GreenReader
Active Member
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- Location
- Pebble Beach, CA
So our spring 2-man used to be straight best ball. Show up, play your own ball, take the low number. Easy, everyone loves it. This year the committee "modernized" it to modified alternate shot (both tee off, pick the better drive, then alternate in from there) and the scores went up like 6 shots per team across the board.
My partner and I are a decent pair, I'm the fairway and putter guy, he's the guy who hits it 40 past me and has no idea where it's going. In best ball we're usually around 68-70 net. Saturday we carded 89 gross. 89! In a two man event. Neither of us could believe it. Every time we took my drive he'd have to hit the approach from 30 yards behind where he's used to, and every time we took his bomb we were wedged out of cabbage. Then the putts. God, the putts. Nobody wants to be the guy who misses the second half of a two-putt that his partner already lagged to a foot.
Honestly though, I kind of loved it. It's a real format. It exposes the team that only wins because one guy carries, and it forces actual conversations on the tee. We spent like 10 minutes on the 14th arguing about whether to take his 290 into the rough or my 250 in the fairway (we took his, made bogey, obviously).
My one gripe is the committee didn't post the format until Thursday night, so half the field showed up thinking it was best ball. Four teams played the front nine as best ball before anybody told them. The scoring got sorted out eventually but c'mon, that's a Tuesday email, not a Thursday night text.
Anybody else's league run alternate shot? Curious what y'all do on the tee shot rule, do you make guys declare before the hole or after both balls are in play?