Friday, September 1, 2023

Good Sports

 


Thursday was my usual golf day. I arrived at the city golf course for my ladies’ league and learned I’d been moved from playing with one group to another, which was actually good news since I would now be with a nice person who I’ve known for years and actually worked with long ago.

          The first of the other two of our foursome was a quiet woman who’s an excellent golfer and the second was someone new to the league. We had to wait to tee off because the newbie arrived late, not a good thing. She also turned out to be a really uneven player, achieving long hits when she connected, but often not connecting at all.

          We were all patient though, especially me, since it wasn’t all that long ago that I was that person (without the long hits).

          Still, things like her disregard for golf etiquette started to rankle after a while. Golfers go in turns, whoever is farthest from the hole going first. This is particularly true once we reach the green. And yet our new addition would make her putt, and then keep putting until she got her ball in the cup. Wrong.

          Some people, though, are just spacey and oblivious, so we all just let it go. Life is short.

          However, near the end, the veteran golfer quietly said to me, “Let me show you something,” and held out her score card. We all report our scores to each other after each hole, and I'd thought some of the numbers from the new player didn’t tally up with what I’d seen on the course, but oh well.  We submit the final cards to the league at the end of the full round. The quiet woman hadn’t said anything when we called out our strokes, but she had been keeping track. Our newbie had lying up a storm, but even with her bogus numbers, her score was still poor.

          The rest of us didn’t say a word, it’s not like there was a million dollar prize waiting up at the clubhouse, but I imagine we all had formed the same opinion. Interesting how some things reveal a person’s true nature.

9 comments:

  1. Hopefully the newbie will learn - or move on.

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  2. I hope she soon learns or she will be quite unpopular and not wanted on any team.

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    Replies
    1. There some pretty feisty ladies in the group. If she keeps it up I'll bet someone will draw a line.

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  3. Maybe you won't be partnered again. If you are, will you say something?

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    1. Not being a big fan of confrontation, likely not. Then again, maybe gently questioning a tally might do it.

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  4. Interesting. Let's hope this was all the result of being a clueless newbie and not deliberate rudeness and/or deception!

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  5. Wow. I doubt she will last long on that team unless she changes her ways.

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  6. Ooh, awkward. Like you, I probably wouldn't have said anything the first time.

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  7. When I played, I was really and truly awful. To avoid delay of game, after 6 hits I picked up the ball and carried it to where you putt. After putting 3 times, I moved on to the next hole. Since it was just me and the hubs, no one cared. If someone had cared, then there would have been a lot more swinging of the club!

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