Golf has been described as many things: a good way to ruin a nice walk, a game where the winner has the lowest score, and a sport where begging for divine intervention while your ball is in flight might sound like the congregation during a Sunday morning service.
The Tuesday Men’s Senior League at Old Trail Golf Course started the 2024 season April 2 with all players running for the clubhouse late in the round as a fast-moving thunderstorm moved in. Avoid being out in the open holding a golf club during lightning! The group will be on the course every Tuesday through October, and longer if the weather holds. Most of the 40-plus players on the roster come from Crozet and the immediate area, and several of the regular players are in their 80s. Players have handicaps ranging from the low single digits to the mid-20s.
Advice is freely shared out on the course. “Keep your head down,” “Let the club do the work,” and “Short putts never go in.” A particularly good piece of advice was given to Jim Parker while looking at the statistics on his golf watch and asking what to hit. Phil Crowe answered, “Try the fairway.”
The history of the Tuesday group goes back about 10 years. A Monday group piloted by Bob Schultz and Bob Trybus united with a separate group organized by Tom Gale and started playing on Tuesdays. The group grew to a point where there was a need for adult supervision. A pair of regular players, Ross Wayland and Doug Foresman, were appointed “commissioners” to organize weekly player signup, assemble teams, and set the rules of play, which included deciding how to determine weekly winners and divvy up the prize money. All players contribute to a purse which is then divided among the winners at the end of the day’s round. Ross and Doug retired as commissioners at the end of the 2022 season and now the duties are shared between Mike Fitzgeorge, Brian Sparg and Barry Gold.
Players tee off in a 9:30 a.m. shotgun start from the grey tees, except the 11th hole, which is played as a par 5 from the white tees, and the 18th hole, which is played as a par 3 from the 160yd marker overlooking the clubhouse. Those changes provide some relief to players who are not long off the tee. The shotgun start allows all players to finish at approximately the same time, allowing for good-natured trash talk on the 19th hole, as well as commiserating on the putts missed that day. The scoring method was developed by Ross and Doug using a version of the Chicago Quota scoring system, which makes it equitable for all handicaps and unequal size teams, giving each team a net quota score. Teams win for the best front 9, back 9, and 18-hole “net quota.” The best individual quota for the day as well as the players getting “closest to the pin” on two selected par-3 holes also receive a payout. There is an ongoing purse for a hole-in-one that has gone unclaimed for the last two seasons. Starting this year, there will be some full-season prizes for those that play at least 50% of the Tuesdays.
For so many who play the game, golf is more about the people you play with and less about how well you play. Unless you are playing for money, of course. And as you might suspect of the Tuesday group, if you aren’t playing for money, why play the game at all?
Everyone in the Tuesday group has developed friendships with others in the group that go beyond the borders of the golf links. They look forward to getting together each week to ruin a good walk, swear at the ball, relive the story of the 25-foot putt and enjoy the beauty of playing in the shadow of the Blue Ridge.
