Lake Mohawk residents play a different kind of Tengo

SPARTA — Lake Mohawk appears to be the birthplace of a new sport and it’s called tengo. But this one takes four to play.

Tengo tournaments are two-day events consisting of combined golf and tennis competitions.

A tengo tournament was held earlier this month at Hidden Acres Golf Club and the Lake Mohawk Tennis Club.

The participants, also Lake Mohawk residents, were Tony Sigler, Rick Scotti, Tom Sudol and Hugh Hauck, who has organized the tournament.

The winner of the event was Scotti and the runner-up was Hauck.

To test the scoring system and general rules of play, the first trial tournament was played a couple of weeks earlier and Sudol was the winner of the first playing of a tengo tournament.

The first game played is golf and the rules and scoring system are fairly simple. Four players take part and are made up of two pair teams, with the names being drawn out of a hat. Each pair plays six holes after which the partners switch for the next six holes and switch again for the last six.

All players have a different partner for six holes and all players get to play with every other. For each hole won, each partner is awarded two points. For a hole won at par, three points accrue to each partner and if the hole is won with a birdie, four points are awarded each partner of the winning pair.

At the end of the golf day all the points that each player has won are added up and recorded.

The following day is the tennis event and the same pairings play three regular sets. As in the golf event, the players switch partners after each set. The actual games won by each pair accrue as points for each individual players and are added up at the end of the third set.

The score is then added to the previous day's golf score, and the player with the highest total combined score is declared the winner.

The men hope to hold more competitions.

For more information contact Hugh Hauck at hhauck@centurylink.net.