Well, my golf buddy from school and I were getting bored in Criminal Law at about 2:20 and it was a beauty sunny day (although quite brisk, only about 5*C) so we decided to pop over to UGC and play 9 holes. I knew it was going to be "interesting" because I just picked up two new (to me) putters yesterday and have only hit about 20 or so putts each with them last night on the indoor practice green (tough to tell there) and on a wacky outdoor practice green and wasn't feeling comfortable with either.
I normally use a Wilson Deep Red Fluid Feel 1 blade style putter but late last year, I decided I wanted to give a mallet a go because I was having a lot of trouble with not getting to the hole and had hit some 2-Balls and TM Monzas in the store and had felt pretty good with each, so I bought one of each on eBay ($100 shipped for the 2Ball and $75 for the Monza)...all good except the Monza was actually a Mezza Monza (smaller head, different colour, not in as good of condition as the picture of the Monza in the ad, etc). The only thing is that lately, I've gotten pretty dialed with my Wilson, but decided to give these two a go out on the course.
So we head up to the course and get to the 10th just as a father/son are teeing off and a pair of middle age guys come up at the same time. The two guys ask if we want to play with them as a four, so we say sure, why not - and then they ask if we want to play a match. I didn't really want to because I just wanted to concentrate on my game, but my friend wanted to, so I decided to give it a try because he said that matches can be a lot of fun. We decided on a weird type of dual matchplay style (two lowest scores vs. two highest scores on each hole).
First, I've never really had any pressure on me, except from myself and from groups behind us (usually not my fault - but rather the result of busy days). Second, I had never played with either of the putters I had with me because I had stupidly left the Wilson at home, specifically so that I could fiddle around with these two to find the one I liked best of them (the Mezza Monza and the 2Ball).
So anyhow, we played the 9 and I wasn't playing well and was putting even worse (I had a number of 3 putts and several missed 5 footers...that I don't normally miss), but my friend played well and so after 9 holes, we had won the $5 bet but decided to go for broke on a double or nothing for the last hole (we actually played 10 because there's an extra hole on the back right now). It all came down to me making about a 4 foot putt and sure enough I missed it. I was really annoyed and about ready to throw both putters out onto the road and it's left me feeling grumpy overall for the evening.
I think part of the problem was that the two guys were pretty annoying...or at least one of them was, the other one was just pretty quiet and seemed almost grumpy, but not quite. I didn't feel like I was having fun playing with them, although I don't like a good 70% of the people that we've been paired up with, so that's not a huge surprise, but I think these were possibly the worst ones yet. I think the other part was just that I didn't really want to be playing a match and just wanted to be playing my own game and not worrying about anything. We hadn't even hit any balls before we teed off, it was just a "step up and go". I wasn't even hitting my 4H off the tee well...believe it or not, I was slicing a Genex 3DX, which has a pretty hefty draw bias. Not quite sure how that was happening, oh well. I only hit two of seven fairways, yech - and NO greens in reg.
Anyhow, as I said, it was pretty bad and I think I ended up with a 57 for 10 holes, which is a good indication of how I played...especially since 22 of those were putts (5 three-putts and 1 one-putt). I think that the next time a match is suggested, I'll probably just politely pass unless I'm feeling on top of things and preferably if I know the people so that it can at least be "fun".
I normally use a Wilson Deep Red Fluid Feel 1 blade style putter but late last year, I decided I wanted to give a mallet a go because I was having a lot of trouble with not getting to the hole and had hit some 2-Balls and TM Monzas in the store and had felt pretty good with each, so I bought one of each on eBay ($100 shipped for the 2Ball and $75 for the Monza)...all good except the Monza was actually a Mezza Monza (smaller head, different colour, not in as good of condition as the picture of the Monza in the ad, etc). The only thing is that lately, I've gotten pretty dialed with my Wilson, but decided to give these two a go out on the course.
So we head up to the course and get to the 10th just as a father/son are teeing off and a pair of middle age guys come up at the same time. The two guys ask if we want to play with them as a four, so we say sure, why not - and then they ask if we want to play a match. I didn't really want to because I just wanted to concentrate on my game, but my friend wanted to, so I decided to give it a try because he said that matches can be a lot of fun. We decided on a weird type of dual matchplay style (two lowest scores vs. two highest scores on each hole).
First, I've never really had any pressure on me, except from myself and from groups behind us (usually not my fault - but rather the result of busy days). Second, I had never played with either of the putters I had with me because I had stupidly left the Wilson at home, specifically so that I could fiddle around with these two to find the one I liked best of them (the Mezza Monza and the 2Ball).
So anyhow, we played the 9 and I wasn't playing well and was putting even worse (I had a number of 3 putts and several missed 5 footers...that I don't normally miss), but my friend played well and so after 9 holes, we had won the $5 bet but decided to go for broke on a double or nothing for the last hole (we actually played 10 because there's an extra hole on the back right now). It all came down to me making about a 4 foot putt and sure enough I missed it. I was really annoyed and about ready to throw both putters out onto the road and it's left me feeling grumpy overall for the evening.
I think part of the problem was that the two guys were pretty annoying...or at least one of them was, the other one was just pretty quiet and seemed almost grumpy, but not quite. I didn't feel like I was having fun playing with them, although I don't like a good 70% of the people that we've been paired up with, so that's not a huge surprise, but I think these were possibly the worst ones yet. I think the other part was just that I didn't really want to be playing a match and just wanted to be playing my own game and not worrying about anything. We hadn't even hit any balls before we teed off, it was just a "step up and go". I wasn't even hitting my 4H off the tee well...believe it or not, I was slicing a Genex 3DX, which has a pretty hefty draw bias. Not quite sure how that was happening, oh well. I only hit two of seven fairways, yech - and NO greens in reg.
Anyhow, as I said, it was pretty bad and I think I ended up with a 57 for 10 holes, which is a good indication of how I played...especially since 22 of those were putts (5 three-putts and 1 one-putt). I think that the next time a match is suggested, I'll probably just politely pass unless I'm feeling on top of things and preferably if I know the people so that it can at least be "fun".
