Saturday, February 16, 2013

Championship Players Tour event - Lonetree 1/20/13

Have started playing again a little recently. One of the 3 pre-qualifier sites for the Waste Management Phoenix Open was at LoneTree so I decided I'd play in this event which was a few days earlier. Didn't play great but I did T6 and cashed. Here we go!

#1 is a 435 yard par 4 with houses and OB right and the range and OB left. I ALWAYS hit it left here, not OB left but always left. I decided in my practice round that I'd start hitting a cut on several of these holes. Plan in place, peg in the ground, and I hit it...left. Double crossed it up onto the big hill, it did come back down a bit but I've got forever in. Had to take 5 iron to the pin that's on the top right portion on a big slope. Hit that one left into the huge bank behind the left side of the green, bounced / spun back down onto the green leaving me literally 60+ feet, up at least 4 feet of elevation to a pin sitting on the highest knob of the green. So I take a full backswing and grunt to get this putt all the way up the hill and I'll be damned if it isn't tracking, looking good, real good in fact, what the...lipout. Wow, great putt, dipped in the hole and back out, tap in 4 after those first 2 shots is just fine with me.

I make a 3 putt bogey on the 191 yard 2nd, another 50+ feet and the first putt not nearly as good as on 1. I actually left the par putt short, what a great lag from 6 feet though (that's sarcasm, get used to it...). Hit driver up the right side on 3 and then goose my wedge again left, just past pin high, impossible angle to this pin sitting in the middle of a slope (greenskeepers wife having an affair on him or something?), but buried a 4 footer for par. Hit driver again (you'll catch a theme here, I don't often hit less than driver off the tee) on 4 into the center leaving me 76 yards in. I've been working on my wedge game for a while (more to come on that later) and am licking my chops for this. I hit it 78 yards, which isn't all bad except that it's straight downhill. One of the other guys hits his from 12 feet and actually left it short, so I gave myself a good talking to in order to ensure that I don't do something stupid like that. So anyway, tap in par from 6 inches short of the hole and we're on our way to 5...

Got greedy with the corner on 5, 555 yard par 5 (I think I just broke my five key...) and caught the fairway bunker. I take 5 iron (nope, still works) out of there but block it a bit, leaving me 110 yards for my 3rd out of the rough / hardpan. Somehow I manage to catch it a bit heavy out of there and spin it back into the fringe (yeah I said it, heavy and spun it back). 2 putt par but steaming a bit from that poor 3rd shot. 3 wood off the tee on 6 (trust me, there's no other play for me) into the center of the fairway, 86 yards, pin is up on the very top crown of the green, 5 yards long is DEAD down a 20 foot embankment, so I hit it 15 feet below the hole, just what I was hoping for. Just missed it coming up the hill. Now #7, my old friend... so the last time I played the pre-qualifier for the WM Phoenix Open here 2 years ago, I come to 7 at two under par, ahead of schedule and hitting it great. I put it in the fairway bunker, greenside bunker (twice), fringe and then added 3 putts for a crowd pleasing 8. I. Fucking. Hate. This. Hole. So we've adopted the new cut and we're going to ensure we stay well away from the lake and the fairway bunker here and we do, into the desert on the left side. I've got 176 into the breeze standing on gravel. I decide on 6 iron and hit it about as well as you can expect with your feet sliding on this stuff, right side of the green and a favorable bounce and we somehow get it to 12 feet. Take that. Alas it was not to be as the birdie putt yanks hard left at the end (dude seriously, who pissed in the greenskeepers Cheerios this morning) as it was perched on another ridiculous slope.

On to 8, 198 yard par 3 playing back into the breeze, I shoot it at 195. My friend Wog flags 5 iron that the wind never touches and one hops it over the back. That dude can stripe it and I'm old so I decide on a cut 4, plenty of club, let the wind spin it up and land it soft. I very nearly call the shot in the air and I'm thinking "oh be good", unfortunately my depth perception is 2 feet short, because that's how far it was from being good. Instead it hits the false front fringe area and goes back down literally 8 feet below the green in the collection area. I pinch a great LW to about 3 feet and bury the putt, phew, costly mistake avoided. Still one over but made a couple of good putts to keep me in it. 9 is 551 on the card but 580 something from the tournament tees and what a perfect time to swat a blocked tee shot up into the gravel on the right. Well apparently it was as it must have hit that and the path a few times as I ended up with 221 remaining to the back left pin. Sure would like to have that length every day. Lake all along the left and around the back side of the green, 213 to cover the bunker and a small breeze into our face (2nd shot in almost the same direction as 7 and 8). The fairway is elevated by about 30 feet or so, I hit a solid 3 iron right at the middle of the green to give me plenty of room either way and it just stayed rope straight, one hop stop about 30 feet away for eagle. Pretty big break and down the hill, pretty good 2 putt birdie from there and we're back to even par through 9 holes.

Ok that's enough for tonight, I'll post the back 9 tomorrow. Thanks for reading along. I'm trying to keep the cursing to a minimum for the most part, I was a bit over the top before. This round wasn't terrible, so not much to curse about. Wait until I post the results from the actual fucking qualifier. See, told you...

Follow me on Twitter for some reason or another. Apparently it's all the rage. @PaperHogan

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Holy Crap, look who's back...

Well it's been a loooong time. Still playing and playing a lot better. I pretty much gave up on the blog and have been going through the motions in golf, but this is a brand new year. I've had a little bit of success and I'm back full steam. I've opened up a Twitter account (@PaperHogan) and you can follow me via the link on the right hand side of the blog as well. Along with continuing to post detailed results of my competitive rounds and overall progress, I'll also be live tweeting rounds as they occur (not every shot of course). If nothing else, maybe I'll be able to read back on the posts and see just exactly what my tendencies are as I play.

My next 2 posts will cover my latest mini tour round on the Championship Players Tour (www.championshipplayerstour.com) where I tied for 6th and my pre-qualifier attempt for the Waste Management Phoenix Open, both held at LoneTree. Notice how I didn't talk about where I placed in the pre-qual? I wasn't last by a long shot, but I also didn't make it to the Monday qualifier by a long shot. My next mini tour event is tentatively the 24th of this month and I just picked up a new putter, so we'll have some time to get it worked into the bag. Which brings me to an equipment update:


  • Driver - Titleist 913 D3 8.5 degree (set to 9.25), Aldila RIP Alpha X 
  • 3 Wood - Taylor Made RBZ 15 degree, Aldila RIP Alpha X 
  • 2 Hybrid - Taylor Made R11 17 degree, Aldila RIP Alpha S 
  • 3-PW - Ping I20, Dynamic Gold X100 
  • Wedges - Titleist Vokey SM4, 54 and 60 degree, DG Wedge 
  • Putter - Scotty Cameron Studio Select Newport 


I'm waiting for the USGA to post qualifying site information for this years US Open as well. Going to be a fun year, let's go get some...