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| 2012 WAHC WinnerRobert Mieczkowski |
Well all-righty then! The courses that the 47 other
competitors in my flight and I will be playing in the 30th Golf.com World
Amateur Handicap Championships have been revealed. Uh, for those used to me
talking/writing tennis, I’m talking golf here.
This is my second time playing this incredibly fun event
(played 2011), and I’ll be competing against 3,318 other golfers from 29
countries for the right to hold up the WAHC 2013 trophy. Not likely, but it
sure will be fun frustration trying. The guys I play with are nodding in
agreement at that last bit.
In all, there are 70 flights, including six
women’s flights…oh yeah, a few women have actually won this event. There are
scratch-golfer flights, super-senior (70-plus) flights, but the mid-seniors
(60-69) have 23 flights! My division, the senior men (50-59) has 19 flights.
The handicap range for this event is incredible! There are
players with negative handicaps, as in -2.6, and -2.4 and a few 0.0 handicaps
as well. At the other end of the spectrum, I saw at least three participants
with handicaps of 40.4.
You might think that it is a waste of time for a 40-handicapper
to compete with scratch golfers, but that’s the great thing about golf and
handicaps: Anyone can have a good event and win. Take the 2009 winner, she had
a 16.8 handicap, while the 2011 champ had a 3.9. The 2007 champion had a 27.5
handicap while last year’s winner had an 8.1. My 14.2 has hope…however tiny
that hope may be.
Win or lose, however, the event is just plain heaven for a
wanna-be golfer. If you want to, you can play, eat and sleep golf in Myrtle
Beach, or you can play golf for a few hours, go to the beach or whatever else
you like to do on vacation, then go back to the 19th
hole for the dinner
and entertainment
your entry fee paid for.
You play four days like the big boys and girls, you get to
play four different courses, you get to see your name on a leaderboard…moving
up or down…, the goodie bag
is topnotch, and, heck, you might even win the thing. As long as I can afford
it, I’ll be playing this event every year.
When I played two years ago, it was a solo trip to Myrtle,
and a total blast. This time around, I’ll have my other half with me and that
should just double the fun. I hope to have what it takes to report on the experience
like I did the last time around.
If interested, here are the courses that I will be playing
next week in the tournament:
Day 1: Tigers Eye Golf Links
Day 2: Aberdeen Country Club
Day 3: TPC of Myrtle Beach
Day 4: Myrtlewood Golf Club- Palmetto Course
Stay tuned for my reports from Myrtle, wish us good weather, and wish me a
choke-free experience :). "Grip it and rip it"...T. A.
seems rather difficult for you to compete on these courses. after all, a tennis ball just doesn't have the same range off the tee box as a golf ball. although if anyone can swing a racquet with the power of a driver, it will be you.
ReplyDeletebut putting is just going to be a problem. is a tennis ball going to fit in the hole? my tennis game always puts me in the hole, but that is not a good thing.
best of luck under any circumstances. sounds like a blast, and you will do great. we will all be cheering for you to do well, and to quickly recover from your golf obsession and return to the sanity? of tennis.