RBC PGA SCRAMBLE A BLAST EVEN FOR ALSO-RANS
Popular tourney turns golf into group activity with unique rules, great prizes
We've just played a pretty good (and really fun) round, and now we're playing woulda-coulda-shoulda on the sun-scorched patio at Springbank Links.
Alongside three lifelong pals, I teed it up last week in a local qualifier for the RBC PGA Scramble.
As we enjoy a post-game pop, we're lamenting the missed opportunities, grousing about the fact that we couldn't shave one more stroke for a 59.
What if one of us had drained that short-but-slippery birdie putt on the fifth hole?
What if we had better aim on No. 13, where we were stuck scrambling after four wayward drives?
What if we'd arrived early enough to — gasp! — hit a few on the range? Maybe, just maybe, somebody would have floated one onto the green on our opening assignment of a back-nine start?
Maybe then we'd have earned an invite to the regional final?
“Golf hasn't changed that way, no matter what format you're playing … ,” said Cam Heise with a chuckle. He has overheard roughly a gazillion of these conversations as head pro at Springbank Links. “You could sink a 20-footer that nobody will hear about, but you will groan afterward about the four- or five-footers that you missed. It's funny that way.”
If Adam Lebrun, a key staffer for the national scramble series as director of marketing and brand for the PGA of Canada, wasn't based in Ontario, I'd be suspicious that he'd perhaps been eavesdropping on my squad.
Apparently, though, this is the standard debrief.
“At some of the regional finals, I'm there doing scoring, and typically I set up on the patio, so you'll have all the teams sitting around afterward,” Lebrun said. “And it's funny because every single team is going over the shots they should have made. Every single team is saying, `Oh man, we were so close. If we just would have made that putt. Or if one of us just would have hit the fairway on the fifth hole … .'”
As it turns out, a 59 wouldn't have changed our fortunes any.
Four other dudes, presumably deeper drivers and more precise putters than we are, combined for a 56 on their rip around Springbank Links.
The RBC PGA Scramble, which attracts a mix of male, female and co-ed teams, is a handicapped event and when those numbers were crunched, their net score was that much better — a 50.4 on the par-71 setup. Whoa.
We didn't finish second, or third or … well, you get the idea.
The winners at Springbank Links — like every local site — picked up a prize package, but the big reward is that they also advanced to the regional showdown. There, each team will grow to five with the addition of a PGA of Canada pro, and there's some extra strategy involved since you can't use consecutive shots from the same player before reaching the green. (At larger locals, two teams move on.)
The ultimate goal is to earn a trip to the national final, a threeround getaway to Cabot Links in Nova Scotia.
“We just want people to enjoy a great day of golf with friends or family, more so than anything else,” Lebrun stressed. “But then there's the added bonus that if you happen to play well, you get to go to a great course for regional finals — in Alberta, it's Stewart Creek or Jasper — and if you make it through again, then you're off to Cabot Links, which is always an unbelievable trip.”
Even for those who don't advance, it's easy to see why the RBC PGA Scramble — now in its sixth season — has become such a hit (there are upwards of 160 local qualifiers on the docket for 2021, with more than 10,000 golfers signed up already. It's not too late to enter a handful of the still-upcoming events in Alberta).
If you're not familiar with the format, scramble golf is a hoot — everybody takes a swing, you select the best shot and then do it all over again.
In this case, you're allowed only two single-digit handicappers on your roster, so choose your ringers carefully and keep in mind each player must contribute at least three tee shots over 18 holes.
In what is typically an individual sport, it's a blast to talk strategy with your friends, to read the greens as a group and all celebrate if somebody snakes in that long putt.
That afternoon at Springbank Links, I even overheard a reference to rally caps from another foursome.
Maybe that's what my crew was missing.
Woulda, coulda, shoulda.
And we'll try again next year. I bet every team says that, too. CHIP SHOTS: Airdrie's Riley Fleming topped the leaderboard last week at the Alberta Open, winning the provincial title for the third time. A former tour pro and now an instructor at Lynx Ridge, Fleming finished three laps of the Links Course at Wolf Creek in 12-under 201 and earned $8,000 for his efforts … Calgary's Grace Bell (Glencoe) followed up her victory at the Alberta U19 Girls Championship with a runner-up showing at the Alberta Ladies Amateur at Broadmoor. Ontario's Hailey Katona claimed the trophy thanks to a sizzling 29 on the back nine during the final round, with Bell five strokes back with a tournament total of 5-under 211.