Bad golfer? New Cleveland Mediocre Golf Association club is for you - cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Did you ever dream of slipping on that green jacket, having Jim Nantz interview you after a scorching round in Augusta, where you came from behind to win The Masters on a 35-foot putt for eagle? Your caddy bear-hugging you as the crowd goes wild?

Then you wouldn’t fit in with the Mediocre Golf Association.

The organization has more than 70 chapters, including seven in Ohio. It was co-founded in 2006 by Jon Morley, who was raised near Cincinnati, and Willie Dills.

Jared Youtzy, a 32-year-old who works for Rosenberg Advertising, is the head of the newly formed Cleveland chapter, which will begin tournament play in March.

Youtzy started playing about three years again. He moved back to Cleveland from Toledo and hit the links with buddies who played occasionally.

"We're pretty equally terrible," he said. "Eventually started getting a little better. It became more fun."

He spotted a newspaper story and didn't realize the MGA was a national group. He found a chapter in Toledo and checked it out, hesitantly.

"I had a blast," he said. "I was really nervous about going because I was never in a golf competition before. But once I went there I realized everybody was in the same boat, which is really the appeal about the league."

Youtzy reached out to league officials in October, saying he wanted to start a chapter in Cleveland. In January he set up a Facebook page. Sixteen guys attended an initial get-together last fall at Sleepy Hollow Golf Course in Brecksville. Age range is from early 20s to 50 to 60. Women are welcome. Now, just more than a month before the group's first tournament, he has 43 registered members.

Basic association fee is $40. Youtzy's responsibilities involve contacting courses to schedule tournaments, about one per month. He negotiates price, greens fees, cart, maybe gets a bucket of range balls thrown in. Courses chosen are usually within 45 minutes of downtown Cleveland.

The concept is based on the simple tenet that for most people who enjoy the sport, shooting par golf is next to impossible, he said. That begs the real question though: Just how good - er, bad - do you have to be to play?

"Bogey or worse," Youtzy said.

Here's how it works: A "reverse handicap" is used. "They’ll take the five last golf scores and create a handicap in the system. So if you’re a better golfer than others you're going to get penalty strokes added to your game. So if you finish the round and you shoot a 95, and you might get 10 strokes added to that if you're a really good golfer. And that kind of keeps everyone on a level playing field. It kind of keeps people less intimidated who are shooting (in the) 110, 120 range by putting everyone on a more even keel with the handicapping."

Come in last, you get the red key. With that comes the … distinction? … of teeing off from the seniors-tournament starting-tee position. And if you win the last tournament, you're playing from PGA tee land next time out.

Already, some of the registered folks have been reaching out to Youtzy and are excited to play.

"You can tell the club feels like a little community, and we haven’t been out for our first tournament," he said.

To drum up interest and to encourage people to register and pay, Youtzy will hold a drawing for a keg of beer.

Each tournament has an offbeat funny trophy. Win The Bastards - a riff on the Masters - and earn "a corny trucker hat," Youtzy said. The Cleveland Rebel Beach Am-Am and the Bratash Open are other tournaments.

Most of the tournaments are on Saturdays, and he tries to avoid Ohio State football home-game dates.

"It's kind of fun," he said. "It does get competitive, naturally, being a sport. But it’s a really fun type of competition. No one is taking it too seriously; you can have a bad day and have a lot of fun with people."

More info

The Cleveland chapter of the Mediocre Golf Association begins play in March. Here’s where to go to learn more or sign up for the local chapter. Here’s the schedule. The club kicks off with the Cleveland Rebel Beach Am Am at Pines Hills Golf Club in Hinckley at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 28. The 10-tournament slate runs to early October.

The MGA has a pretty funny video explaining what the organization is about:

[embedded content]