The first two months of the season have been miserable for Clark County high school golfers, dealing with more rain than any coach can remember in recent years.
In the coming weeks, the golfers will get serious, working toward the district championships, then berths to state.
So last week, there was a reprieve, a break in the weather, and a break from everyday competition with the Prairie Invitational.
Yeah, yeah, that just sounds like any other tournament, one of a couple of 18-hole special events for area golfers to prepare for the postseason.
That’s exactly what we thought it was, and we waited patiently in the office Thursday to receive the results so we could put them in the paper.
The e-mail never showed. So we called Prairie coach Paul Shapard to inquire.
Turns out, the tournament was held, and it was memorable, and it achieved all of its goals.
However, Shapard did not really know how to report the results. This was not a run-of-the-mill, regular-season golf tournament. This was an exhibition of fun, of friendship. And while there ended up being a couple of winning teams, those teams had golfers from different schools.
There was a No. 1 golfer from one school, teaming up with a No. 2 from another, and a No. 3 and a No. 4 for to make a foursome. The best seniors played along with inexperienced freshmen. Students from rival schools became teammates for a day.
Shapard called it a California Orange scramble, with his own little twist to the format.
One player would play one ball — traditionally an orange ball — from tee to green, while the other three played a different ball using a scramble format. On the next hole, a different player would use the orange ball, and the three remaining would play the scramble.
By the end of the day, there would be a total score for the orange ball and a scramble.
Follow?
The idea is that every player on the team, regardless of experience and ability, is a huge part of the equation.
“Usually in a scramble, the best players make most of the best shots, and some players just try to hope to make a putt once in a while,” Shapard said.
But in this format, every player has to play the orange ball at least twice. (The No. 4 player on each team played the orange ball on two holes, the No. 3 played three holes, the No. 2 played five holes, and the No. 1 player played the orange ball on eight holes.) That leaves a lot of different combinations for the three-person scramble on each hole.
“In this case, they all feel part of the score,” Shapard said. “They all have to get along, work together, pull for each other, and coach each other. And they get to meet these kids from different schools.”
This year, for a change, the weather cooperated. Last year, the first time Shapard tried this format, it rained all day. But he knew he was on to something when the players came off the course, after getting drenched for five hours, and they were “giggling” and “giving each other high-fives.”
Shapard witnessed the best golfers in the region giving pointers to young golfers from different schools.
The tournament awards medals to the top three teams from the orange-ball division and the scramble division. Another benefit to this format, Shapard said, is seeing those inexperienced players earning a win or a top-three finish.
“I heard one player say, ‘I don’t care what we do from here on out, I won a medal. That made my whole season,’” Shapard said, referring to one of the inexperienced players. “In 99 percent of the tournaments we play, she never would have won anything.”
Shapard expects to continue this format in the coming years. Ideally, he said, he would love to see an athlete play in the tournament all four years of high school golf and team up with 12 different players.
Golf is a game for life. It does not have to be played the same way, every day. Clark County coaches such as Shapard, and Gary Mills at Union for his Ryder Cup-esque event he holds every season, are making sure it stays fun.
There is plenty of time to determine the best of the best, in stroke play.
Great to see a timeout in the middle of the season for something a little different.
Paul Valencia covers high school sports for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4557 or e-mail at paul.valencia@columbian.com.
