Boys –
Big weekend this past weekend. Your cousins came into town and stayed the night for Fam Fest and everyone had a ton of fun. But this isn’t about any of that. This is about the events that took place on Friday beginning at 5pm. This post, is about what happened at the Rauchdy Match 4.
Now I’d done a lot of legwork in terms of shenaniganning leading up to the event. I posted the below video trying to both hype up the event, but also put a little extra pressure on your mom. I asked everyone who made a video to say, “she can’t lose, right?” if they were going to pick her and, unsurprisingly, most people did.
But my hijinks stopped when I put the tee in the ground and got the match started. Your mom saved all her surprises for the golf course. Before we teed off, Andrew and I were getting dialed at the range. We talked strategy and how we might approach certain holes depending on where we stood in the match — real high level stuff. We made our way over to the putting green as people started to filter in. Then, around 4:55 with your mom nowhere to be found, I was told I needed to go to the tee box.
That is when the faint sound of bagpipes could be heard coming from the tunnel. All of a sudden, your mom comes sashaying out with Jacob in tow, followed by the Kinsale bagpiper. That’s fine; she made a grand entrance and all of her people were there to high five and cheer her along. But I wasn’t focused on that — I was focused on what I needed to do to win the match.
Hole 1: Par 4 – 335 yards
Club off the tee: Driver
So I tee off first and nearly hit it OB left. Not ideal, but I’ve been fighting the lefts lately and it looks like something else I’ll have to deal with for the match. Your mom hits a good one that runs through the fairway and into a centerline bunker. She hits her second shot first, and from the bunker, she hits a great shot to the back of the green and about 25 feet from the hole.
I get to my ball and it’s buried in deep grass and about four inches from the trunk of a tree. We consider all options — hitting it left handed, straddling the ball and hitting it backwards between my legs, taking an unplayable lie and going from there. Ultimately, I decide to hit it backward to a patch of shortgrass near the OB line. I fortunately hit a decent shot onto the short grass which gives me a good lie, but I still have some tree issue for my next shot. Be that as it may, I hit up to the green to the very right side. I am up again, and putt it to about two feet past the hole.
Your mom, whose weakness lately have been with her putter, lags one to about five feet short of the hole. She misses her next putt, and before the ball stopped moving, she looks at me and maliciously asks if I wasn’t going to concede her next putt — basically say she can pick it up and take her bogey. I concede and make my short bogey putt.
Match: All Square
Hole 2: Par 4 – 376 yards
Club off the tee: 6i
We take the path behind the green on 1 to the second hole tee box. As we’re talking through our options, there is some commotion coming from the gallery, which is probably 20 people or so at this point. I turn around and notice this thing creeping toward me.
#Saravatar
There is a whole backstory to this and you’ll have to ask me when you’re older — or don’t, either is fine. But your mom convinced her friend Sarah to dress up like an avatar to distract me. Which, for a moment, she did. But I was too locked in to not smash a 6i down the middle of the fairway.
Your mom, also not phased by the avatar just frolicking about, hit her driver down the fairway too about 40 yards past my tee shot. We both hit our next shots left of the pin. As we’re walking up to the green, we see some golf carts rolling up to the green, and Saravatar is just rolling along in the back in a crouched position like she might launch off and chase a bird at any given moment. Fortunately, she didn’t see one or feel the need.
As for the golf, I lagged a good one up to “that’s good” territory, but your mom putts it about 12 feet past the hole. Needing to see her make it, I watch as she and her caddy line up the putt and roll it in for a par.
Match: All Square
Hole 3: Par 5 – 431 yards
Club off the tee: Driver
I mentioned the lefts, well this time I just banana hooked my tee shot into someone’s yard. Your mom hits a good one and I hit another ball, now my 3rd shot, and hit a decent one. Everytime I do this, I think to myself, “oh just do this or that differently and you’ll be fine.” Your mom hits her second shot short of the green, and I hit a good 8i to about 30 feet setting up a long par putt.
From off the green, your mom chips it up to about five feet. Once I missed my par putt, I concede your mom’s putt since she basically has two putts from five feet to beat me on the hole.
Match: Kelly 1 Up
Hole 4: Par 3 – 128 yards
Club off the tee: PW
As I’m walking up to the tee, I’m not really focused on anything other than the walk between the third green and the fourth tee box, when out of the grass, that damn avatar jumps out and startles me. All I can think is the scene in Happy Gilmore where Shooter is on the green and someone throws a beach ball on the green and he whacks it with his putter and everyone is laughing…that’s me but without the aggression. “Damn you people. This is golf. Not a rock concert!”
Now it’s your mom’s turn to tee off first, and she misses the green right and leaves herself a nasty little downhill chip shot to an elevated green. I play to the middle of the green and hit my line. I’m about 20 feet from the hole, but the putt is downhill. Your mom hits a great ship to about 8 feet, but misses her par putt. I lag one down to about two feet and make my par putt.
