General Fiction posted September 15, 2023 Chapters:  ...34 35 -36- 37... 


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Single matches end and Fast Match begins
A chapter in the book Saving Mr. Calvin

Saving Mr. Calvin - Ch. 29B/30A

by Jim Wile




Background
A story about the origin and the future of the game of golf
See Author Notes for the list of characters and unfamiliar terms.

Recap of the past few chapters: After a week of practice, the matches begin the following Saturday with the “Alternating Shot” matches first. Kirk and Aggie win their match, and Putt and Cat win theirs too, but the other two teams lose for a score of 2-2 at the end of the morning matches. The afternoon matches begin using the “Best-of-4” format. The Pack team easily win their match, but the other team of 4 lose a very close one. At the end of the first day, the totals are equal at 4 points each.

The second day of the matches begins with the eight singles matches. Kirk is in the first pair out and loses his match to the Snog’s best player. He begins following the other matches to give support to his players. Most of the matches are not going well, as expected, because the Snog’s very slow play rattles the Foo players. Aggie, however, is not bothered by her opponent Cameron’s slow play because she talks and jokes with the crowd instead of watching him. She wins her match. All the rest of the Foos lose and it comes down to the final match—Putt vs. Alex—to pick up one more point. Putt is 2-down with 3 to play and manages to win the 10th and 11th holes to pull the match even with one hole left to play.
 
 
Chapter 29B
 
 
The home hole at the Foon Links ends up with its green next to the 1st tee, with both of these holes starting and ending in the center of the town! This arrangement exemplifies the importance of gowf in our little community by the fact that these two holes have such a prominent presence in the town. A low, thick hedge had been planted behind the 12th green to stop any balls that went over the green from rolling into the town square, and a local rule allows a free drop from this hedge in the event a ball runs into it. A number of stepped platforms had been put up for this event to raise the gallery above the hedge in order to watch the final hole that we hoped would loom large in our long-awaited victory this year. The platforms filled up, as news of this match spread quickly through the crowd.

The 12th hole was a short one, requiring only a drive and a short shot to the green. It was a benign finishing hole, and one that a good gowfer could score a 3 on with three well-struck shots. It had decided many a match over the five years of its existence, and there was an excellent chance that would be the case today. Before Putt took to the tee, I had a brief moment to talk to him.

“Those were some incredible holes, those last two, Putt. I can’t believe you made that putt on the 10th. I told some folks in the crowd, ‘Put a putter in Putt’s hands, and Putt’ll put a putt in like only Putt can putt ‘em.’ That was amazing!”

“Yes, about as amazing as that last sentence.”

“And that was quite a bunker shot on the last too. You’ve definitely shaken our friend, Alex. Why don’t you just finish him off now by winning the 12th?”

“Hey, that’s a good idea. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Go get him,” I said as I patted him on the shoulder.
 
 

Putt had the honors and hit a perfect final drive. Once again, the wind was at his back, and he was left with a very short shot to the green. Alex also hit a good drive. His ball was a fair amount farther from the hole than Putt’s, but the green was still very easily reachable for him. He hit first and stroked a good shot, perhaps 15 feet from the hole. Now it was Putt’s turn to try to get inside this shot and hopefully 1-putt, but unfortunately, the wind at his back chose the wrong moment to gust, causing Putt’s shot to fly too far and end up on the very back of the green, 60 feet from the hole.

The wind was not only gusting now, but swirling in all directions, and by the time Putt reached his shot and turned back to face the hole, the wind that he had expected to be in his face was now quartering from his rear. The green sloped severely from back to front, so he had a long downhill and downwind putt, which could easily get away from him and roll well past the hole if he hit it slightly too hard.

