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Louisville, KY
Joined: 8/28/2007
Posts: 58
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Posted: May/12/2008 4:29 PM PST
While playing in a four man scramble today, I had a weird thing happen that I haven't witnessed before. I was the last to hit an approach shot -- our third -- to a par 5. We were about 100 out, dead downwind with the pin on the back. I chose sand wedge and flew it right at the stick. We watched as the ball dropped, then all four of us had the same reaction -- "Where'd it go?"
For a second, I thought I might have "jarred it" on the fly, but there wasn't any noise. As I walked toward our cart parked to our left, I could just see what looked like the ball sitting in front of the pin. I assumed it had plugged. It looked close, but from the angle it was difficult to tell just how close -- could have been a tap-in, could have been three feet or so.
One of my playing partners arrived at the ball before I did. He kept looking back at me kind of puzzled, looking at the ball, then me. He finally said, "You gotta see this."
The ball had embedded in the front of the cup. I've seen shots embed in the back of the cup, but never in the front. Literally a third of the ball was sticking out over the cup, with about half of the ball showing from the top. The strangest thing was the divot -- it was lying at the bottom of the cup. Perfectly symmetrical, kind of oval shaped, like somebody just cut it out with a knife. It had about a quarter inch of sandy soil still stuck under the grass.
How that ball stuck there I'm not quite sure. It had to have been the backspin, I guess, digging down and in while kicking the turf out from under it. Just seems like the laws of physics would have kept it moving forward since there was no longer any turf in the way to stop it.
The golfing gods have a way of screwing with physics, though -- we all know that. Like when somebody says, "Good putt!" or "That's in there!" just as a putt gets to the hole. When someone in your group says something to that affect, the ball will NEVER go in. The golfing gods don't like predictions.
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Joined: 12/05/2007
Posts: 412
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Posted: May/12/2008 8:50 PM PST
no camera phone? we need visual evidence!
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Maryland
Joined: 3/08/2008
Posts: 125
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Posted: May/13/2008 7:26 AM PST
That's a heartbreaker, buddy. Tough part is marking, fixing, and replacing on that one.
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Louisville, KY
Joined: 8/28/2007
Posts: 58
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Posted: May/13/2008 6:22 PM PST
Actually, I did take a picture with my dad's phone. It's an older model and I'm not certain how to get it transfered off of there. He doesn't have e-mail or anything fancy like that.
Yep, the damage was hard to repair. Although the divot was nice and neat, it didn't quite fit back in place none too well. When the greenskeeper saw the damage, I bet he thought someone took out a chunk with their putter.
Funny part was that we were able to count the shot as an eagle. We were playing the scramble with string -- each team gets about 6 feet to use throughout the day. Six inches short? Cut six inches of string and count it in. Since the ball was over the cup, we didn't have to cut any string. Kind of a strange thing all around.
The eagle didn't help, anyway. The golf gods got even. We scrambled for par on four of the remaining five holes and finished in the middle of the pack.
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Maryland
Joined: 3/08/2008
Posts: 125
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Posted: May/14/2008 12:55 PM PST
That's creative. Never played a scramble with string before. That's something I'll have to try. Do you play with 6 feet per person or 6 feet total?
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Louisville, KY
Joined: 8/28/2007
Posts: 58
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Posted: May/15/2008 12:56 PM PST
The string thing is a bit gimmicky for me, but it does make the charity hosting the event a great deal of easy money. For this tourney, each team can buy a 6 ft. piece of string for $20. Fortunately, my team was "complimentary" because my company provides services at no charge for the charity throughout the year. We got the string for free, along with a couple of mulligans each. We play in the event just for fun, not intending to win (and we never do).
The 6 ft. of string is for the entire team. The important thing is to have someone in the foursome with a pocket knife. We marked the distance the ball was from the hole using a putter, then cut the string to that measurement. It isn't exact, but we kept it honest. We had about a foot and a half of string left for our final putt and came up two inches short of being able to use the remaining string (kind of pitiful, but it was a tough putt).
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Joined: 8/16/2007
Posts: 116
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Posted: May/16/2008 11:43 AM PST
I HATE that string crap and other gimmicks like buying mulligans. Just play golf, damnit!
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