Comment from lyenochka

Excellent

I have heard of "Speed Golf" but not the "Captain's Choice." Anyway, whenever scoring is involved for golf or tennis, I am completely lost. It doesn't help to explain it. Now basketball, I understand.
But the good thing is that the negotiations went well. I hope Alex doesn't have his sights on Aggie as she's already spoken for!

 Comment Written 08-Sep-2023

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reply by the author on 08-Sep-2023

That's the ticket, Helen. It's not critical to understand the scoring, which shouldn't interfere with your ability to enjoy the story. That's all I can ask of a non-golfer reading a golf novel.

Nah, Alex and Aggie are just old friends from childhood.

Comment from Pam Lonsdale

Excellent

Haha! At the precise moment Alex and Cameron were asking, "Huh?", so was I:-)

Isn't that called cheating, all their proposals that were already tried and true for the Alex/Aggie/Putt team? LOL! It would be a shame to see them lose now that they've set the matches up in order to win. Or would it?

Now that we know how it will be played, it's time for the games to begin!

How did you get the image of the table into the text? I need to learn to do nifty things like that.

 Comment Written 07-Sep-2023

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reply by the author on 07-Sep-2023

Oh, no. Not cheating. They were simply trying them out in advance to make sure they would work as advertised--sort of a design walkthrough, as it were. (I'm making it worse, aren't I?)

It was surprisingly easy to get the table into the text. The easiest thing to do is to turn it into a .jpg image. If you have a snipping tool of some sort, make a snip of it. Then just copy it (ctrl+c) and paste it where you want it to go (ctrl+v). It's hard to work with once it's there, so best to position your cursor where you want it to go in the Advanced Editor textbox, then paste it in.

For example, I made 3 blank lines, moved the cursor to the middle one, spaced over about 10 spaces, then inserted the image there with a ctrl+v.

You can insert any kind of image from the web, or a photograph on your computer. I'm not sure if it has to be a .jpg image, as I haven't played around with it that much.

I would suggest finding an old posting from your portfolio and do some experimenting on it. You don't have to save what you are doing.

reply by Pam Lonsdale on 07-Sep-2023

All great advice, thank you!

Comment from Jay Squires

Excellent

As a reader wanting to be drawn into the drama of a chapter, I found this one a tad lacking, Jim. There was too much explanation of a very complicated (to a non-golf reader) system that had really nothing to do with the emotion I'm looking for in a novel.

I nudged his foot under the table to let him ken [Shouldn't this be, "let HIS ken ...'

I'm sure that once they get into the actual playing, the drama will pick up.

Jay

 Comment Written 06-Sep-2023

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reply by the author on 06-Sep-2023

I totally understand how a non-golfer would not especially care for this chapter. Although I am delighted that most of the readers here are non-golfers, my target audience really is golfers for this story. If I do attempt to publish it, it will be advertised as such, and the publishers I am looking to submit it to are ones who publish golf books.

That being said, I'm hoping you and others who are reading it will patiently wade (or simply skim) through these parts, and I promise that it will get more interesting again, along the lines of some of the earlier matches that were played in Part 1.

I love Stephen Hunter's Bob Lee Swagger novels. He is a real gun nut, and I couldn't care less about the gun detail he goes into in those, so I just skim those parts. I'm willing to put up with a few because there is enough good action to make it worthwhile. Hopefully, mine will read the same way.

reply by Jay Squires on 06-Sep-2023

Thank you for explaining your target market for this book. From that standpoint, it makes perfect sense.

Comment from Paul Manton

Excellent

You sneaky Scots! If I had been a Snog I should not have accepted those terms without evidence! However, I think their pride has made them overconfident, so when they get massacred, they have only themselves to blame - apart from the prepared ball and the total misrepresentation, that is.

The narrative swings along in your usual friendly way - no bad apples this week, and the so-called intransigent Snogs seem very benign - and credulous!

I should like to think you might be ashamed of yourselves.
But I doubt it!

Paul

 Comment Written 06-Sep-2023

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reply by the author on 06-Sep-2023

Absolutely not ashamed! The Foos never claimed that was a typical score that might be expected during the fast match; it was only for illustrative purposes showing the times for a normal match. Just because the Snogs didn't have the wits to surmise how an actual fast match would go, certainly can't be blamed on the Foos, can it? (Well, maybe slightly.)

reply by Paul Manton on 06-Sep-2023

You're not fooling me, Jim Wile - this is a stitch up! But one I sense I may enjoy!

Comment from w.j.debi

Excellent

I'm certainly learning a lot about gowf as the characters go through their negotiations on scoring. It made me think of timed chess. Got to keep things moving or it could take all day. Let's hope the advantage gives them the win so Aggie and Kirk can marry this year.

 Comment Written 06-Sep-2023

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reply by the author on 06-Sep-2023

I agree. And maybe the Snogs will learn they might have even more fun if they were to play a little faster.

