I won my flight in a tournament today!

[Silver]

Hackers vs. Hackers...look who comes out top dawg! A hacker!

I've been playing in a few tournaments here that are flighted based on handicap derived from playing rounds in the tournament (which so far have been atrocities not worthy of discussion other than 102 and 105). So my index with the tournament is 27.5 and my handicap for this course was 29. (My *actual* handicap is about 22). I played pretty crappy, I felt (although 9 fairways was decent) and scored a 96 (50-46).

The flights are divided from 0-8, 9-17, 18-24, 25-31, 32+ (I think). I'm in D flight (25-31) and I guess a 24 over was good enough to take it.

So, get this, a guy in my playing group won the B flight and won a yacht charter worth about $1000 apparently. A friend of mine won C flight a few weeks ago and won an Esquire watch worth about $300. By winning D flight today, I won...get this...a Nomad hybrid club. Nomad? Never heard of them...can't find them on Google...I'm guessing the estimated value at about $50 - $75 CDN. I feel so jacked.

Ah well, next tournament, I should still firmly be in the 25+ group and have a good chance of winning another crappy club.

Now to follow it up with a crazy weekend...a golfing extravaganza for a buddy's "bachelor party" at some of the best courses in the province. Pictures will be forthcoming.

[DaveE]

Congrats on the win and I just know you're enjoy that....what was it....Nomad?

Sweet.

[MAHALLEDAY]

good deal silver. I never play much tourney's once when i was twelve i placed second in a tournament. There were two of us in my flight. I was pumped.

[Farquod]

Good job, Sil. A win is a win, dude. Just imagine the prize for E-flight. Maybe a couple of logo-overrun balls?

Personally, my most underwhelming prize--for the ONLY longest drive I've ever won--was a pair of airline tickets courtesy of "Fly Free America." You get to fly free if you book a vacation at one of their "many" resorts. So I would actually have to spend money to claim the prize. Is that a deal or what? Pound sand, baby.

I ended up donating them to my younger daughter's soccer club so they could auction them off. So I got a tax writeoff, which was nice.

[Silver]

Sounds like one of the prizes that they were giving away Farq...$100 gift certificate to a travel company when you book a full vacation with them...so basically, you have to spend like $5k to save $100. Right.

The long drive yesterday won a new R7.

The best part about the hybrid that I won...it's the same loft as the one I already have, so it's not like I can even use it for anything. Man, most of the door prizes were better.

[DaveE]

Plant a garden. It'll make a good tomato stake.

[wirehair]

One of things I always wondered about. Give a driver to the Long-Drive winner. WTF, the winner can obviously hit his driver pretty well. Give a driver to the loser, that makes more sense to me.

[Bravo]

Hey Lawyer Silver:

Don't you think the descending prizes are discriminatory?

I have never heard of such shit in my life!!

Our club championship works like many in the US.

Flights are established according to handicap - like yours.

1) The Championship Flight is for players with an index of 4 or less. They play from the back tees and the winner is the Club Champion. They get silver (no pun intended) or crystal and get other prizes in cash and merchandise. I estimate that 5-10% of the players who enter the tournament are in the Championship flight.

2) There are five flights below the Championship flight. They are for Everybody else. Play in these flights is from the "white" tees and it is still Gross play. This is the vast vast majority of the tournament players as I said above.

All winners of the non-championship flights get identical prizes. Someone who wins the First Flight (probably an index of 5-9) is going to get the exact same prizes as the guy with a 30 index who wins the Fifth Flight.

That tourney has no class. The handicap system is golf's "great equalizer" and once the flighting is done - everybody is fighting as hard as their abilities and experience will allow.

Treating a low(er) handicapper substantially better than a higher one shows very bad taste...

Now - Congratulations to you!! As Farquod said, "a win is a win" and you will never forget it....

[Silver]

Thanks B. I'm happy I won, but disappointed with what I won.

Like your tourney, the flights play from the whites and it is still gross play. The only difference is that we don't have the Championship Flight.

I'm definitely going to write to the tournament organizer about this. It's a series of tournaments put on by a local radio station that have "Order of Merit" points that accumulate over the series, etc. At the last tournament, Flight D's winner took home the same Esquire watch mentioned above. I just called the store that provided the club that I won...grand RETAIL value of $50, but the salesguy said the station gets deals on the stuff, so I'm guessing it's probably valued at about $30.

I don't want to be ungrateful because I'm happy to have won and I enjoy the tournaments and what not, I'm just disappointed in the prize distribution, especially because prizes of more value went to "lesser victors", so to speak (ie 3rd prize in Flight B) and WAY better prizes went out as door prizes. It just seems...wrong, somehow.

[Bravo]

You might want to contact the tournament organizer and make the following argument.

To them a big tournament - with a large field is a successful tournament. Having a small field is not a good thing.

To attract a large number of players, it will help them to have a reputation where everybody is treated like a king. Another thing for them to be aware of - is the fact that higher handicappers have just as much spending power and lower handicappers. And if they are a radio station - they should understand this..

Anyway, good shooting. Keep it up.