Come On Own Up - Worst score on a par 3

I mentioned on another thread a couple of weeks ago, about a nightmare I had in a medal. 201 yards to the pin in good weather, but managed to hit my hybrid left into a plantation next to the ladies tee. I took a provisional and hit it to within a few feet, but we saw my ball under a gorse bush. Like an idiot and not being sure of the rule (Could I have selected to play my provisional?) I squeezed through the foliage to find I couldn't get a club on it and even then should have taken a drop from an unplayable ...... but decided to try and 3 shots later squeezed it out into thick wet cabbage. Almost broke my wrist getting out onto the short stuff and then thinned into a bunker and as my temper had taken control of the situation managed to card a 9!!!!!

My head had gone by this time and proceeded to do a kevin Na for the worst round I'd played in 5-years

I had an 8 on our par3 17th last week in a medal

Downhill par 3 of around 165 yards with pond front right of green and another to the left, leaving only a narrow bailout area to the left edge of the green or a full carry to the green

I actually cleared the pond but only just and it rolled back in. This actually gave me a worse place to drop as the last point of crossing the hazard was to the right of the pin so keeping that between myself and the pin meant I was dropping way over to the right, short of the pond (had the ball just gone straight in the water the dropping point would have been much more amenable).

Anyway I then dropped for 2 and dumped my third back in again. Drop 4 and then thinned 5 over the back. Duff chip was shot 6 and chip 7 wasn't much better though it did actually make the green. Sank quite a decent putt for 8 - a 9 or 10 was easily on the cards!

We have six Par 3s at our course and my worst scores in Medals have been

1st - 7
6th - 8 (as recently as last Medal)
8th - 6
11th - 8
14th - 6
17th - 7

Quite evenly distributed!

Can't remember a worse one and I'm not sure that I want to try hard in this case but I do remember an 8 last year on our 15th. Can't remember how it happened but the score stands out as I shot 80 that day with the 8. Fan-bloody-tastic, talk about coulda, woulda, shoulda.....

I was an 8 also, it was at my last club 201 yard par 3 with water down the left hand side but stopped just short of the green. First 2 tee shots in the water played 5 of the tee and pushed it way right chipped on and 2 putted.

Thought it was a good 8 under the circumstances.

Just to elaborate on my mentions above of dropping points on our 17th I've produced this (very crude) sketch of the hole using google maps to get the proportions right but enhancing it using my limited paintshop skills as google doesn't really show the water properly

Spoiler:

The point I was trying to make was that the ball crossed the hazard over points A and B and fell back into the pond. As it last crossed the hazard line at point B the dropping area was somewhere around the area of B1 (nasty rough) whereas if it hadn't reached point B and rolled back, the dropping area would have been around A1 (closely mown fairway)

On reflection I wondered how many people would have realized the difference and how many would have just droppped at or around A1!

Davie - top effort!

The picture? Or holing out from some distance for an 8?

9 out of 10 people would have dropped at A1 i reckon.

Ive had an 11 at a par 3 in a medal. It wasnt pretty, not even a water hole or anything like that. Just long and narrow with a lot of trouble either side. Makes me shudder just to think about it.

2

BlueCoverman wrote:2

Liar! You wish....

What you don't believe me Grumps?...

I had a nine last year in round two of club champ qualifying last year. Seven shots in a deep greenside bunker where determination/stupidity/stubbornness overcame sensibility.

super_realist wrote:I had a nine last year in round two of club champ qualifying last year. Seven shots in a deep greenside bunker where determination/stupidity/stubbornness overcame sensibility.

Some would accuse you of 'handicap engineering'

We can be a stupid race of people though when we have a golf club in our hands. Nobody answered the question about if I had the option to nominate to play my provisional, rather than the lost ball I subsequently found. Appreciate its not really in the spirit of the game however.

Doc, no you can't continue with the provisional once you have found the original ball. It's as if that ball does not exist anymore and is a figment of your imagination.

A high profile example of this was Big Fat Phil. He hit one into this enormous prickly bush and then hit a perfect provisional. He's walking to the provisional and is calling out "leave it, it's lost" when some helpful sod says "I found it!". Phil goes over, identifies it, declares it unplayable and then returns to the tee to hit another perfect shot. He picks up the provisional and continues with the third ball he hit playing his 4th shot from the fairway.

You cam declare your ball lost though before you look for it and continue with your provisional, interestingly you have to declare a provisional ball a provisional otherwise it is now the ball in play amd the first is considered lost, even if its found.

Playing a Thornton Cup match at Bishops Stortford a couple of years ago. All square on the 17th tee, opponent hits a huge hook deep into the trees. Swears repeatedly, sticks another ball down and smacks it up the middle without saying anything else. OK I think that's 3 as that is the ball in play.

We get up there and there is a ball lying in the semi-rough, conveniently sitting near a group of their spectators. "That's my ball", he declares. "Sorry", I say "you did not say provisional and therefore that ball is no longer in play"

"I did call provisional", came the reply. "Yes he did, I heard him" said his caddy. Cheats, what can you do!

super_realist wrote:I had a nine last year in round two of club champ qualifying last year. Seven shots in a deep greenside bunker where determination/stupidity/stubbornness overcame sensibility.

at least you could count it as a sand-save
can't think of anything 'worse' than a 7 off the top of my head. probably at least an 8 in there somewhere though.
i did lose two balls o.b. in last seasons club champ - hit the pin with my 5-off-the-tee and had a tap in 6. if only i'd done that the first time... suppose at least it wasn't any worse!