As I stand over the ball that isn’t mine, I find myself thinking more acutely about the consequences of a bad shot in foursomes. Rotella would not approve.

The shot counts for a single stroke, like in any golf tournament, but the outcome weighs disproportionately on my conscience.

As much as I joked on the practice green about apologizing after a bad shot, the need to hit the fairway with this swing has caused my heart rate to spike.

It may not be the Ryder Cup, but it’s my first swing of a “Scottish Day” at the club. It’s as close as I’ll ever get.

As we waited to tee off on Saturday afternoon, the head pro looked at the competitors gathered and told us today would be special.

We would be “sharing the golf ball”, he said.

It’s an infrequent phenomena in modern day golf, but a format which ties to the early roots of the game. He made sure we understood this.

To honor the Scottish origins of our great game, the club organized a Foursomes event. With a traditional heavy Scottish-themed lunch before teeing off, it was a thoughtful and differentiated addition to the golf calendar.

The lunch added an element of camaraderie which can be missed in traditional one-day events. (Aside -The point of joining a club is to meet likeminded individuals while bonding over the game of golf. I’ve found that compelling members-only events with a social gathering outside of just the golf is the best way to meet new people.)

There is medal-play tournament pressure… and then there is alternate-shot tournament pressure where the ball you’re about to hit is not yours. The shot, although it still counts for a single stroke, somehow matters more.

The pressure to perform for yourself is ever-present, but in the back of your mind there’s the pressure not to let your partner down. An affect of the human condition, perhaps?

Despite any pre-round assurances and promises of not saying “sorry”, the pressure remains, and the inevitable “sorry” squeaks out after a wayward shot.

Many of you reading have experienced various levels of tournament pressure, from a club championship to teeing it up on the KFT.

I’d argue foursomes pose a type of pressure unique to any other competitive event (we need to be playing more of it stateside).

I chose to play with a close friend, although I have played with my dad in a Foursomes format before. It is sure to test the relationship, so choose your partner wisely.

We chose the starting holes based on a few of the par threes on the golf course. Looking back, not only did I miss the green on both, but left my playing partner in two places where the best possible score we could’ve made was a bogey. Not great.

It’s those type of swings that hurt more in this format. It’s the empathetic feeling of watching your guy walk into a bunker 30 feet below the putting surface.

We managed to scrape around a respectable score and get in the clubhouse with our egos and friendship still in tact.

We played in 3:15, which could have been a bit faster had we played better. Oh well.

Historically, when a group would play foursomes, the player not hitting the tee shot would wait in the general vicinity of where the ball would land off the tee to speed up the process. The player who hit the drive would then “leap frog” his playing partner and begin walking to the green.

Maybe I should have been less surprised, but I believe the low gross score was around 79. A sure tell of the difficult format. It’s hard to be in rhythm when you haven’t hit an iron shot in three or four holes.

Clubs must try new things to remain compelling to the membership. Playing with the same few guys every weekend is nice to an extent, but after a month or so it gets tiring. Clubs should make it easy for a mix of members to play with each other. Old, young, new, legacy, it shouldn’t matter. There should be infrastructure in place for organic connection between all levels of membership.

Scottish golf day was a perfect encapsulation of this at work. The perfect cocktail of competition, camaraderie, and time spent with guys you normally wouldn’t play with.

Some interesting brands I found this week as I’ve worked to become more active on Instagram. The first is No Dirt Golf, which sells some nice-looking towels, and the second was a head cover company which caught my eye, Mogshade Golf.

Instagram is a good place to look for upcoming niche brands…

If you know of a niche brand worth sharing, reply to this email with any suggestions. I read every one of them.

I’ve been working on making the Club Fitting Directory the one-stop-shop for your club fitting needs. I recently built a visual map, so you can easily locate the shops near you. It’s time to start supporting the small guys!

If you're curious, I wrote about How to Identify an Elite Club Fitter a few months back.

If you don’t see a shop listed that is worthy, you can submit one here.

I hope to play in more alternate shot shot tournaments in the years to come. It’s a great change of pace from what could be described as a monotonous summer of pedestrian stroke play.

I’d also like to reiterate the importance of clubs offering events like this one. It’s not a small lift to pull off, but it’s impact is felt across the membership.