Matchplay League – final game day

The fifth and final game day took place this friday at GC Stolper Heide. Golfers Delight was up against Team Gahlenz on the West Course of Stolper Heide (built by Bernhard Langer). It was a question of honor to show up, even with a high win we couldn’t get in one of the top four spots to earn a place in the 2006 finals. So the goal was to get out there and give the other team a hard time and have some fun on the course.

My team let me down so I had to take on the opponent alone. Rainer and Carsten of Team Gahlenz agreed, that one would play the even and one would play the odd holes. A tough challenge it would be to beat them, Rainer plays a 4 HCP, Carsten a 10 HCP (after only two years of playing golf) and on the other side was me with me fresh 26.3 HCP. But hey, it was a sunny september day, so let’s get out there and whack the tiny white ball.

It was a rough start for me on the starting par 5, I was everywhere but on the fairway, Rainer played par and I had to settle with double bogey and went 1 down. Second hole, short par 4 dogleg right, Carsten hits his drive into the bushes, I hit a five iron down the fairway, leaving me a wedge into the green. I overhit the green, find the bunker on the way back, smooth chip out of the bunker within inches of the cup, bogey wins me he hole – all square.

Then probably my best game of the day on the long par4 third: long tee shot with my four iron, fairway shot pulls slightly left, finds the bunker 50m in front of the green with a difficult lie, whack the ball out of the bunker, beautiful alignment and it lands 2m away from the cup. Par brings me 1 up. 2up after the next par 3.

On I went to play my heart out. I had to play shots that I never would have played in a regular tournament and most of them worked (ok, the four iron from the fairway 180m from the green wasn’t such a good idea). To cut a long story short – I was able to hold Carsten and Rainer of for 12 holes, where they were able to put the game back to all-square.

On 13-15 I wasn’t able to pull more stunts off, Rainer was too good for me and Carstens shaky game from the beginning became more solid. Stepping up onto the 16th, I was 3 down – the game was dormie. But then Carsten gave away the following hole, 2 down with two to play. Rainer was up again, his drive found the water, so he was under pressure. My tee shot found the bunker with an impossible lie, I just could chip out, leaving me 105 meters to the flag over the pond. I blasted my PW and landed the ball 3m short of the cup. Two-putted for bogey, then it was Rainers task to sink a 4m putt to halve the hole. I still had little hopes to win this hole, but his putt falls and I lose 2&1.

Honestly, I had never expected a result like this when I woke up this morning. I was ready to get my ass whipped on the course, but then I gave them the hardest of times. Remember that we were counting the gross score, so my higher HCP wasn’t worth anything. But we had tememdous fun on the course and I drove home with the feeling that there is a lot of good golf in me.

As for the next season of the Matchplay League, I probably will not put together a new team again. I had all the organisational hustle and none of my originally nominated players showed up. Luckily, Martin (and his friend Lutz) stepped in, a big thanks to you guys. The organisers of the league will also have their homework to do, it wasn’t all smooth with the organisation and everything, but hey, it was the first year, so it’s ok if it was a little bumpy. I’ll probably join the team of Berlin Business’n'Golf, so watch out as I’ll be back.