rbarthle17
One-length advocate
Today I played in my first ever tournament, the club championship at The Legacy in SE MI. I'm guessing due to weather there were some dropouts so they grouped all of us together in one flight. Handicaps ranged between 10 and 20 and we played the blue tees which are 70.3/129 rated.
When I arrived it was 36°. I thought for sure there would be a frost delay but we went off on time at 9:00. My cart partner was a really nice guy, I later learned that he played football for UM in the early 80's. He killed his driver, had a smooth swing, and overpowered many holes. I told him about THP and he indicated he would check it out. He shot an 87 and was a 12 handicap.
The other two in our foursome were a 10 and a 12. The 10 played well and shot 82. The 12 played bad and shot a 98. He also was a real downer on the group which was unfortunate.
As for me, I started out awful. I chunked my tee shot on 1 and got a double on the hole. I settled down quickly though, with 5 pars on the front 9 and shot a 43. I was really hitting my driver well and my approaches were solid. Unfortunately things fell apart on holes 11-15 with three triples and a double.
I had determined that I was over swinging a lot on those holes, a bad habit I get into. So on the par 3 16th I was determined to stop that. It was 147 to the hole and the pin was tucked behind a large bunker. It's not a sucker pin you just have to clear the bunker. I took an 8 iron and put a smooth swing on it. It hit and spun back a little to 18"! Dropped the birdie. Also won closest to the pin.
I finished bogey bogey for a 50 on the back and 93 total. I did not think my handicap would keep me in contention but I stuck around because I won something for closest to the pin. It's good that I did because I tied for first with a net 74! How I got from 93 to 74 with a 16.9 I cannot figure out but that is what it was! I was tied with the 10 handicap from my group, but he won the tiebreaker with a par on the #1 hole and I had a bogey.
I am overjoyed at how this went. Sure I could have played better on the back 9 but for my first tournament this was all I could hope for!
When I arrived it was 36°. I thought for sure there would be a frost delay but we went off on time at 9:00. My cart partner was a really nice guy, I later learned that he played football for UM in the early 80's. He killed his driver, had a smooth swing, and overpowered many holes. I told him about THP and he indicated he would check it out. He shot an 87 and was a 12 handicap.
The other two in our foursome were a 10 and a 12. The 10 played well and shot 82. The 12 played bad and shot a 98. He also was a real downer on the group which was unfortunate.
As for me, I started out awful. I chunked my tee shot on 1 and got a double on the hole. I settled down quickly though, with 5 pars on the front 9 and shot a 43. I was really hitting my driver well and my approaches were solid. Unfortunately things fell apart on holes 11-15 with three triples and a double.
I had determined that I was over swinging a lot on those holes, a bad habit I get into. So on the par 3 16th I was determined to stop that. It was 147 to the hole and the pin was tucked behind a large bunker. It's not a sucker pin you just have to clear the bunker. I took an 8 iron and put a smooth swing on it. It hit and spun back a little to 18"! Dropped the birdie. Also won closest to the pin.
I finished bogey bogey for a 50 on the back and 93 total. I did not think my handicap would keep me in contention but I stuck around because I won something for closest to the pin. It's good that I did because I tied for first with a net 74! How I got from 93 to 74 with a 16.9 I cannot figure out but that is what it was! I was tied with the 10 handicap from my group, but he won the tiebreaker with a par on the #1 hole and I had a bogey.
I am overjoyed at how this went. Sure I could have played better on the back 9 but for my first tournament this was all I could hope for!
