The classiest move I’ve ever seen on a golf course

For many private golf clubs, July is member-guest season, and my club, Rock Ridge C.C. in Newtown, Conn., is no exception. A great event in any year, this edition was defined by perhaps the greatest display of sportsmanship I’ve ever seen at the club level.

The background: Like many member-guests, mine includes a “horse race” of flight winners and wild cards with teams eliminated on each hole. This year, the final two teams standing, former champs Michael Simes and Ben Palazzo and Ed Knauf and Dan Patti, were exchanging pars on the par-3 finisher when the unthinkable happened.

On the third hole (the format was sudden death), Simes and Palazzo were in for 3. Knauf had a 20-footer for birdie and Patti a five-footer for par. Everything was to be holed out, and the 20-footer hung on the lip. Knauf walked up, slapped at it . . . and missed. An audible gasp came from the crowd of 100-plus looking on. A possible win was now suddenly a very possible loss. Patti is a very good player but a five-footer after that was hardly a gimme regardless of talent level.

Things then took a turn for the better. Simes, without time to consult Palazzo as Patti was settling in over his putt, said, “Dan, pick it up. That’s good.” People talk about the Jack Nicklaus concession to Tony Jacklin in the Ryder Cup. This one, in my mind, was even classier.

Once the crowd realized what happened, applause broke out and conversations about the classiness of the move were plentiful. As one member said, “I’d like to think I’d do the same but I’m not sure in the moment I would have even thought of it.”

Unfortunately, the move gave Knauf-Patti the life they needed, and they went on to win. The loss was not insignificant, costing them well over $1,000 in winnings and parimutuel dollars as well as a spot on the coveted board as just the third team to win two member-guest titles.

What they did reap, however, cannot be measured in cash. The scene afterward was incredible, as Simes and Palazzo were greeted with handshakes, hugs and admiration. What could have been a buzzkill ending reversed to a moment that longtime member Mike Spicci noted, “will be talked about at every member-guest going forward.”

Catching up with Simes afterward, he recalled the 2019 club championship final where on the first extra hole after being knotted after 36, Simes’ opponent missed a two-and-a-half-footer for the win. Running it some three feet by, Simes’ caddie told him, “Give it to him. Bad karma not to.” Simes did and won on the next hole.

“That was the right thing to do and since that day I’ve been determined to do the right thing on the golf course,” Simes said. “We didn’t want to win that way. Ed and Dan played great.”

Indeed they did, but while Knauf and Patti won the fight, Simes and Palazzo won the night.

Well done, gents. Well done.