Good, but should have been better.

This past weekend was the best tourny weekend of the year in golf, the Club Championships. Why such a great weekend? First off, it's the bragging rights tourny for the club to truly test yourself against the others at your level. As well, it's the most fun cause everyone had a good time on the course and follows it up with and even better time on the patio discussing the rounds over many beers. All in all, it always delivers.

This year was almost another lost cause for me. The first day was a tough windy afternoon round. was feeling good about this weekend leading up after playing so well the previous weeks. My swing felt great and my putting was actually good for once the last few rounds. However, most of this failed me on day one. I struggled to hit the ball consistently and my chipping was horendous causing me to have to make long par putts all day. Unfortunatly, I didn't make a lot of the long par putts and struggled to an 82. Lucky for me, every one had a rough day on the course. The wind combined with very tough pin positions made for some unusally high scores. My 82 was good enough for 9th place out of 22 and within the cut line of top 12 and ties. I was only 4 strokes out of second place, first place is impossible as long as Kray (defending champ for as long as I can remember) is in the field. So i went home determined to rest up and return sunday with a much better score.

With an early tee time of 7:45AM sunday I was feeling better playing at a normal time. Unfortunatly we were struck with even tougher conditions sunday. Along with quick greens, tough pins, and a strong wind, it rained for a period of time during the round. We played about 4 holes in the rain and I stuggled on these ones. I had basically the same problems as saturday and stumbled to another 82. I was devistated. Waiting for all the players to come in I'm watching the board and starting to realize that I am on the bubble for making the cut, my only real goal for the weekend. Just as the last group is about to come in the horn blows and lighting moves in and players walk off the course. I consult with the club pro and he informs me that 163 would be the cut, I was 164. Totally drained from this news I open up an umbrella and make the walk home in the rain pissed as pissed can be that I blew another championship weekend.

About an hour or so later I get a text message from Matt. "You made the cut, top 12 and ties." I was shocked. I actually made it, the 13th player in and in a tie for 12th. I had some mixed feeling here cause I was so down on myself for not playing better, but that quickly changed as I perked up happy to play in the final day for the second time in 5 years.

I'm so far back from anything truly meaningful in the tourny, so my only goal was to move up to the top 10 and just have fun.

I showed up for the third round about an hour early and hit the range to see if I could work out my swing. All i needed to do was slow it down a little and I knew it would fall in place. after sculling a few on the range I was able to settle in and get the tempo were I needed it. As soon as I got it, I walked off the range, wanted to keep that thought. Worked on my putting for the rest of the time.

I'd start te round were I left off on sunday, making bogeys. I'd bogey the first 5 holes, par 6, and then bogey 7. 6 over after the first 7. I blew my chance to do anything at all and I'm playing just as bad.

Then, something clicked. Not sure what it was but it did. I found my tempo again. I started hitting perfect shots again. I'd par the last 2 holes of the front to shoot 42. Then on to the back. Everything still felt great. I open up par, par, and then hit a gourgous 5 iron to about 8 feet on 12 and drained the putt for birdie. 1 under. 13 I of course almost hit the large tree of the left scared of going out of bounds right and fund myself under a small pine tree. Punch out, came up short of the pin and missed the putt to make a bogey. 14 i would make a nive up and down for par. 15 I had a great chance at birdie after being about 10 yards short of the green in 2 on the par 5. Made a bad decision here to bump and run the ball up to the green and it skidded by the hole about 20 feet, should have hit a lob shot. 2 putted for par. 16 I was way right off the tee and had a long lay up shot. Hit a perfect rescue to about 65 yards. Kept the ball below the hole about 15 feet, and drained the long putt for birdie, back to 1 under. I got a great kick off the side of the hill on the par 3 17th that rolled up to about 8 feet for birdie. Unfortunatly, I missed the putt by an inch and tapped in for par. 18th i managed to keep it in the fairway and not on the highway (3 of 3 this weekend was a championship all in it's self for me). Couldn't decide what club to hit in from 145 yards into the wind. I wanted to hit 7 iron but didn't want to hit it over into the crowd so I went with an 8 iron and hit the green but was at the front with a back pin. Didn't hit the best first putt, came up well short about 10 feet. A littel nervous, i lined the putt up and holed it centre cup for a par and 1 under 35 on the back. Awesome, played the last 11 holes 1 under and shot a 77.

Turns out I'd post the 3rd best score of the day (2 at 75, first and second place finishers) and move up the standings 5 spots to a tie for 8th overall. WOW. finally played well and got rewarded for it. The ups and downs of the weekend were crazy and it all ended well. I made a cut and placed in the top 10, my highest finish ever which is great. Still, I should have played better the first 2 days. There was no reason for poor play. I wasn't nervous, I've played well enough in enough tournaments to be over that, I just didn't have the stuff the first 2 days. Really it all came down to my tempo. Once I settled back in and didn't force things I started playing well.

All in all a good weekend. Already looking forward to next years tourny. Now got to practice a bit and make sure I play well on the 16th at Lockness Links for the mens tour, and I still have to play my semi-final match for the langly cup. Should be a good month of golf. If i can make the finals for Langly that would be great to have a shot at winning it all. And I got 2 more tour events to play and stay within the cut line for next year. Going to be a big month of golf.