Whirlwind Championship - Round 1

First round of the Golf Channel Amateur Tour's Regional Championship at Whirlwind today, second round tomorrow on the other golf course "Cat Tail". Shot a 2 over 74 today, played the last 8 holes 3 under so we finished strong. Had a stretch of 5 holes that just got me down and the card showed it. Here we go!

Great tee shot on the 424 yard 1st, left me 136 yards, pull PW into the left bunker, out to 8 feet and canned it for par. Hit a little 3 wood on the 399 yard second, 7 iron to about 8 feet and just missed it on the high side, that there my friends is half the strokes I played this hole in the last time I was here, small victories. A not so great tee shot on the 593 yard 3rd, decent 3 wood leaving me 111 into the breeze, and hit the ugliest little thinned GW you've ever seen, to 4 feet, and missed the putt. Dammit. Blocked it right of the green on the 4th, but a good pitch to about 3 feet and made the putt for the 3. Really solid tee shot on the 410 yard fifth but left me an agle that gave what looked like 3 feet between the stick and the bunker on the right, so I hit 9 iron pin high all the way left. A fantastic putt that just missed on the high side. Here comes the stretch, can you feel it? Are you getting sick to your stomach yet? You will...

Decent tee shot on the 564 yard 5th, then nearly topped my 3 wood to 136 yards, yay. A bit uphill this time so I pull 9 iron and hit the most pathetic weak cut about 30 feet short. First putt to about 2 1/2 feet and I talked myself into thinking the lines from the water injection aeration they did would pull the putt right, so I missed it left, dumbass. Seven is a 163 yard par 3 over water, a bit into the breeze, but a solid 7 iron as far left as I could and still be on the green. I've got 30 feet up and over the tier, pin sitting right on top, didn't give it enough break and the slope pulled my ball back down the hill about 12 feet away, and we missed it, another bogey. Number 8 is 317 yards, but a bunch of trouble left, so I thinned a 3 iron to 101 yards, uphill, into the wind and I pull SW, which isn't enough in those conditions, leaving me just short and right in the fringe. The first putt rides a ridge I didn't see past the hole about 5 feet left, and we missed that one too, 3 in a row, awesome. I went from talking and laughing it up with the guys I was playing with to not saying a word, kicking myself, feeling sorry for myself, etc.

9 is a split fairway 441 yard par 4, hit a decent tee shot down the left fairway, had 165 yards to the back left pin. Again a bit into the breeze and uphill so we decide a pathetic weak 6 iron to 35 feet is the smart play here. I somehow scraped in the 3 footer for par to stop the bleeding, or so I thought. 10 is 407 yards, with 254 to clear the fairway bunker on the right. I hit a not bad tee shot, that cut, and caught the top of the trap and rolled back in, right next to the front lip. 254 yards? Are you fucking kidding me? So I've got 152 in and I don't think I can clear the lip with 8, so let's take our medicine and hit 9 just short and get it up and down, nope, caught the lip. 91 yards away and I decide to lay 4 lbs. of sod over my ball. 42 yards away and I hit a 54 yard pitch to about 35 feet, 2 putt double. I literally felt my face turn red, 5 over now and I'm swinging progressively worse. I told you it was a sick feeling.

Number 11 is a 444 yard uphill par 4 and with steam coming out of my ears I finally swung like a man and left myself 140 in. I'm too busy congratulating myself on finally catching one that I forget we're uphill and my 9 iron stops in the fringe. I somehow left the uphill right to left putt short and made 4. Hey, it's better than that 6 we just posted. 12 is a 235 yard par 3 over water, pin back left and I hit one of the best 3 irons of my life to about 12 feet. One of the other guys was on a similar line about 20 feet away, his ball broke about 8 inches, so I figure to play mine about 4 inches as mine was little flatter, but it actually only breaks about 1 inch. We both looked at each other as if to say "wtf just happened there?". 13 is a short par 4, 361 yards but I'm hitting driver. Over the left trap just short of the last fairway bunker, leaving me 81 yards out of the rough. Hit a great held off SW to about 2 feet which we canned for our first birdie of the day. Yay, we're going in the right direction finally.

14th is a 172 yard par 3 playing shorter as the pin is up front, hit 7 iron but not real solid, just crept it on the front of the green, putt missed high but a good par. 15 is a 507 yard par 5, we're licking our chops now. Fairway bunker on the right, 278 to clear it, just hammered the tee shot, nice little draw at the bunker headed back to center, then the wind started pushing it, and I actually ended up catching the lip and rolling back in, damn that was going to be a good tee shot. So now we're under this huge lip again (who makes these damn fairway bunkers with 6 foot lips anyway?), I again pull 9 iron and in an attempt to not thin it into the face, I fat it and just cross the cart path, leaving me 178 yards in. They give you these pin sheets that show you how many paces short or long from center and left or right the hole is, but those are for pansies. I opt to just shoot it with the laser, 178, looks like it's JUST over the greenside bunker, let's hit 5 and give ourselves a putt, no sense in chancing dunking it in another bunker. Well I yanked it, screaming for it to get down as there is a lot of junk left. Ended up pin high left in grass, although there was actually about 20 yards of room over the front bunker as the pin was all the way in the back, good decision making there. (note to self, use the damn pin sheet from here on out) So we hit a lame ass pitch to 20 feet and actually jarred it for par, what an awesome putt.

16 is a 425 yard par 4, hit it to the left side of the fairway this time (not taking another chance at the right fairway bunker), just didn't really go. I had 160 yards left, a bit of a breeze crossing from the left, hit what I thought was a great 7 iron, but it landed dead in the center of the green, about 20 feet short, bottom tier, pin is on the top tier. I gave it a good rap and it just didn't stop rolling and finally found the bottom. Back to even for the back side. 17 is a 551 yard par 5 into the wind, big canyon about 80 yards short of the green. Rather than chance it with the 2nd shot, I'm laying up, already decided before I hit the tee shot. So a decent tee shot, not hard, still left me 290 yards in, hit a 7 iron short of the junk, left me 152 to the center, about 145 to the hole. Big huge swale right and behind the hole, hit a perfect 8 iron just past and right of the hole, took the swale down to about 6 feet. As God as my witness that's exactly the shot I pictured, sure maybe I was lucky to execute it that way, but it sure felt good. Canned it for birdie as well. 18, 442 yards into a pretty good wind now, hit a real good ball up the left side, but still had 190 yards to the stick, yikes. Pin is back center, my line is right over the greenside bunker short of the green, so I unconsciously started it right but drew it back in a bit, pin high about 15 feet right. Uphill right to left putt for 3 in a row to finish and I left it short. You fucking chop.

Out in 39, back in 35 with a double on 10. Really happy obviously with how we finished the last 8 holes, but we can't afford to get down on ourselves in the middle of the round like that. I think the reason I finished so well is I just had a talk with myself after 10 and basically decided that it was unacceptable to play like this, putting half swings on shots, so I decided to swing hard the rest of the round. 11 fairways, 13 greens, 31 putts. We go off later tomorrow, nearly 11AM, in the heat of the day. Forecast is 104 degrees, I'm drinking a ton of water this evening, my toilet is getting a workout. Until tomorrow!