One of the duties that has been bestowed upon me since I started working at La Paloma is running the ladies nine-hole league. It’s called the WGA (Women’s Golf Association) 9ers, and it meets every Wednesday morning from early November through late April.
Sure, there are casual open-play dates in-between, but there’s only one opening day, and that was today. The ladies played an A,B,C,D Scramble, which is a pretty standard season opener since many of them are just now getting back into town after being gone during another long, hot summer.
An A,B,C,D Scramble is a four-person team scramble. Each player hits from the tee. The best shot is then selected. Each player then hits from that spot, and the process is repeated until the ball is holed. Each player must use at least one tee shot. The lowest score, after subtracting the total team handicap, is the winner.
Believe it or not, there’s a lot that goes in to planning a morning shotgun tournament for just 31 ladies. It’s all about the little things and making them feel extra special, even if it’s only for three to five hours. It’s also the first tournament for which I’ve ever been totally responsible. I had plenty of help! In addition to the name placards, scorecards, rules sheets, and bags of trail mix on each and every golf cart, there were phone directories, sleeves of golf balls, Rules of Golf pamphlets, laminated golf tips, and of course, individual long-stemmed roses waiting at every place setting for the post-round luncheon. And what event wouldn’t be complete without roses?
At the end of the day, we had to go to a scorecard playoff (lowest final six holes) to break a tie for 2nd Place! Congratulations are in order for the First Place team of Linda DeBerry, Gerri Holt, and Millie Short for their low team total of 30. Each of them won $20 to spend in the Golf Shop.
Here are some of the more interesting events remaining on this year’s calendar:
Nov. 9 – Pitch & Putt = This is a team scramble Par 3 tournament. Each hole played will be modified to less than 100 yards. Par for the course will be 27.
Dec. 7 – Sweet & Sour = This is an individual stroke play event. Scores will be based on the four best hole scores for each golfer combined with their worst hole score.
Jan. 4 – Four Clubs + Putter = I think this event speaks for itself.
Jan. 18 – Mystery Hole 3×3 = The Golf Shop chooses three holes at random for this event. Your total score on those three holes, multiplied by three, minus your nine-hole handicap, is your total score.
Feb. 1 – Mutt & Jeff (after the widely popular American newspaper comic strip) = Each player plays their own ball and must finish each hole. The net scores from the Par 3s and Par 5s will be added together to determine the individual total score.
Feb. 8 – Poker Golf = Each golfer plays their own ball for every hole. Playing cards will be awarded after the round for net bogeys, pars, birdies, and eagles on each hole. One card will be awarded for a net bogey, two cards for a net par, three cards for a net birdie, and four cards for a net eagle. The best five-card poker hand wins the event.
Feb. 22 – Cha Cha Cha = This is a four-person team event. Each team selects one net best-ball for one of the Par 3s, two of the Par 4s, and one of the Par 5s. This will result in a total of one net best-ball score (on the four holes being used) for the total team score.