There were a few hard lessons explained to the Blue Team last weekend:
- Past performance is not indicative of future results.
- Acceptance is the first step to enlightenment.
- Adapt or perish.
- The beatings will continue until morale (and pace of play) improves.
Undoubtedly, those lessons fell on deaf ears. It's far too easy to wrap oneself with delusion and conspiracy theories than accept obvious accountability.
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Playing in North Port was always going to be logistically challenging. Actually — calling it a "challenge" is a bit unfair. It's just difficult to find housing big enough for 16 people, let alone close enough for all locations to be walkable.
This wouldn't normally be an issue for grown adults. Booking three acceptable "sight unseen" houses, from three
different owners, all within a 7-ish minute car ride isn't easy in a city with a median household income of $55k. Your Dear Leader's AirBnB list is well over 60 houses long.
And yet, the question was still asked, by multiple people: "
Why didn't we get three houses on the same street?"
Perhaps the biggest lesson never learned in the 8-year history of our prestigious Club:
There is no such thing as a stupid question. Only stupid people who ask questions.
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North Port did have a handful of great qualities. It was close enough for Robbie to drive down every morning — a last minute development which he took like a champ.
Robbie's "can do" attitude should be commended, and without a doubt contributed to his excellent play all weekend. Winning a Chapman match with Katie was an amazing feat. And he shot around -4 (full handicap) each of the final two days, which is very respectable. Unfortunately, he drew a guy who shot -8 (full handicap)
* and a 22-handicapper (full) who made
7 pars in 17 holes
**.
* The last time Chandler shot a 77 or better? Scepter in Spring 2019, where he coincidentally beat Robbie by 4 strokes.
** Adam has played in 15 league events, ever. The number of times he's recorded
more than 5 pars or better?
Once - seven pars and two birdies at Buffalo Creek, Summer 2019, where he smoked the field and won by 8 strokes (despite a quadruple-bogey!). Adam making 7 pars on Sunday is statistically overwhelming to any opponent.
Robbie is a perfect example for what happened to
some of the Blue Team. While most of them arguably sucked, the ones who played well went up against someone who was lights out. The luck of the draw is real in The Rapture (and Ryder Cup).
But let me once again stress an important point: most of the Blue Team
did not play as well as their memory/egos remember.
Only
THREE people on the Blue Team would have shot under par on Sunday with their FULL handicaps, based on rough estimates, which include inconsequential putts outside of "gimmie" range being conceded: Dave (-9), Robbie (-4) and Darren (-3).
About half the Blues would have been under par (net) on Saturday, but that is nowhere near the percentage of the Green Team. Reid also fired a 77 gross (-10 full-net) that day, while Geoff and Adam would have been around -6 and -8 respectively! Sensing a trend?
Despite losing in Chapman at Riverwood, Adam played two stellar net-under-par rounds at Sarasota National. And yet the experts all said he was drafted "too high." His draft position was the least high thing about Adam!
So how did the Green Team end up with all the hot players? Luck? Masterful drafting? Excellent Captaincy?
Yes.
Pre-Rapture, Gary was ecstatic that 5 of the top 6 players in the Summer 2019 standings were on his team. But he failed to realize the recent good play drastically reduced their handicaps. Essentially, he bought high and was confused when the trend wasn't sustained.
John alone lost a potential
6 strokes at Sarasota National over the previous two months. He would need to shoot somewhere between 79 and 82 each day to provide his expected value. That's a near impossible task when he's mentally focused on making as much noise as possible while we're scrambling to find tee times on open courses.
Conditions also favored Team Green, as wet fairways with zero roll definitely hurt a few of the shorter drivers of the golf ball (Darren, Katie, Gorecki). For those of us that lack speed, it was an insanely brutal grind, putting more reliance on good chipping and putting.
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| The greatest team of all time. |
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North Port was also selected due to its proximity to some decent courses. Obviously, playing in August might lead to rain and course maintenance issues. But what we encountered was completely ridiculous, and extremely lucky.
All three courses were destroyed with rain the previous week. Dear Leader, ever the planner, began working on back-up plans Thursday afternoon, compiling a list of seven different options within an hour drive — hoping that ONE of them would be playable if needed.
Friday morning looked promising as Verandah told us they were open. But a monsoon in Ft. Myers during our travels officially closed the course as Car #1 was minutes from arrival. What followed was a borderline miracle in coordination, as seven different cars (some filled with clowns) were now driving aimlessly to an unknown destination (or jail).
