On Wednesday past, my usual crew played a 9-hole 4-person scramble for Men’s Night. We generally are solid players and this week we were playing a bit better than normal. We were putting for birdie/eagle on 8 of the 9 holes, so our chances of shooting a low score was definitely part of our plan!

This week’s sponsor was U-Need-A-Cab; they are a local taxi company that is heavily involved in the local community. We, the players, are grateful for their support. The format for this week’s game was a straight scramble, but we had to use one drive from each player on the team. This was not a tough requirement and we were clear after 4 holes. Things were looking up for us as we were 2 under after 4 holes.

Our goal was to shoot 6 under or a score of 29. We have not achieved that score this year and Wednesday was the night. For the most part, we were hitting the ball well off the tee, and our approach shots left us with many 12 foot putts. With 4 players, this distance is not much of a challenge…..or so we thought!

We burned the edges all night. I am not talking about missing by an inch, I am saying we lipped out on every putt we missed. We were mystified by how often we missed. Rick and Blair are generally our best putters and lead us off all the time. I am sure they were frustrated by how close their putts were and then came up empty handed.

As a result, we finished only 3 under, but good enough to be in the prizes – D Flight Champs! We laugh because Men’s Night is about meeting new players and having fun and although we burned plenty of edges, we did have a great time!

I wanted to mention one shot in particular. It was by Murray – our big hitter – who waited until the last hole to let the big dog eat! Murray unleashed a 325 yard drive on the 13th hole just short of the sand trap beside the green.

Murray snugged the trees and let the lay of the hole move his ball into perfect position for yet another lip out! Yup, we burned another edge – go figure.

Putting and chipping are the key skills needed for low scores during a scramble. Well, we had half those skills nailed down. Regardless, it was fun and we look forward to next week where we will have a chance at another prize.

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!