So back to this year. The tournament started off great for me. I teed off at 1:50 and my first hole which was a par 4, I drove the green. I made a 20 foot putt for eagle to go 2-under par after one hole! My next two holes I went bogey-birdie, so I'm still 2-under after 3 holes. I remained under par until I bogeyed hole 7 to go to even par and it went down hill on the next 2 holes. I went double bogey-bogey on 8 and 9 to make the turn in 39. Starting with hole 10 I went birdie-par-birdie-bogey-par-double bogey-par-par-bogey and finish with a 76. That is my lowest 18 hole round in this tournament to date so I felt really good about my first day. I am tied for 3rd position.
Day 2
Day 2 didn't start as well as day 1 as I only parred hole number 1 and 2. Hole 3 I birdied and I parred holes 4 and 5. I was 1-under par through the first 5 holes. I ran into trouble on 6 with a bogey and parred hole 7. The easiest hole on the course is hole 8 and it gave me trouble all weekend. I double bogeyed it again on Saturday but I bounced back with a par on hole 9. I make the turn with a 38. Little did we know that 9 holes would be all that counts on day 2 because play was suspended because of rain and lightning. This wouldn't be that big of a deal except C, D & E flight finished their 18 holes in the morning rounds. Because B, A & championship flights only played 9 that knocked out the bump rule. (The bump rule states that any player within 5 shots of the lead in the next flight ahead will get bumped into that flight.) This is a big deal because I was tied for 2nd after day 2, but we were all 10 shots back of the leader who would be 1 shot behind in both championship and A flight. So doing away with the bump rule really hurt the three of us who were tied for 2nd because we should be tied for 1st.
Day 3.
The rain was gone, but the aftermath of rain is humidity and usually a north wind, which makes this particular course a lot tougher. I started out par-par-double bogey-par-bogey. So I'm 3-over after 5 holes today. I'm in a little trouble on 6 when I miss the green by about 20 yards short on my approach. So I chip up to the green and ball looks good and it rolls right into the hole for a birdie to move me back to 2-over par. I finish the 9 with 3 straight pars to shoot another 38. I have moved ahead of the two I'm tied with by hole 9 so things are looking pretty good. We make the turn and I bogey hole 10. Hole 11 is where the wheels fall off. I drive the ball way right because there is Out Of Bounds to the left. I'm under a tree and try to punch the ball to the green but because of the rain and the long rough my ball gets hung up and I'm quite aways short. So my third shot I try to pitch the ball over the bunker and I end up right in the middle of the bunker. I'm normally a pretty good bunker player so this doesn't make me nervous. I take my practice swings out of the bunker and step in and try to make a good pass through the sand, but I don't hit any sand. Instead I blade the ball over the green through the street and it goes out of bounds. I'm very frustrated with myself as now I'm still in the bunker hitting my 6th shot. I'm so nervous to try a blast that I barely advance the ball and I remain in the bunker now hitting my 7th shot and I put it over the green. I chip on the green for my 8th shot and 2 putt for a smooth 10 on hole number 11. A 10! I haven't made a 10 on a hole since I was in high school. So let's say I'm not in second place anymore and I'm not sure if I will finish top 5. I bogey my next 2 holes so now I'm 9 over in my last 4 holes. I was only 9 over for my first 36 holes and in four holes I doubled my over par status. UNREAL! I was very heated but knew if I could string pars together I could still be in 4th or 5th place at the end of the tournament. So hole 14 I parred along with 15 and 16 and I thought to myself I could bounce back from this. I birdied hole 17 and parred hole 18. I shoot an 81 on Sunday and finish in 4th place. I was dissappointed with my finish, but I was very impressed with myself that I could turn around from a 10 and make a respectable finish.
This tournament was lots of fun and I can't wait until next year to play again.
Okay, whenever we get the chace to golf together you can't laugh at me. This is John by the way.
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