On Club Championships and The Rauchdy Match 4.0

Boys,

There are no two ways around it — we’re in the middle of golf season. Reagan, you’re in the middle of Jr. PGA and are having a lot of fun with that. Your mom and I just played in the Kinsale (your mom) and Scioto Reserve (me) club championships. Here’s a little recap of both events.

Scioto Reserve Men’s Club Championship

It’s a two day stroke play tournament. For my age, I could have chosen to play in either the championship bracket or the regular men’s bracket. Skill-wise, I should have played in the regular division, but because I wanted to challenge myself and see how I compared to the best players in our club, I decided to make a last minute change and play in the championship division.

In the championship division, they take a look at your handicap, which is basically your skill level, and because I had the highest handicap in the championship division (aka – probably the worst player in that division), I got to go out first on the first day. I liked this because a.) it has been really hot lately and playing early means I can beat the heat, and b.) I could get back in time to see how your mom was doing in her club championship.

I shot a 97 the first day. That is the worst score I’ve shot in maybe 3 years. Granted, in the championship division, I had to play from the furthest back tees at Scioto Reserve (which I don’t do very often). But I played terrible and when I got home and told your mom how I did, if I’m being honest, I think she considered what life would have been like if she married a decent golfer. She was golfing when I got home, so here’s how that went.

I had a 10 on the tenth hole. I am sure you might wonder how that would happen. Well here you go.

10th Hole: Par 5 – 581 yards

• Shot 1: hit decent drive, but drew too much and went into pond.
• Shot 2: drop
• Shot 3: flared a hybrid way right and it went out of bounds
• Shot 4: penalty stroke
• Shot 5: overcorrected and pulled hybrid left into fairway bunker
• Shot 6: chunked it out of bunker into fairway
• Shot 7: bladed a wedge to back of green with a front pin location
• Shot 8: lag putt to 6 feet
• Shot 9: missed putt
• Shot 10: nailed it, center of the cup

So I wasn’t thrilled about shooting a 97 and had to go to the pool with you boys right after. I saw a lot of people there who said something along the lines of “hey didn’t you play at SR today? How’d you play?” I decided that I was just going to own it and tell everyone that I shot a 97 and I wasn’t really excited about it.

Undeterred, I went back the next day to play the final round. Since I had the worst score, I again went off in the first group. My goal for the day was to have the biggest difference between my first round score and my second round score.

I shot a 78, 19 shots better than I did the day before. I shot a 36 (even par) on the front and it was the first time in my life I’ve ever done that. I birdied the first and last holes of the day. Confidence restored. I had many people telling me “good job coming back from yesterday.” I was very happy with how the day went.

Kinsale Women’s Club Championship

Your mom came into this year as the reigning Kinsale women’s club champion. She won two of the past three years, with the only exception being two years ago when, in a matchplay format, she kinda maybe sorta had a meltdown on the last 10 or 11 holes and lost to someone she probably should have beaten. Your mom will tell you she’s a much better stroke play player than match play player. This year was, again, match play format.

This year, there was some new blood in the championship division. A new member named Sophia (but goes by Sophie) joined in may and she had a lower handicap than your mom. Her scores in the past few months have been a little better than your mom’s, but we went out the day before her championship to play 9 holes with our friends, and your mom shot a 34 on the front 9. Needless to say, her confidence was high.

On day 1, your mom had a bye — meaning she got to play for fun but it didn’t impact her place in the championship match the next day. Sophie and Amy, who beat her for the Kinsale club championship two years ago, were playing that first day to see who would get to play your mom for the club championship. I don’t know how the scores were, but Sophie kicked Amy’s butt and the match was set for the championship.

Kelly vs. Sophie — Sunday at 10:30am — WINNER. TAKE. ALL.

So as I was tapping in my birdie putt on 18 at Scioto Reserve, I checked my phone and saw your mom tell me “I mean I’m playing lights out.” I checked the match details online and saw she was winning by three after five holes.

SIDEBAR: the way match play works is that each hole is worth a point. So if your mom shoots a four and her opponent shoots a six, even though she won by two shots, she still only gets one point. If she and her opponent tie a hole, then no one gets a point. It’s also worth noting that sometimes you can win a match in less than 18 holes. If someone is up by five holes and there are only four holes left, then the other person can’t mathematically catch up so you’d win on the 14th hole.

OK back to the action. Your grandma took you boys back to her house, so I had no one home other than Oakley to take care of. I showered, threw a few drinks in a cooler, and met your mom on the 10th hole. She was still up three holes at this point.

Now, I’m going to copy/paste the “live correspondence” that I was texting our group chat. For whatever reason, everyone had plans on the day your mom had her club championship, so I felt like I needed to keep the people informed.

Hopefully that works. But it was an exciting back nine with your mom never really letting the match get close. It was really cool to see someone who has all the ability that your mom has play her in a match and for your mom to win. Maybe next year Sophie will get the best of your mom, but for now, your mom has won the Kinsale club championship 3x in the last four years, firmly establishing herself in the GOAT (of Kinsale) conversation.

Your mom and Sophie decided to finish out the round, and after another birdie on 17 (and bogey on 18, smh), she cards a 70 and is told that is likely the Kinsale course record for women. So as if she needed one more thing, your mom has that going for her, which is nice.

Rauchdy Match 4.0

All that to say, the real and more meaningful competition is now firmly on the horizon. We have a few events in between scheduled, but the date on the calendar with thick red circles around it is shaping up for mid-late August. Now I’m sure your mom is riding high after her play recently, but there is a lot of time between now and then and aside from one round that I’ll never speak of again, my golf has been getting better too.

I’d say this is a pivotal year since your mom now has two wins to my one. And, she won last year so it’d be two years in a row, which would be devastating to my fragil golf ego. I think this year, I’m going to play it straight. I like having my caddy so I don’t think we’ll mess with that, but no more wigs and fake mustaches. No more surprises on the tee box. I did look into the cost of either having an airplane fly a banner over the course for a few hours and also a plane skywriting “Ryan > Kelly” but didn’t want to spend what that was going to cost.

This post is getting long and I’m sure as we set dates and figure out more deats about our match, I’ll post again.

Oh one more funny thing. Reagan, you played your PGA Jr. match last night, which is a scramble format. To date, you’ve been playing up with older kids and I’m not sure why that’s been, but it’s fine and you do great talking with older kids (for the most part). Anyway, you play up on all the holes from fairway tee boxes.

So on the third hole, which is a par 5, you hit a good drive, but your partner (who is going into 4th grade) hits a longer drive, then hits his second shot to about 18 inches. As we’re walking up, I mention that the putt would be for eagle. Excitedly, you yell to your mom who is rolling up to the green in the golf cart, “Hey Mom! I’m going to make eagle!”

I remind you that you still have to make the putt, but also that yea, your mom made some eagles winning her thing (or whatever) and how it’s whatever no big deal easy peasy lemon squeezy. Walking up, you’re trying really hard to go first, but the 4th grader gets their first, puts his mark down, and is the first to hit the putt. He makes it.

Now I’m excited at the thought of you “getting your first eagle,” even though it’s in a scramble and you haven’t used any of your shots. Well it was all for not because you missed the short putt anyway (but were still very proud of your birdie, lol).

OK boys. All for now. Love you both!

Dad