A Bit More About the Ryder Cup Tournament

Written on 10-10-25.

        It’s a cooler and ‘rainy-er’ Friday here in Aztec.  It has stopped for now, but I don’t think it’s stopped enough to warrant going to play today, and I have some stuff to do anyway.  Kody and I have enjoyed a wonderful morning here at home while B went to sub at Park again.  We just got back from Safeway (Kody and I), and I picked up proof of the flu shot I received yesterday to send on to Comfort Keepers.  B and I normally wait until later to help make it last until April or May, but this year I chose to get it in early October due to the new job.

I should be scheduled next week; they are only waiting on my background checks.  

I just got my new iPhone!  UPS delivered a shiny, bright orange iPhone 17 to our house.  B and I decided to take advantage of a special that AT&T has offered to trade in our old phones for the latest (and greatest?) phones.  I am not sure why hers hasn’t come yet, though.

On to golf…

I wanted to reflect a bit more on the...

Ryder Cup Touramant experience that Greg and I recently played in.  It was grueling.  It was tough, because I had awful diarrhea the day before (sorry, but it’s true), so I wasn’t feeling great.  It was also tough, because I didn’t play as well as I could have.  Like I wrote above, Greg played better, especially during the best ball portion.  We both did well during the alternate shot part.  That part was hard, because it was a true ‘take turns for every shot' type of format.  We didn’t choose which holes we would tee off on before we started like we had done in the past.  If the other team conceded a putt, the person who would have putted couldn’t tee off on the next hole.  It was a lot of waiting around for when I would take a shot, and then when it was time to perform getting jolted back into reality for the team.  I was able to hit the tee shots on holes 11, 16, and 17, and for each one, I hit a beauty! 

I brought an extra outfit for the last nine holes, and that really helped.  We used to do that for our Griswold volleyball tournaments to get that ‘fresh start’ feeling.  I did feel refreshed, and I got a bit of a second wind.  For this section, it was 1v1 match play.  We played all nine holes, and the goal was to garner as many points as possible.  We played against two fellows from Las Cruces.  One had moved to Farmington and works for the schools there now.  That was the guy I played against, and his name is Chris.  They were younger, and they played from the blues, so I was a bit intimidated at first.  Then I won the first three holes, so I was less nervous after that.  When it was all over, I had won six holes, and Greg managed to get five.

Here’s the weird thing about this tournament, though, and I remembered Marc telling me about this during the Progressive Best Ball Tournament.  He mentioned something about how they had won each section, but they still lost and didn’t end up placing.  I didn’t get it then, but I do now.  Greg and I did the same thing.  We won 21 points for our Green Team, which was the second most for our team.  I just looked, and the team who did earn the most had 22 points.  

I also compared how we did to two other guys I know well, Mike and Shawn.  They played on different teams, but it helps me understand what happened.  Mike’s duo earned 19 points for the Purple Team, and Shawn’s team got 13 points for Team Blue.  It turned out that the Purple Team had the most points compared to all the other teams when it was all said and done, so they were the BIG winners.  Shawn’s Blue Team got third place, and our Green Team ended up in last place.  Sigh.  I heard we were tied for 1st place before the final nine holes.

Here’s the good news, though.  When I didn’t have my best, we still dominated our competition.  The best ball was great for Greg, but meh for me.  The match play wasn’t great for me either.  I shot a 48, but we still beat our competitors.  This tournament was weird for that reason, too.  It was paradoxical.  I could have played so much better, but we still won all of our 9-hole sections.  However, we didn’t place due to the format.  In that regard, we got what we deserved for our less than stellar play.  Golf is so weird and funny.

I am so glad that I played in another tournament with Greg.  This was the Greg I expected, the funny, mostly positive, ‘plays-better-than-his-age’ Greg!  We are a good team.  I hope to play with him again.  I just hope the other Patrick shows up next time, the lower-scoring, healthy, overly optimistic Patrick.

There.  I think I have gotten everything out from my Ryder Cup experience.

  This golf season is winding down.  Daylight Savings is coming soon, and that is a huge golf killer.  Colder weather is imminent.  Like I have already said, though, I plan on bringing my clubs to Virginia.  Fall is my favorite time to play, but my new job will put a damper on that.  I recently added up my receipts from Pinon Hills, and it was just over $300.00, so it was wise to not get a membership this year.

Until next time…