Went out last week against our archrivals for our annual league match. As usual, events of the evening triggered some ideas for the blog, but it really wasn’t until the last hole that the blog material coalesced, which was coincident with the arrival of some nasty weather from the west on our last hole of the night.
We started out as Group 8B. 8B or 12B stinks because you have to wait to play and you’re nearly always the last group finishing that night. 8B stunk even worse than usual because of slow play ahead of us. After completing hole #6 we rolled over to the 7th tee box and tried not to look up at the sky behind us which was getting pretty ominous. The rain was coming. Seeing what we thought was the group ahead of us cross Romney Creek, we thought we were clear to bomb away and finish out our round. After slaughtering a drive up the fairway I discovered we were mistaken – the group ahead of us was actually at the bottom of the hill and hidden until after my tee shot. We waved “Sorry!” and waited until they had cleared to hit our remaining three tee shots, two of which (our opponents) were in the trees on the right or right behind a tree.
One of our opponents was about 4 feet behind the trunk of one of the trees running on the fairway side of the cart path. Right next to that tree is a metal box. I don’t know what could possibly be in that box (I don’t think it’s sprinkler controls), but it is not natural. Our opponent was about to try playing around the box when I let him know that the metal box is actually an immovable obstruction, and that he can take relief (stance, swing, and line of play). Guess what? I was wrong! Relief can be sought for immovable obstructions, but only if the ball is on the putting green of the hole you are playing can you seek “line of play” relief (casual water is the most common example of using this provision). Our opponent was entitled to stance and swing relief, but not line-of-play relief.
Turns out that this mistake of mine did not matter. The horn blew before any of us could hit our 2nd shots. Our matches were close – I had just closed out my opponent on the previous green, but the other match was All Square going into the last hole. My partner had been playing well all night and was getting a stroke – I liked his chances of taking his match (an additional 1.5 points), and I liked how things were setting up for the hole point (we were getting 2 strokes on that hole). In essence, we were probably heading for 2.5-point hole UNTIL the horn blew.
Of course, as we were loading up our carts and headed back to the clubhouse, the question of the night was “What happens to the scores on the last hole?”. First, what I did was write a note on the scorecard saying that Hole #7 was not completed before we put it in the box.
I’ll try to explain how the league handles rounds that are shortened. As long as most of us (80% of the teams) have played at least 5 holes, the round will be scored. However, at least 7 holes must be played for that round to have any impact on your handicap.
With that said, and knowing that almost all of the teams finished play that night, what happens to the last hole?
For all intents and purposes, the following things happen:
1) In each singles match, the unplayed holes are halved.
2) The hole point for the unplayed hole is halved. (Each team will receive ½ a point).
3) Scores are given for each player based on their handicap to fill out the 9-hole aggregate score.
Here’s where it gets a bit complicated. My opponent is a scratch golfer with a “0” handicap. It’s assumed that because of that, he would make a par on the 7th hole (which is the #1 handicapped hole). My handicap that night was a “5”, and I would be expected to make a bogey on the toughest 5 holes, so I was given a score of 6 for that hole. Since I was getting a stroke on that hole from my opponent, we would halve the hole (even though we never played it). My partner’s opponent was also a “5” handicap and was given a score of bogey. My partner (a “13” handicap) was getting a stroke on that hole and would be expected to make double bogey on that hole (as well as #2, #9, and #5), and he received a “7” as his score for the night on #7. Since he’s getting a stroke on that hole, he halves the hole against his opponent’s assumed bogey.
Now here’s the sad thing. At the time of this writing my team is 1.5 points out of the wildcard. With the extra points we had riding on the last hole we’d currently be leading the wildcard race in our division. Weather today is dicey and a storm is probably coming in. IF play is rained out, we don’t make the playoffs due to being group 8B last week…..