Match: All Square
Hole 5: Par 4 – 242 yards
Club off the tee: 6i
I’m up first. And to set the scene, we’re starting to lose some people and pick up some new people. But Saravatar had to go home and I can only imagine what that looked like when she got home and her husband, who didn’t know she was doing that, got to see her for the first time.
Anyway, I feel like I hit a good 6i, if anything just a little bit pushed to the right. Your mom hits another driver and it’s a good one that nestles up to the thick rough just in front of the green. When I see my ball, it’s in the flower bed and blocked by some trees between me and the green. I would never have guessed my tee shot would have gone that far, but here we are and we have another decision to make. Only about 40 yards from the green, I decide to punch a little 8i that is on a good line, but carries onto the green and rolls just off the back.
Your mom hits her second shot a little fat, and putts the next shot to maybe five feet. My chip shot is a little outside of hers, but on a similar line. I make mine first, putting the pressure on her. She does a good job at reading her putt and making her par.
Match: All Square
Hole 7: Par 4 – 224 yards
Club off the tee: 7i
Right now, the sixth hole is being renovated, so we decided to play the 10th hole and treat it as our ninth. It’s a good match and your mom and I (I think) can both sense that mistakes now are really going to cost us, so it’s best to play things safe and try to avoid any bad shots.
We both hit irons off the tee and both find the fairway. Your mom has a bit longer of a shot, maybe 110 yards, and hits a decent shot to the front of the green with a back pin. I do slightly better, but and still well short of getting close enough for a realistic shot at birdie. We both hit good putts and both condede each others for two pars.
Match: All Square
Hole 8: Par 3 – 96 yards
Club off the tee: knockdown GW
A short par 3 that never feels like a comfortable shot, the eighth hole is playing straight into the wind, which is somewhat protected from some tall pines behind the green. I try to hit a knockdown gap wedge, but don’t give it enough gas and it hits the front of the green and spins off the front leaving me a testy little chip up to the middle-front located pin. Your mom, not sure which club she hit, bladed it over the green and into some tall weeds behind the green. All she can do is chop it across the green. A second bad chip and a missed long putt all but do her in for this hole, and once I chip on and lag one up for bogey, she concedes the hole and we move on.
Match: Ryan 1 Up
Hole 9: Par 5 – 444 yards
Club off the tee: Driver
The plan was to hit a 3W from the tee, but because the wind was blowing directly into us, I decided to tee up a driver low and try to hit one under the wind. I did a pretty good job, although has I missed by a groove or two lower on the club face, I probably would have grounded out to the pitcher. Be that as it may, your mom also hit a good shot and we weren’t far off from each other after one.
Our second shots nearly end up the same distance away from the hole, with your mom being on a slight downslope about 50 yards away, and I’m sitting high up on a mound about 40 yards away. She hits a nice pitch that lands on the front of the green and rolls up to about 10 feet. I carry mine to about hole high, and it rolls out to maybe 9 feet. Your mom, needing to make hers, just drips it over the front lip and gives a little fist pump.
My turn. I read it to be about the same putt as I had on the fifth hole. My goal is to hit it firm and just off the right edge and let the putt roll back to center and hit the back of the cup. And that is exactly what I do.
Match: Ryan 1 Up
Hole 10: Par 4 – 303 yards
Club off the tee: 5i
By now, I’m making the safe plays and I’m going to let your mom beat me rather than doing something dumb for no reason. I hit a 5i to the right side of the fairway. Your mom hits driver and hits it right — might be the first bad tee shot she’s hit all day (aside from 8, of course). I’m up first, and the only thing I don’t want to do is exactly what I do end up doing, and I hit a clean 8i straight into a deep bunker in front of the green.
Your mom hits this punchy baffler (a kind of hybrid) under a tree and runs the ball all the way up to the front of the green. She gets cheers from her gallery and all of a sudden, it looks like she has the upper hand and will push the match into overtime. She goes first and lags the ball to about 8 feet underneath the hole — no gimmie but also very makeable.
I take my lob wedge and hit a pretty decent shot to the back of the green and maybe 15 feet to the hole. One putt and I win. I give it a run but it ends up just short and left, but it’s close enough for me to pick it up. Now your mom has a putt to win the hole and extend the match.
What I love about golf is that one shot can make all the difference between winning and losing. Sometimes it’ works out in your favor and ‘s a towering drive that splits the fairway and sometimes it’s a misguided approach wedge on 8 that should have been a pitching wedge. Sometimes it’s a shot you have to hit backwards that keeps you in the hole and ultimately keeps you in the match. And sometimes it’s an uphill, 8 foot putt that grabs the right edge of the hole, dances around the entire hole, and ends up millimeters from going in on the final hole of the match.
They suck when they don’t go in your favor, but that’s golf. And that’s life. And right now, I’m the reigning Rauchdy Match champion and have tied the overall series 2-2. And next year promises to be the biggest and best one yet!
But I’m sure we’ll talk about it again before then.
Until then….
Love you, boys.
Dad
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