Huge shout-out to Gorecki who was the
only one to actually help matters, calling Sarasota National to check their current status and reserve a backup tee time on Saturday. Luckily, Riverwood was not planning on closing despite the course being completely empty and saturated.
The decision was made to play Chapman first — since it was already planned and set up for Riverwood — and then play Sarasota National two days in a row (weather permitting). Eventually everyone was able to accept the change in schedule and make their way to the course.
The day was long and grueling, and included a 10 minute downpour on the back nine. But the course, especially the greens, were amazing. Riverwood was probably going to be the "worst" course we played, and it sounded like everyone enjoyed it. But the day was a slog, thanks to a combination of conditions and the general slow-play epidemic that plagues a handful of members.
It's a shame we may never see Verandah, but at least Sarasota National was able to take on additional rain each night and remain open. It's a great course and a real treat in dry conditions. Even Team Blue gave it praise, despite getting slapped around the way Brendan & Danny slapped their ball in Chapman.
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| Not the greatest team of all time. |
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Some final thoughts:
- Dave summarized that the golf and conditions might be shit, but this was — in his mind — the most "fun" Rapture yet. If any year was going to be ruined, it was this year. Discussions were had about how and where to play make-up rounds in Tampa over the winter. Yet we somehow got everything completed. The Rapture remains the best way to end golf season.
- Dave shot a gross 71 (-1) on Sunday, which was the only way Blue scored a point in Singles.
- Brendan and Danny, the two "Best Value" picks, both went 3-0 and earned their first ever Rapture Singles victory. Danny shot a 99 (gross) on Sunday which would have been -4 (net) in stroke play. In his entire league history (16 events), Danny has never shot -4 net. Nor has he ever broken 100 on a full-sized course. Meanwhile, Brendan shot a
career best 83 gross (-14 net!) on Sunday. Seriously... the Green Team couldn't lose.
- It only took Katie Scallops 45 holes to say "
I'm never coming to The Rapture again!" I believe the crux of her statement was that she mentally hated Match Play. If true, that will really help Dave who can't seem to qualify on his own.
- It's also worth noting that Katie lost on Sunday to a guy who made 5 putts over 15 feet — all to either halve or win a hole. If those don't go in, she's All Square going into the 15th hole — on a day she was playing
terrible. She could have easily won that match. Especially if she had recorded more than 3 rounds in the past 5 months — allowing her handicap index to trend upward.
- Darren was
very concerned that the match-up procedure drastically favored high handicappers, which explained why Green was "beating that ass." A few things on this...
1) Handicap allowances
hurt high handicappers. On purpose.
2) The USGA Handicap System exists so people of wildly different skill can compete against each other. The formula itself
helps better players, and rewards improvement. We can't just throw out
108 years of history and say it's now unfair for Dave to play Danny.
3) The "random" match-ups, used in the Ryder Cup, make it fun. Nobody wants to play the same person every year. And there's actual strategy in deciding whether to create a "sacrificial lamb" team of high handicaps, a "super team" of low handicaps, or a "mixed bag of shit." And there's additional strategy on when to send out each pairing.
4) This was by far the most lopsided victory
in six years of the Rapture. I wouldn't get the pitchforks out yet. The only other "blowout" (which wasn't anywhere near this bad) was
Dave's 2016 team. And they had much lower handicaps compared to Tall Mike's team.
- Speaking of "sacrificial lambs," Brendan and Danny got
19 strokes against Dave and John in Chapman. Insurmountable? I don't think so. If I had told you before the Rapture that B&D would make bogey or better on 75% of their holes in alt-shot... you'd say: "
Daaaaaaaamn. Yeah they would totally win. But there's no chance that will happen." And yet, that's exactly what happened. They also won their double-stroke hole outright.
- My current thought on next year is Naples, which is another hour or so further south than North Port. There are a TON of golf courses and a lot of housing options.
Tiburon (Black & Gold),
TPC Treviso Bay,
Old Corkscrew,
The Rookery,
Hammock Bay, and a bunch I don't know about. You could do 5 Raptures down in Naples and never play the same course twice. The cost would be a lot higher, and would depend on how far my AirBnB rating falls after last weekend.
- Dave thinks Geoff looks like the most likely to be a murderer. Geoff thinks Dave looks like the most likely to get murdered. Geoff is 100%
incorrect.
- Rapture Performance Payouts will be sent after I check with "Reid the Collector" to make sure no outstanding debts are owed.