To the cries of Putney…….Putney……..Putt……Putt.…Putt….Putt…Putt..Putt..Putt.Putt. Ppptptptptptpptppptptptptptptptpptptpp” he stroked his ball, but the wind died down then, and it appeared he hadn’t given it enough. The ball looked like it would stop at least 10 feet short until, miraculously, a huge gust of wind coming directly from behind pushed the ball forward some more as the crowd wildly cheered it on. It took an agonizingly slow path down to the hole and stopped a mere two inches short of it. The crowd groaned loudly at his coming this close to going in. In truth, he was happy to have gotten it this close, which meant he would secure a 4 on the hole, and a tie, assuming Alex missed his, but as he began walking up to his ball, another sharp gust took it the rest of the way to the hole, and it dropped in for a 3!

The crowd went wild and rushed onto the green to congratulate Putt on his victory, forgetting that Alex had a putt left and could still tie the hole if he made it.

Poor Alex. By the time the crowd realized he still had a shot left and they departed the green, there was virtually no chance for him. There were now many footprints around the hole, and any ball going in from this distance would be extremely lucky indeed. It was not to be, and as his ball skittered off to the right and away from the hole, the match was over, and Putt was the victor.

Through a combination of skill and good luck, he had finished the round with a 2 and two 3s and managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat through the incredible events of the final three holes. Being the good sport that he was, Alex walked over and gave him a long hug. I could see Putt shaking his bowed head as Alex spoke to him. Putt seemed overcome with emotion and thanked his good friend, who beat a hasty retreat as the gallery surged onto the green once more to congratulate Putt on his victory.

The Snogs had won six of the eight matches, and we had won only two, so the score at this point was 10 to 6 in favor of the Snogs with one final event—the Fast Match—yet to play.
 
 
Chapter 30A
 
 
Due to the speed nature of this match, we decided that the eight-man teams should play separately so as not to interfere with and possibly slow down the other team’s play. Each group would have a rules official with it to make any necessary rulings, and to keep the score.

Time would be kept for each of the two rounds with an hourglass filled with dry sand. A little valve between the two halves, when opened, would permit the sand to fall through from top to bottom, and when it was closed at the fall of the final putt, the gradations on the side would indicate the minutes that had elapsed.

At 3:00, the Snog team took to the first tee—all eight of them. They had a four-point lead on us and were exceedingly confident they would win without too much effort at speed because, at the 1-to-5 conversion rate, we would need to beat their score-plus-time total by 25 stroke-minutes to earn the necessary five points for the overall win.

As soon as their opening tee shot was struck, the valve on the hourglass was released, and the sand began to fall. Putt and I decided to observe the first few holes to see what the Snog strategy was for playing this round. They had obviously not put a great deal of thought into this format and had most likely not practiced it very much because their efforts at speeding up were rather lame. As I said, all eight of them stood on the 1st tee to watch the opening drive. They did at least jog to their ball to hit the second shot, while a few of them began jogging ahead. They had also decided to limit their practice swings from the normal three down to one. On the greens, they would only read the break from behind the ball rather than from all four sides. When they holed out, they would jog to the next tee, carrying their ball, and hand it to the player who would hit the next tee shot.

That appeared to be the extent of their Fast Match strategy to speed up. They seemed to put far more emphasis on shooting the best possible score at the expense of speed, and we hoped this would be where our methods would shine.

By the time they holed out on the 12th hole, they had turned in a round of 49 strokes and a time of 44 minutes for a stroke-minute total of 93. We would thus need at most a 68 (a difference of 25) to earn the five points necessary to beat the Snogs. Putt and I thought our chances were good.
 

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CHARACTERS - 1458 Scotland


Kirk Pate: A 22-year-old house builder and part time soldier from Foon. He is the narrator of this part of the story.

Putney Pell (Putt): Kirk's best friend and business partner in Foon and a fellow soldier

Alex MacGillycuddy: Kirk and Putt's childhood friend who lives in the nearby town of Castasnogwary and is a fellow soldier

Aggie Lang: Kirk's 22-year-old fiance. She runs the Bonnie Brae Inn and Tavern owned by her father

Jack and Isla Lang: Aggie's younger siblings

Hamish MacLachlan: The Bonnie Brae's resident tippler

Cameron NicEachainn: One of the captains of the Snog team along with Alex

Catriona (Cat) Clark: One of the golfers on the Foo team
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