Comment from royowen

Excellent

They are in the process of arranging a method od scoring the competition between the Snogs and the Foos, and seemed to have come across a method of doing so, although I think of golf as not competing with flesh and blood, but more with conditions and personal proclivities, blessings Roy

 Comment Written 06-Sep-2023

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reply by the author on 06-Sep-2023

Well, as Yogi Berra, the famous catcher of the New York Yankees baseball team used to say of baseball, but I think it applies to golf as well, "Golf is 90% mental, and the other half is physical."

reply by royowen on 06-Sep-2023

Applies to all sport, I think

Comment from Carol Hillebrenner

Excellent

Well, they got what they wanted, although I admit I don't understand it. I'm sure a golfer would. Since the other team plays so slowly as they discuss their shots, Aggie's team should win.

 Comment Written 06-Sep-2023

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reply by the author on 06-Sep-2023

It all becomes a question of how much they'll win by. I think the Snogs were giving them a bit of a gift because they know they will do much better in the individual matches. They just haven't realized how much of a gift it will end up being.

Comment from barbara.wilkey

Excellent

Thank you for taking the time to go into detail for people like me. I enjoyed reading and can't wait to find out what's going to happen with the match. I have a feeling it'll be interesting, especially since they have a special ball.

 Comment Written 06-Sep-2023

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reply by the author on 06-Sep-2023

You're welcome, Barbara. Most golfers know of these formats (though I have no idea when they were actually invented), but I thought a brief explanation of them would be helpful. The Fast Match format is a relatively new one that is fun to do. I played in one once where there were 100 golfers spread over 18 holes in pre-assigned areas. It took only about 15 minutes for one ball to make the trip to every hole. I don't know what the final stroke count was, though, or even if anyone kept track of that.

reply by barbara.wilkey on 06-Sep-2023

My husband only got me out on the course, I think twice. We played best ball. LOL I wonder why???? LOL

reply by the author on 06-Sep-2023

Best ball works well with golfers with different abilities. The scramble format (what I called the Best-of-Four) also works very well for that.

I was a pretty good golfer in my day and played in many a scramble where the majority of the shots selected were mine. Some of the players in my foursome may have only contributed 1 or 2 shots to the effort.

Comment from jmdg1954

Excellent

Hmph... quite a bit of hustle was employed by the Foos team. But they got there way, for now.

Seems all to easy so I'm quite confident you will throw in some monkey wrenches into the plot which will make it all the more interesting. Also, I believe there is also a ten day span before the actual match play begins?

Good chapter, Jim.
Let me say, though I enjoyed your other golfers novels, this one by far is my favorite. I like the history, the humor, all the names and the games development.

Keep up the excellent writing.
Now I need one of those drafts Aggie's been pouring...
John

 Comment Written 06-Sep-2023

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reply by the author on 06-Sep-2023

Yes, definitely a hustle there, but you'll note that the example the Foos gave was for an average match, not a speed match. But I view it as the Snogs' inability to think outside the box and imagine how best to play this format or they would have realized that the example was unrealistic for a speed match, and they would likely have lost by a lot more than 5. Perhaps then they would have refused.

It surprises me for a non-golfer to prefer this one, but I'm delighted to hear it. This one is more fun for me to write than the others, and in many ways, I like it better too.

reply by jmdg1954 on 06-Sep-2023

That box was a good add to the chapter. I saw that it was skewed in their favor. You did write that the Snogs were a slower bunch?

reply by the author on 06-Sep-2023

Yeah, a few chapters ago I talked about how the town of Foon came into being. It was because some of the folks like Kirk, Putt, and Aggie and their families could no longer stand the slow pace of the Snogs in everything they did, especially when golfing, so they just moved away and started their own town with its own golf course.

Comment from Wayne Fowler

Excellent

Nicely written.
I don't know... If I was a Snog and lost the year's match due to the 'speed match' and saw that Foos' time was 15, and not 50, I'd prob'ly be wantin' to put an asterisk by that year's record, decrying bamboozlement.
Best wishes.

 Comment Written 06-Sep-2023

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reply by the author on 06-Sep-2023

Certainly a bit of a hustle involved, but the Snogs have only themselves to blame for not thinking it through.

reply by Wayne Fowler on 06-Sep-2023

Only they had no idea that the Foos could play in 15.
Curious - can teams stage players up and down the fairway? And would it be legal to sprint to the ball?

reply by the author on 06-Sep-2023

It probably wouldn't have been too smart to tell them they've already been practicing the format and gotten their time down to 15 minutes. Better for them to think it was all hypothetical.

Absolutely they can stage players around and sprint to the ball. I actually played in one of these once in which there were over 100 golfers spread around the 18-hole course at strategic locations. It took about 15 minutes to complete the 18 holes, but I have no idea what the score was, or even if they were counting it.

reply by Wayne Fowler on 06-Sep-2023

Surely not 100 on the same team?

reply by the author on 06-Sep-2023

It wasn't actually a team event--just a fun event which was played before a tournament was played. People signed up to participate in advance.

reply by Wayne Fowler on 06-Sep-2023

ahhh
We like fun stuff.