#LetRupeCook - My Experience Playing with a Major Golfer
Holy shit I played golf with a guy who could stop Jordan & Rory from a Grand Slam
I tried out for High School golf my Freshman year. Got cut. The team was nasty and I sucked. No surprise. Still a massive blow to my self-esteem which was already in the toilet as I was 5’4”, 205, and still years from getting my first under arm hair. Brutal way to start High School.
Didn’t try out Sophomore year as I was still reeling from the cut the year prior. I ended up making the team my Junior year after a lot of talent graduated. I didn’t know it at the time, but I’d be joining the team with a future MAJOR participant on it. Holy SHIIIIIIT this is a big deal for me.
I won’t divulge his name but our number 3 golfer is playing at the PGA tomorrow. DataGolf has his odds of making the cut at 1%. What DataGolf doesn’t know is that Rupe Taylor is a got damn Patriot (our school mascot). All we know is grit, toughness, and determination.
Our coach used to ride around during matches to check how things were going. If I was lucky enough to be playing (read: some tourneys the whole team played not just top 6) Coach M would usually find me on about the 3rd or 4th hole. He’d watch me chunk a chip (god he made me nervous - never hit a good shot in front of him) then come over and ask me how it was going. I’d tell him not great - I’m somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-8 over at this point staring another double in the face. He’d shake his head and drive off.
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I have a couple memories of being on the team course with Rupe that come to mind. The first was during Freshman year tryouts. Someone asked me on hole 5 “what are you at?”. I had no idea how to answer it. I usually just fired off a 53 and only knew my total when my Dad told me it was another 53. Rupe said “he means how many over are you?”
I said “ohhhhh. I must be at…..4?” Rupe contained his laughter and then politely corrected with “Uhh I think you’re at 9 man.”. I was at 9. That was touuugh. In my defense I’d never thought of my score “to par” because I was never close to par.
The second memory was my Junior year. I was actually on the team now
and Rupe and I could paired together during a 9-hole practice where each 3 holes was a different format. Don’t remember a thing about holes 1-6. But 7, a par-4, started the alternate shot format. And boy do I remember 7. We had 2 balls in play in this format. Here is how they went:
Rupe’s Ball
Piped right down the middle - R
Flared a wedge way right behind a tree - me
Forced to chip out from behind the tree - R
Skulled a chip across the green - me
Chips up to 5 feet - R
Missed putt - JB
Taps in for triple - R
My Ball
Drive way right (nervy) into the trees - me
Nice recovery to center fairway - R
Bad iron shot into the bunker - me
Decent bunker shot to ~20-30 feet (estimate as we didn’t have ShotLink) - R
Blew the putt 10 feet past - me
Nice putt for double - R
If you asked Rupe if he knew who I was he’d probably say “uhh who?”.
If you showed him a picture of me he’d likely say “uhh I guess he looks kind of familiar? Idk”.
But that doesn’t matter to me. I can say I played on a golf team with a MAJOR participant!
