Fun games are our way of taking the game of golf just a little less seriously. Most of the games are just for fun -- no cash prizes, no pats on the back and no personalized luggage tags for the victors. We cannot, however, stop winners from embracing their bragging rights.

But occasionally, when we think it's time to give something back to our members, if you're lucky enough to outplay or outpoint the other golfers on the course, we'll steer part of the $2 pot your way.

Fun games are scheduled on the fourth Tuesday of every month. The type of game depends on the whims of the month's host, so will be different from month to month. You might play a round where you get points for birdies, pars and even bogeys during the round. You might be asked to count the total number of putts it took to complete your round. You might be allowed up to a half-dozen mulligans during the round. Heck, you might even be told to bring only four clubs in your bag for the round -- including your putter.

Bottom line: HAVE FUN!

The results of the June 23rd low putt round aren’t readily apparent, given the 3-way tie for the lead on the men’s side. We’ll explain the tie-breaking procedure further below, but for now, here’s the final table.

Congratulations go to SueAnn Montgomery, with 15 putts, the low total for the women. Her effort gets her first place and $10. Judy Stejskal, in the same foursome, had 18 putts for second place, and $6.
 
There was a three-way tie for the men’s lead, with Dan Thompson, Fred Less and Jerry Stauss each logging 15 putts, the low total for the day. Our tie-breaker, as we’ve said in the past, is always a comparison of how each scored on the most difficult hole. In this case, we used the number of putts instead of the hole score. 
 
As you can see in the graphic below, we didn’t have to go too deeply into the numbers to solve the tie-breakers. The grid is laid out starting with the hole with the most difficult rating on the course (#16), then to the second most difficult (#13) and on down to the “easiest” hole (#18). (A glance at the OLD BACK NINE scorecard’s “Handicap” line along the bottom will verify our difficulty ratings.)

Since Dan and Fred each had a 1-putt hole on #16, Jerry is moved to 3rd place with 2 putts, good for $8. Moving to #13 with Dan and Fred still tied, Dan takes 1 putt, while Fred has 2, so Dan wins the second tie-breaker, and first place money ($21). Fred takes second and $13.

“Lots of people are gonna gripe about their scores. Don’t listen to them. It was fun.”
                                                        -- Ron Boone (stated after posting a 46 on his scorecard)

No one said playing with only four clubs would be easy. Ginger Kuhlmann, with a 43, however, made it look like it was. Her 43 led the field, and eclipsed some of her best rounds at the course.

Brad Grant wins the men’s 4-club honors for the second year in a row. And this, after bringing a full bag of sticks, which prompted President Dan to pull 10 or so from Brad’s bag. Even then, Brad changed his mind, and was seen traipsing into the clubhouse 3 separate times to make exchanges. Clearly, that exercise worked, as he carded a 44. 
 
Plenty of others brought their best four clubs, as half the field broke 50. Some found new uses for a club. As we noted in the CLUB NEWSsection, Jerry Stauss putted with his driver. Ron Young, Ringmaster Dan’s guest for the day, used his driver from the fairway on #13, and hit the monster shot so well he managed a par on the hole. This may have led to a bit of overconfidence, however. Using the same strategy on #15, and again on #16, proved less fruitful, covering less than half the distance, accompanied by a series of curses. 
 
Checking the scores on the list, can we conclude that perhaps some of us are playing with too many clubs during our normal rounds? Do we need to more closely examine our club selection on those casual days? Who can tell? But we encourage, no, we dare you to use only the same four clubs during the next few casual rounds to see if that’s the case. 
 
As for those of us whose scores ballooned from their average, isn’t that what we expected? We have a built-in excuse here: Gotta be able to use the whole assortment, right? Else why spring the big bucks for that cool set of four hybrids?

The Contest!
 
The April fourth-Tuesday fun game, our first of the 2026 season, was a Modified Stableford contest in which points were awarded for the number of putts taken per hole—fewer putts, more points. You can find the rules on the TOURNAMENT RULES page, under the EVENTS tab. 
 
Right up front we can tell you that the biggest reward, 5 points for zero putts – i.e., getting in the hole from off the green – was not collected this year. 
 
Without further ado, or any sly references to the state of the world, we’ll get on with the point scores you all generated with your favorite putters.

Congratulations to new guy Mike Teeken – first fun game, first cash prize, and first place at that, with only 12 putts. Mike had four one-putts, so half the scored holes – recall that we were only scoring eight holes, with #12 being scratched due to the condition of the green. (At least three golfers complained afterwords that they one-putted the twelfth, but hey, rules are rules.)
 
Tied at two points behind Mike were three golfers hoping for second place money. Since there were only three prizes being awarded in total, and Mike had already scored the top one, only two of those golfers would end up with cash. As previously advertised, the tie-breaker was the fewest putts on the hardest hole(s), starting with #16. 
 
Here’s the play-by-play, sponsored by Peter’s Perfectly Proportioned Putters™: 
 
All three golfers took 2 putts on #16. The first golfer to bow out was Todd Johnson, after scoring 2 putts on #13, the second tie-break hole, while the other two had only one putt. The remaining two golfers – the Dans, Thompson and Wertz – matched putts until the seventh tie-breaker, with Mr. Wertz taking two putts on #11 (the seventh hardest hole), while Mr. Thompson took just one. With only two holes to spare before we’d have to come up with another method to break the tie (Coin flip? Blind draw?), Mr. Thompson nabbed 2nd place money.  Well-contested, gentlemen!
 
Here’s a look at the hole-by-hole race to cash:

Hole difficulty and putt score sequence

The cash prizes can be collected from Dan Thompson at our next event. Well, I’m guessing Dan already has his, and it’s been long spent on green fees somewhere around Central Oregon!