Regular Golf Club

When you live in a golf-starved area, with just six public sites within 40 minutes of your door, near the largest city in your state, solo rounds are few and far between.

And when you’re living in your third different state since moving away from your home state of 26 years around a dozen years ago, you don’t have a lot of golfing buddies to regularly play with.

So facing these circumstances, I end up playing most of my rounds with random players. People I’ve never met, have no idea about as we meet on the first tee, and likely won’t see again after our four-ish hours together on the course comes to a close.

There’s an anxiety that comes with pairing up with randoms, you worry if you’re going to play well. Are they going to ride if I want to walk, and vice versa? Are they good players? And heaven forbid, are they going to bring up politics in a place most of us go to try and get away from whatever horrors that topic brings up on a daily basis.

It can be intimidating, but at most courses these days, it’s the price you have to pay if you want to get out and play.

For the most part, getting paired up with randoms is a remarkably unremarkable experience. Just guys and girls who are there for the same reason you are: They love to play the game, and just want a chance to be outside for a few hours away from everything that they deal with in their every day lives.

My wife and I played with two guys on a trip to Savannah a couple years back, they were perfectly average golfers who also happened to randomly get paired up that morning. I couldn’t tell you their names, what they shot, what they did, or even where they were from. But they were fairly lighthearted, played pretty fast, and enjoyed seeing the wildlife on the course as much as we did. In short, the ideal random playing partners. You remember the time and the round, and nothing they did stood out in ways that were good or bad.

But every now and then, you get paired up with folks for a round you’ll never forget, both good and bad.

Like the time I was paired up with one guy fresh out of the military, where everything in his bag was PXG and camo. In that same foursome that day, two friends joined us, one of which had a bag that must have cost north of $5000. All brand new Qi10 wood, the P790 copper irons, brand new TaylorMade wedges, and of course, a TaylorMade Spider putter. At one point this guy who was probably 5-10 years younger than me but likely made 3x the money at one of the many military defense places in this region remarked how he got a great deal on the 5-wood because of buying the driver. I had to bite my tongue that he got taken for a ride with all that gear, no matter how much off that particular 5-wood was. If he broke 100 that day it wasn’t by a lot, but he seemed like a nice enough guy.

His friend, and the fourth in our group that day, was dressed in a Ronald Acuña throwback jersey, had on Cookie Monster pajama pants, and had persimmon woods in the bag. I’m not sure he broke 120, and must have taken just as many pulls off his vape during that round. Needless to say, you don’t ever forget a guy showing up in a throwback baseball jersey, pajama pants, and persimmon woods. But again, a perfectly nice guy and not the worst way to spend four hours.

Unfortunately, like anything, not all meetings and players on the course are great, and usually it’s because they bring up politics out on the course. Almost doing it so they can judge you right then and there.

There were two guys who after hearing I was from Michigan, and before hearing any of my political thoughts, began openly talking about killing Governor Gretchen Whitmer. What do you even say or do after you hear something like that? About all I could do is put my head down and just kept playing, limiting interactions to quick comments about their shots. Or the old men who invited me into their money game one time, and spent the entire round talking about how Biden was a “zombie” and how this fall “we” take back the country. Down where I live, I’d probably get laughed out of the clubhouse if I went in and asked for a refund because I didn’t want to spend four hours with people talking like that.

The good random partners have outnumbered the bad in my travels, but the bad ones stand out so much more, just because they seem to have no filter, and no regard for what anyone else may feel, think, or want to do.

If you’re not big on playing with random folks or have never done it, this isn’t to dissuade you from doing so. In fact, it’s the opposite. You might meet a guy with an auto-immune disease who can only elbow bump you at the end of the round, but rolled the ball on the greens with his own version of a long putter as well as any golfer you’ve ever come across. Or a couple guys who show you all the subtleties of the course because they’ve been members at it for years. Or you get paired up with a guy who was a former D1 quarterback and pitcher (Jesus Christ guy, save some talent for the rest of us) who was down vacationing from Pennsylvania, and decided to play his first round of the year on a RTJ Trail course from 7,400 yards, matching you off the tee playing from 6,400 yards, both of you shooting an 81, and both chipping in on the same hole for birdie.

Hell, maybe this is a lesson for you if you’re nervous about playing with people you’ve never met before, and more just a guide on what being a good playing partner is like. Be kind, keep pace, and keep the conversation light and breezy. And if all else fails to leave a good impression on those people you randomly get paired with, buying them a beverage or two never hurt.

Like Forest Gump said about getting a box of chocolates applies the same to getting paired up with random golfers: You never know what you’re going to get, but most of the time it’s pretty enjoyable.