My very eclectic team played in an annual charity “Best Ball” tournament last Friday.  This is a highlight of the golf year as it’s always a lot of fun.  Last year we came in third place out of 36 teams.  This year, we were going to win. 

Tropical Storm Ernesto had been through the area a week before and left us with almost a foot of rain.  This course, which is one of the few Bermuda tracts up this way was long and waterlogged.  And, as seems to be the case more and more up this way, the greens were not good at all.  Summer seems to tear up the Bent greens with fungus. 

The team drove beautifully all day, but the approach shots were not up to snuff.  Inevitably the balls were coming up short.  I’d put the ball back a bit, but it didn’t seem to help. 

In retrospect, what I should have done was try to “Shallow” out the swing into more of a sweep.  What I ended up doing was taking enormous Ian Woosnan-sized doormat divots while watching ballon balls settle on the front apron.  Very discouraging.  Tee balls on par 3′s were fine.  It was out of that wet, long bermuda fairway that was giving me and the team fits. 

  Nonetheless, the team made a fair jag of birdies.  The hardest part of a Super Ball tournament is that they last forever.  At the five-hour mark, after an early wake up and a long drive, the team just lost all its energy.  We could feel it and commented on it, but energy bars didn’t seem to fix the issue. 

  So we limped home with only one birdie on the last five holes.  62, which tied for third, two strokes off the lead.  Of course, we “Lost on the Card” as they say when you lose a tie-breaker.  It was a quiet drive home.  I thought the others were stewing until I looked around and saw they were all asleep.  Beers on the deck finished the afternoon.  All in all, a good day.  “Two lousy putts” was a common refrain. 

  But, we’ll get ‘em next year.  You can put that in the book!