Are you competitive?
Do you consider yourself a competitive person? If you’re an elite athlete, you’re probably a very competitive person by nature. But what about the recreational golfer? Do you need to be competitive in order to enter and enjoy tournaments?
I’ve played in dozens of tournaments like the member/member, member/guest, member/pro, club championship, season-long match play and couples tournaments.
Are they “serious tournaments”? Well, yes and no.
They’re tournaments with a format and rules to follow, and play is governed by the USGA rules of golf. And no, you can’t take a breakfast ball! 😂 Golf is a gentleman’s sport (gentle person really) and relies on the integrity of the players.
Country Club golf is supposed to be fun. My two home courses Lahontan Golf Club and The Santaluz Club go to great efforts and expense to create fun, beautiful, festive women’s events for their members and their guests. We’ve truly had some of the best experiences of our lives at these tournaments. The food, the flowers, the music… and the wonderful ladies who join are all so much fun!
I think these types of events are “competitive light”. In other words, the rules are followed, but most of the ladies are there to enjoy the festivities, have a few cocktails and play the best rounds they can (without getting up at 5am to warm up for two hours). Most of the ladies take their bad luck and bad shots with a grain of salt and even when they’re no longer in the running for a trophy, they root for their girlfriends.
I find our ladies to be competitive in that they show up to a tournament with hopes of winning a trophy, but aren’t so invested that they are disappointed when things don’t go as well as they would have liked.
They try their best, but don’t beat themselves up. They focus but don’t lose sight of the cocktail hour after the round. They spend more time working on matching outfits than practicing their bunker shots. I call it “competitive light” because it’s fun to bring a trophy home, but even more fun to be with our girlfriends, where we can laugh and enjoy the golf lifestyle that is ohhhh, so good.