Thursday - Oh Calcutta

My quiet round by myself at 8:10 this morning was not to be. I was paired up with the official worst golfer in the tournament. This guy (Bob Carey), with a 30 handicap was listed as the highest handicap of all 144 players in the tournament. In short, I had to play with Pratas this morning. To make matters worse, he was from Queens, was 70 years old, and did not stop talking for the entire round. Needless to say, today's practice round began as bad as yesterday's. All hope was fading.

I hit the driver like a real golfer. Bombing 280 yard drives square down the middle of the fairway. I would then proceed to butcher the remaining 100 yards to the green to convert a nice drive into a bogey or double bogey. Then came the 9th hole. Bombed a drive, and only had 245 yards to the green on a par five. I turned to Bob and said, "I may as well hit, I can't get it that far." I then hit my old "wooden" wood straight on a line to the green, directly into the group putting out in front of us. Found my ball on the back of the green with a 25' putt for eagle. Yes, I three putted for par. Took a 46 to the back nine.

Continued to butcher perfect drives as I worked my way to 6 over with the three hardest holes to play. Finished with three straight pars (damn near birdie on the last two) to shoot a "42 on the back". Final score - 88...but glimmers of hope for the way I finished.

Now to the title of the post...The Calcutta was held tonight. For non-golfers, a Calcutta is where people bid on the competitors in a tournament, auction style, in an attempt to buy the golfer's chances of winning their flight. It is gambling. All of the money bid on the 16 golfers in my flight goes into a pot, and is paid out proportionally to the 4 top finishers. Last year, my second place finish paid out over $800.

Well, I was auctioned off for $270...the second highest amount in my flight. Somebody apparently thinks I have the ability to win this damn thing.

We begin to find out tomorrow at 8:08 a.m. A perfect tee time as far as I am concerned. More tomorrow...