This past weekend, the Lake County Partners Best Ball Championship was played out at Buckingham. Following second-round play, prizes were awarded to the top finishers in the various flights. A number of golfers stayed around to the bitter end, watching the PGA Tour event at Hartford with one eye while checking out the Giants and A”s game with the other. It was a typical end-of-tournament gathering by the regulars of the Triple Bogey Saloon.
While the conversation bounced from whether Russell Westbrook shoots too much to how to distribute points for a match play tournament, it ultimately gravitated to golfing partnerships. Golf is usually a singular sport, so avid golfers often have a hard time playing in a better ball or scramble team format. There”s not as much pressure to be a team player when you”re one out of four golfers in a team scramble where only the best shot is used. However, in a two-man better ball tourney, you”re constantly under pressure to keep the ball in play off the tee, to avoid penalty strokes, and to avoid taking big numbers. The best two-man teams don”t “ham-and-egg” it. Instead, they have both golfers playing well and contributing.
Two funny stories came out of Sunday”s conversation at the Triple Bogey. The first one involved two scratch golfers who have known each other since they were little boys, have played golf together for close to two decades, and have won tournaments together on the Lake County Amateur Golf Circuit. Yet both linksters made it loud and clear that they were getting a “divorce” from one another. No one really believed them except for the fact that both men had a litany of past transgressions about the other. In essence, they should have, they could have won the tournament and they displayed their unhappiness by finger-pointing at one another. It was comical to say the least.
The second story revolved around a father-and-son partnership. At a crucial moment in the tournament, the son hit his ball in the water and made a bogey-six. The father made seven. The way the son told the story, the father got mad at him for hitting the ball into the water and making a six even though his score was higher. Once again, it was more comical than serious. However, in the world of competitive amateur golf, even on a small-town scale, nerves can be frayed and shortsighted decisions can be costly on the scorecard.
All of this got me to thinking about partnerships in golf. I”ve been fortunate to play with a handful of great partners down through the years such as Jack Lucich, Gary Bagnani, Charles Creecy, Jerry Pangle and the most unique of partnerships with my son Nick. They”ve all followed the same golf doctrine of don”t blame and don”t give up. Other than that, when we have played well, we have won, and when our opponents played better than us, our opponents won.
It did lead to some thoughts about successful golf partnerships on the professional level. Amateurs play a whole lot more two-man events than the professionals do, but we do have the vantage point of being entertained annually by either the Ryder Cup, as is the case this coming September at Medinah, or the Presidents Cup. That is when you get to see how important team chemistry is on golf”s biggest stages.
The most obvious positive partner pairing in the modern era was the European Ryder Cup twosome of Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal. Ballesteros, the godfather of the European Tour, was a swashbuckling scrambler who hit it sideways off the tee, chunked it somewhere near the green, and got up and down from the most precarious of situations. He was brilliant enough at this style of play to win two Masters and three British Open titles. Seve was a very emotional golfer. The younger Olazabal, who was mentored during his formative years by Seve, was a deliberate ball striker with a smooth putting stroke and a calm demeanor. He won two Masters titles. Most importantly, their career Ryder Cup record in better ball and alternate shot events was a very impressive 11-2.
Arnold Palmer and Gardner Dickinson were perfect partners in Ryder Cup play, pairing up in 1967 and 1971 to post a perfect 5-0 record. To the uninitiated, Palmer was a power player who could be equal parts brilliant and reckless. Dickinson was small and thin, a control player, and a Ben Hogan clone all the way down to the white cap and chain-smoking mannerisms. Like Seve and Jose Maria, they were opposites in style. Yet they won because they were comfortable with one another and played well together.
In the modern era, Englishman Lee Westwood and Northern Irishman Darren Clarke have been a rock-solid 6-2 in cup matches. They are friends, great competitors and excellent ball strikers with very similar games. Obviously they are successful because they are talented, but they also exude the ultimate in team chemistry.
On the flip side of the coin, American Ryder Cup captain Hal Sutton may have had the best of intentions, but it was definitely a mistake when he paired Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson at Oakland Hills in 2006. Team USA lost that year by the greatest margin ever and the Tiger-Phil pairing turned up the big donut. Historically their relationship on the golf course has been frosty, more like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson than Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. Their pairing set a bad tone from their opening tee shot on Friday morning. Phil and Tiger”s lack of chemistry coupled with one another”s self-centered attitude was a recipe for disaster.
Golf is a singular sport, and when you bring in the team element, whether it is in a better ball tournament, a four-person scramble, or a 12-verus-12 team match, it does drag golfers out of their comfort zone. You have the added burden of coming through for your teammates. You have the added hassle of being at the whim and mercy of your teammates.
In the end, it all makes for an interesting day on the links. When golfers are playing well together, it all works out, and when they”re playing poorly, it leads to big numbers and defeats. However, when one partner or the other is struggling, good partner chemistry can sometimes bring out the best in the team and claim victory from the jaws of defeat. That”s why they tee it up and that”s why they keep score. The divorces and the arguments are just part of the side action.
