When our little golf league arrived at the course Friday, we were greeted by terrifying heresy.

“We cut the holes a little bigger this week,” the starter/clerk said. “Got a tournament tomorrow.”

There’s been a lot of talk in the golf world recently about making the game faster and easier by enlarging the holes, so I was curious as to how it would work. As it turns out, Hilltop’s version was a larger cut, with a regulation cup inside. That left an edge of about an inch wide and an inch deep around the plastic. As we soon found, with such a configuration, it actually was possible to get the ball in the larger hole, only to have it nestle on the interior lip without falling to the bottom. We also saw quite a few balls dive into the larger hole, hit the edge of the plastic cup and pop right out.

The entire situation seemed ... unnatural.

Our group soon began to distinguish between the holes. The bigger size was the kid’s cup; the smaller one, the adult cup. Scores were distinguished by which cup the last putt was judged to have hit. A putt that went right into the middle of the regulation cup was called an “adult four” or an “adult five.” One that took advantage of the bigger size was a “kiddie par” or a “kiddie bogey.”

Following the round, I gathered the scorecards and worked out the math. As it turns out, the larger holes made no difference in our scores. Indeed, they actually were a bit higher this week than last. Our round also was no faster than normal.

While one round by eight players isn’t a scientific conclusion, it does fit my thoughts about this whole big hole nonsense. What makes golf slow and scores high isn’t putting: it’s the fat shots, thin shots, slices, hooks, shanks and mishits of the full swing. It is the lost balls and the duffs that carry only twenty five yards. It is the chips that run from just off the green on one side to just off the green on the other. It’s missed fairways and missed greens in regulation. Putting is the least of the problems.

I’d be a single digit handicapper if I could eliminate the blown second shots.

Hopefully, the course’s mad experiment will be over next week.

Charlevoix Golf Links - 1911

The Huffington Post (of all places) has an article on a little twist of golf history: the girl caddies of Charlevoix, Michigan.

... in 1918 (Franz) Rickaby (the Caddiemaster), by then a professor of English at the University of North Dakota during the school year, faced a dilemma. New golf courses had opened in Northern Michigan, the needs of WWI provided new job opportunities for young boys, and the old time caddies had grown careless and lackadaisical. The club had a caddie shortage.

“Nothing aids in keeping the grade of commodities up… quite like competition,” Rickaby wrote. He would add girls to the squad!

He took three weeks to lay the groundwork, speaking individually to skeptical players, reassuring local parents and mollifying the boy caddies. He supplemented these efforts with his weekly column in the local newspaper defending the fairness of his decision and encouraging the girls to apply, smoothing their eventual reception. Fourteen girls applied, joining 88 boys. Most were local, but a few came from faraway towns and slept in the clubhouse, which took some maneuvering on Rickaby’s part; the following summer they had their own cabin.

The girls learned to carry and balance the bag, flag the hole, hand the clubs, understand and use the lingo, spot the bird nests, replace the divots, rake the sand traps and keep the score. They learned the advantages of loose clothing and the disadvantages of high heels and tight waistbands. By the end of the season, all but two or three girls had succeeded to give good service, the exact same rate as the boys.

Read the whole thing.

After last Friday’s rainout, my new golf league resumed this week. Confusion still reigns, however. Four of the members couldn’t play Friday, so they played Thursday on the back nine. The remaining four teams played Friday, but couldn’t start on ten thanks to the course’s busyness. This destroyed my pairings system, so the remaining four teams paired willy-nilly, playing the front.

Next week won’t be any better. At least half the players will be away on some sort of post-Easter week vacation.

I don’t know how I’m supposed to keep scores with this sort of chaos. At this point, I think the only thing I can do is to reset my entire schedule. Another option may be to rescore the entire league with some sort of scoring system, where each team gets points based on their net scores. That way it doesn’t matter who plays whom. I’m not sure how to do that, though. If anyone knows, I’d appreciate the insight.

There was a notable achievement for our little league, though. We had not one, but two holes in one—both by guys named Tony. I wonder about the odds of that.

Congratulations to both of them.

My old golf league flamed out last spring following a couple of years of decline. The long-time organizers finally stopped keeping track of scores and pairings. Grumbles from players were audible. Late last fall, the founders announced that they were out of the golf league business and would just play ad-hoc money games on Friday mornings (they’re retired). That was the end.

For a long while it looked as though nothing would rise from the ashes. I thought about organizing another league, but this year’s teaching load has been nearly overwhelming (three preps, including two AP Classes, one of which has never been taught in the District) and I let those plans slip. My golf plans for the spring consisted of quick nines on the way home.

In recent weeks, however, two colleagues did a lot of last minute legwork and found a nice new home for some of the refugees from the old league. They negotiated a really good deal, scheduled twelve weeks worth of tee times, and drummed up enough teams to make it worthwhile.

I got stuck with the scorekeeping end. That’s what I get for being the GolfBlogger.

I’m actually happy to do the job, but am spinning my wheels at this point. We played our first round last Friday and I have yet to sort out the cards. My plan is to use the first round to establish a handicap for everyone using the Callaway system. After that, though, I’m not sure where to go. The players want to do all the things the old league used to do in its heyday, such as team match play in a round robin format, with side games for skins and closest to the pin. If I follow the precedent of the previous league, everyone will buy in to the side games at the beginning of the day, with payouts at the end.

The money payout had always bothered me, however, as I had a feeling that some teams were in the old league only for the money.  Since I’m not entirely sure about the weekly side games, my current thought is to keep track of everything on a points basis: one point for winning a match, one point for a team that gets a skin; one point for closest to the pin. The scoring would add up over the season, and the winning team gets a prize at the end (I’m thinking small trophies).

I’ve also run into a bit of rough in my search for software to help me manage the league. Most of it is relatively expensive and designed for leagues much larger than our six team, twelve man affair. The one reasonably priced application I found is so poorly documented and yet has so many options I’m finding it unusable. At this point, I think I’ll have to keep track of it on Excel and write some scrips to automate things somewhat.

What I really need is a “Guide To Running A Golf League.” After my experience starting from scratch this spring, I may write one over the summer.

I’d love to hear from people on how their leagues are managed, and what kind of side games are run. Leave comments below.

The first day of Spring here in Michigan was gorgeous, with temperatures hitting eighty! I got out to play my first 18 of the season. I did pretty well, too, although I’ve got a hook that needs to be solved. For the time being, I’m compensating by aiming well right. On this hole, however, that strategy failed. I hit it straight into the trees right. I punched out to 150, then hit a seven iron into the green. One putt, and a par.

The photo is of the 14th at Green Oaks in Ypsilanti, MI.

If the weather in October or November spirals upward to summerlike conditions, we call it an “Indian Summer.” What is it called when the temperatures in March hit those marks? It’s supposed to reach 80! on Tuesday. That’s more than a little warm for this time of year.

I’m going to enjoy it while I can. I am sure that it won’t last. We’ll probably get a foot of snow in April.

I find myself in charge of the teacher’s golf league this year, and in need of some league management software.

The guys want me to track handicaps, skins, as well as league rankings. We have two person teams, best ball as our regular format. I’d like to be able to post the results here on this blog.

Anyone out there have experience with such? Even better: is there a company with a first class system that they’d let me test drive in exchange for a post or two or three?