General Fiction posted September 6, 2023

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A decision about the matches

A chapter in the book Saving Mr. Calvin

Saving Mr. Calvin - Chapter 26B

by Jim Wile

Background
A story about the origin and the future of the game of golf

See Author Notes for the list of characters and unfamiliar terms.

Recap of the past few chapters: Kirk and Putt resume their house-building job the next day, and we learn the history of how the town of Foon came to be. Five years ago, Kirk, Putt, Aggie and their families had been living in Castasnogwary, but tiring of its ponderous ways, moved away and settled on an abandoned tract of land nearby and created their own town which they named Foon. The town has been growing and thriving ever since. Each year they hold an annual golf match with the “Snogs” as they call them. They are the “Foos.” When they return to the Bonnie Brae, Aggie serves them lunch and hints at a surprise to show them later.

The surprise turns out to be a new ball invented by Aggie made of boiled goose feathers stuffed tightly into a leather pouch and then sewn shut. It goes much farther than their older balls and will make a great weapon against the Snogs in their annual match. It is the Foos turn to set the rules of the match that will be held at the Foon Links, and Kirk, Aggie, and Putt plan the format of the matches to overcome the infernal slow play of the Snogs and which will reward their own much faster play.

At the Bonnie Brae Tavern that night, Kirk and Aggie announce their upcoming wedding plans, but only on the condition that they beat the Snogs this year as an incentive for the team, which includes them as well as Putt and five others. They begin practicing the new formats the following day in hopes that the Snogs will accept the new formats.

The Snog captains come in 10 days to the Bonnie Brae and, surprisingly, accept the first two formats without argument.

“We have two more sets of matches to be held. Putt will describe the next one.”

Chapter 26B

“For want of a better name, we could call this next one a ‘Best of 4’ format. For the third set of matches, we would like to propose two teams of four players from our side pitted against the two teams of four from your side. The idea is that every member of a 4-man team hits their shot from the tee, then the team members choose the best of these shots, and the other three players will fetch their tee shots and all four will hit their next shot from the location of the chosen ball. Then the best shot of those four will be chosen, and this same procedure is followed until the ball is holed. That way, only one score for the hole is recorded, and we will again use match play scoring. * We believe each of the two matches that would be played should be worth two points, with one point each for a tie. What say you?”

Alex and Cameron conferred for a while, and then Alex said, “Once again, you have proposed an interesting format to which we have no objection. You see, this isn’t as hard as you thought it would be.”

“I must say,” said Putt, “we did not expect you to be quite so agreeable, knowing how you seem to prefer the more traditional approach to the game. We applaud you for your open-mindedness, and we are gratified to find such an agreeable pair to negotiate with.”

Putt was laying this on rather thickly, and I nudged his foot under the table to let him ken not to carry it any further lest they begin to get suspicious of our tactics. So far, it was going well, but now for the doubtful one that would really play to our advantage, more so than the previous two new formats. I believed they would realize this and that it was going to take a great deal of persuasion (and perhaps a bit of exaggeration) to get it approved. I explained it thusly:

“For the last match, we propose a full-team event, which we could call a ‘Fast Match.’ The idea is that each team-of-eight will play only one ball all the way around the links. The emphasis will be not only on the best total score for the entire links but also on the fastest time to achieve that score. Points will be determined by adding together the number of minutes played and the total score. ** However, the actual points earned for the team towards the final tally, we think, should be based on the amount that the team wins by. We need only figure out what the points awarded to the stroke-minutes differential should be.

“Huh?” both Alex and Cameron said simultaneously.

“We ken this is a lot to digest, but we will try to make it clear,” I said. “But before that, let’s think about the different ways we might assign points for this event. We could simply say that the winning team score will earn, say, 4 points for the win, whether it’s by 1 stroke-minute or 30 stroke-minutes, but that seems rather arbitrary and not a very fair way to do it. Better to base the points on the size of the victory. Putt will explain with an example.”

“First of all,” said Putt, “would you agree that a score of 50 would be a good score for the 12-hole course played at a normal speed, and a normal speed for your team would be approximately 60 minutes for one person to play by himself? You’ve played the course before. Does this sound reasonable?”

