the cart with came up to me afterwards, almost in tears, because he tells me, "this is the first time I've ever won anything in golf." and was truly thrilled to win a trophy.  Now THAT made that day truly special, seeing the joy in someone else's face after winning a trophy.  Good times.

[bens197]

One final story for you.  I played in a church scramble last year, and was paired with 3 guys who literally hadn't played golf in years, and it was essentially, "we'll take your shot, Phil," for 18 holes.  By the 2nd hole I truly was just swinging without caring, because I knew it was basically my ball all day long.  I guess when I truly don't care about the results, and felt ZERO pressure to perform, because truly the worst shot I would hit would still be the option taken for the group, it freed me up to just grip it and rip it.  And without caring, we were -8 on my ball for that scramble.  But I played last pretty much all of that day, and putting was fun with 3 guys who literally couldn't gauge speed or break on anything, so I got little to no reads.  But by the 2nd hole I said screw it and just hit shots without really caring.  I still have no idea how we ended up -8, but let's just say that I was lights out on my game that day and making putts from everywhere.
And thinking we had no shot of winning turned into the most hilarious awards ceremony afterwards, as they had a gross winner and then the top 3 net teams were awarded trophies.  Well, when you are a 6 handicap paired with 3 guys who probably said, "I have no idea what a handicap is, because I haven't played since Obama was in office." your goals for net score are probably somewhere around even par.  When they called our name for 3rd place net, I just laughed.  But it was worth it though, because one of the guys I played with and was in the cart with came up to me afterwards, almost in tears, because he tells me, "this is the first time I've ever won anything in golf." and was truly thrilled to win a trophy.  Now THAT made that day truly special, seeing the joy in someone else's face after winning a trophy.  Good times.

It was your version of the Bishop from caddy shack scene!