Amateur golf tournaments

[vfxshawn]

How soon is too soon? I've been playing since the pandemic (yes one of those) but I did play previously I just decided to pick it back up and take the game serious in the pandemic. Serious meaning practice and play regularly as opposed to once every 5 years. I have gotten actually okay in this time and have gotten to a comfortable 20 handicap and shoot in the mid to late 80's pretty regular on my local courses. I have been following a golf community and they put this am tour together and I was thinking about playing just for fun you know even though its a little bit of an investment I'm not going into it like I'm gonna play lights out and win hahah. Is it worth it? Are there other competitive options I should try first? This particular tour has a flight for my handicap so I thought it would be okay but I would only play the one stop on the tour I have no plans to travel to the others. 

 

Anyway any advice or opinions are appreciated. 

 

-s

[Tom the Golf Nut]

Welcome to the forum and welcome back to the game of golf.

Do you have any local tournaments that you can go to that is handicapped? I don't know what the investment is but if your only going to play the one stop you might be better off inquiring with the local courses for events. This way you can try the format out to see if you like it before you invest. 

Since you are just getting back into the game, make sure you are following the rules of golf to the letter. Nothing worse than getting to your first match and people start calling you out on infractions. This can ruin your day in a heartbeat and make you want to go back to playing once every 5 years. We don't want that to happen.

[vfxshawn]

This is great advice! Thank you!

[JDHolmes]

I play in a tournament league every Thursday, flighted.

I also played in the US Am Tour and Golf Channel Am Tour for 5+ years. The Am tours are quite expensive for only average competitive golf. 

Competitive golf is fun but as Tom said, you should know the rules first. I would also suggest that in your other playing, putt everything out (no gimmes) and play everything down and make sure you count all penalty strokes correctly. Once youre comfortable playing real golf, then think about competitive golf. Nothing is fun about being slaughtered by everyone in your flight because you're playing with a vanity handicap instead of a true handicap. 

[vfxshawn]

This is all great. My aim is to take my game to the next level just for myself I don't really think I can/will win anything and feel like some healthy competition might really propel me. This is an "amature tour" with flights with even a "hackerish" flight (Their words). I do however play that way already no gimmies and count every stroke and penalty because I always want my numbers to be legit. My handicap I feel is a little better than I actually play though primarily because its based off of many many rounds on my local par 3 which I have gotten quite good at over the last two years and can hit almost every green on a good day. 

[vandyland]

I played in some tournaments and mens leagues in the last few years and while I enjoyed "testing" myself, I found the pace to be unacceptable. Rounds at fairly benign muni courses were 5 hours+ which is...glacially slow. Just a warning, that may not be your experience but watching people grind over 3 foot putts for 1-2 minutes on every hole was super annoying. 

[vfxshawn]

Whoa those are long rounds. That's longer than when I play with my 10 year old daughter lol.

[DeBartola_B]

I've played in a handful of club events, I have mostly found them to be full of sandbaggers and boarderline cheaters.  But the competitive golf does make you better.

My advice is to get a group of friends together and make your own tournament, can be a few 4somes to as big as you want.  That way you make the rules, set the tees and determine the cost and stakes.  Golf is supposed to be fun and playing competitively should be also, unfortunately some people ruin the spirit of the sport to win the competition.

I feel just as much pressure over a $2 Nassau putt with 7 of my friends than I do a club championship with 60 guys I barely know anyways.  The pressure is what makes you a better player in the long run.