“I suppose so,” said Cameron.

“Alright, then. So, you ken the Foos will likely play faster than that, say, in 50 minutes instead of your 60, but because we have sped up, we won’t be as accurate, and it will take us 55 strokes to complete the 12 holes instead of your 50. Does that sound about right?”

“Let’s say it does,” said Cameron.

“Okay, so let’s lay this out on paper,” said Putt.

I had been drawing this up as he spoke, and this is what I showed them:

I said to them, “You can see by this example that the Foos have won by 5 stroke-minutes. The question is: How many points should we earn for this win? Should it be 1-for-1, meaning 1 point per stroke-minute making us win 5 points? Or should it be some lesser amount?”

Alex and Cameron went into a long conference over this question. After ten minutes of debating between themselves, Cameron finally said, “Look, fellows, I don’t like this format at all, but I am willing to give it a try, only because it’s your turn this year, and I’m a reasonable man. The most we would be willing to grant would be 1-for-5, meaning one point for every five whole stroke-minutes. This particular victory would thus yield one point for your side.”

I said, “That doesn’t seem like much, but let Putt and me discuss that now. Would you mind terribly if we go into the kitchen and discuss it with Aggie too?”

“Not at all,” said Alex.

Putt and I got up from the table and retreated to the kitchen. As soon as we got inside, I caught Aggie’s eye and said with a big smile, “They went for it!”

She and Putt and I gave each other a group hug over this good news. Indeed, that was exactly the result we were hoping for. I admit we were a bit deceptive in the sample match that we showed them because our practice sessions this past week revealed that, using the play techniques we had developed with a team of 8, we could actually play the links in 15 minutes rather than 50 and still manage to shoot a score between 50 and 55. We were counting on the fact that Alex and Cameron would not have thought through the best strategy of utilizing an eight-man team to speed up play. Thus, we stood to earn a lot more points than only one for the win, even at a 1-for-5 award rate.

Aggie had just finished making a large pot of turtle soup and a couple loaves of oat bread, which she placed on a tray for us to bring out and share with our guests. She decided to join us for lunch and would pour us all some ale as well. We left the kitchen with the trays of food and rejoined Alex and Cameron at the table.

Upon seeing his old friend, Aggie, Alex stood up and said, “Agrawinnia, my dear. How are you, old friend? It’s so good to see you.”

“Hello, Alexander. It’s good to see you too. I trust our boys have not made it too difficult for you to accept their terms for this year’s matches?” she said as she gave Alex a hug.

“That depends on what you’ve all decided for the final match—the so-called Fast Match.”

“We accept the 1-for-5 award of points,” I said, and we all shook hands on it.

Alex then introduced Aggie to Cameron before she left to fetch the drinks for everyone. When she returned with a tray full of mugs, we sat down to a wonderful lunch together. The mood was relaxed, and even the normally dour Cameron seemed quite jovial.

Putt, Aggie, and I were delighted with the results of the negotiations. We had gotten everything we had hoped for and felt confident we had a fighting chance of winning this year. We had one more week of practice before the matches would begin a week from today.

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* Today, this format is known as a "Scramble" or a "Captain's Choice."
** Today this format is known as "Speed Golf."

Scottish words

ken: know
gowf: early term for golf

CHARACTERS - 1458 Scotland

Kirk Pate: A 22-year-old house builder and part time soldier from Foon. He is the narrator of this part of the story.

Putney Pell (Putt): Kirk's best friend and business partner in Foon and a fellow soldier

Alex MacGillycuddy: Kirk and Putt's childhood friend who lives in the nearby town of Castasnogwary and is a fellow soldier

Aggie Lang: Kirk's 22-year-old fiance. She runs the Bonnie Brae Inn and Tavern owned by her father

Jack and Isla Lang: Aggie's younger siblings

Hamish MacLachlan: The Bonnie Brae's resident tippler

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A decision about the matches

A chapter in the book Saving Mr. Calvin

Saving Mr. Calvin - Chapter 26B

by Jim Wile

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