This week's ladies day was the the first non-qualifier in ages, and we played blind partners for a bit of fun. Blind partners, in case you've never played it, is where you all keep your own cards, but have a partner drawn at random, and the total of both cards is your pair's score. As I say, it's "a bit of fun", but not too much. The ones who weren't playing well had the unpleasantness of thinking they were going to disappoint whoever their blind partner was, with the added suspense of not knowing whether it was going to be someone who had just played a blinder and deserved a prize.
Of course, really it didn't matter. The prize was peanuts, and it's a matter of chance anyway since you have no idea who you're going to get drawn with. But people do worry. It's bad enough playing badly, but it's worse if you've let someone down. Which is why I don't like a lot of team games - foursomes? Yuk.
What I like about golf is that you're not part of a team, and you don't need to beat anyone: you need to beat yourself. Handicapping is such a great system, isn't it? If I have 36 points and someone else has 39, I don't have to feel bad that they've beaten me, because they haven't. They've beaten their own handicap, and I can feel genuinely pleased for them that they have. At the same time it doesn't diminish how well I have played, so I can feel quite chuffed with myself too. Everybody wins.
Maybe I'm too much of a fluffy woo-woo but I don't want to beat anyone.
