76 in FL

Yesterday I posted an away score of 76 at my home club in Michigan for the round I played at the Ritz Carlton Course on Amelia Island in Florida.  I played with very nice doctor from New York named Gary who is a neurosurgeon, (his wife is a vascular surgeon, I actually googled this on my Blackberry because I didn’t know what it was) and Gary’s 6 year old daughter Elizabeth.  Elizabeth spent the majority of the day on her ipad playing with some application matching the names of bones in the human skeleton.  She hit a few decent shots for a 6 year old but I was more impressed with her knowing the majority of the bones in the human body.  On the flight home I could only think of 12.

I’m a 9 handicap and I couldn’t wait to get home and post this score.  I texted my wife, all my buddies and my father the second I hit the fairway on 18.  “It’s going to be 74 or 75 guys!” I ended up making bogey for a 76, never did I think I was going to miss the green but I did.  To be honest had Elizabeth not been there Dr. Gary would have heard the loudest F-bomb ever when that putt lipped out for par.  Whatever, 76 is still a top 10 round of my life and everyone was going to hear about it. 

Point of this post is that I know damn well we are all thinking about those same guys at our local courses and clubs that would have burnt that score card like a receipt from the strip club.  Hiding it from even your closest friends under the fear that god forbid your precious inflated handicap drop from a 13 to 11.  If you’re that guy you should be ashamed of yourself.  You’re a disgrace to the game of golf and I hope every one of your rounds ends like Van de Velde’s 18^th at The Open in 99’. 

There is one of these guys at my club whom I can’t stand.  I said, “hey bro.  How do you manage to always shoot 4 shots below your handicap in tournaments?”  This loser looks me right in the eye and says, “Well, when I play with my wife and kids, I don’t line up putts so I shoot higher.”  Are you kidding me??!!  This is the definition of sandbagging!  This clown is either the stupidest golfer on the planet or the biggest cheater since Barry Bonds.  In any event the word got out and I occasionally see him playing with all his friends, which is by himself late on the weekends or with his wife.  Funny story, his wife changed a 7 to a 5 in the Women’s Member/Member and got caught…. Nice family.               

Golf is a true game of integrality and it’s up to us, the men and women who love this crazy game so much to make sure these people don’t ruin it.  I always say that you can tell the people I truly don’t like because I don’t talk to them (and I talk to everybody).  I don’t even acknowledge their presence.  You want to make the game better, don’t play with these losers.