Yes please ignore the rest, just let us have this one thingI'd be letting my partner @rlew down if I didn't try to draw everyone's attention to the 13th hole
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Ignore the rest of it, but focus solely on the 13th
And you just about hit that line on this drive, IIRC
Was there any verbal or physical intimidation involved? I think there are several legal counsels on site that would probably represent you for slightly less than 78% of the settlementWe blew it up on 18
JD is the king of verbal intimidation! Nothing wrong with a little misdirection
Other than the drive, I totally agreeAbsolutely hated that hole. I don't think I hit ONE good shot on that hole.
Oooh. A milkshake would have made all the difference! #goodcall
Might have been the fastest ball speed I have ever experiencedThat 3 wood is
Seriously, the pleasure was all ours! The hospitality and generosity you showed us is second to none!
Personally I think he's downplaying the whole "I have to play because Dormie requires a member". Dude is a competitor through and through. And he can play!Overall competition. I think Evolve was only supposed to be 1 day of competition but they ended up doing a second (which his team won)
JB’s team has won Quest Cup, Shaft Up, Goat Cup, and now Budget Championship
I think Evolve @xThor and @RabidWombats officially won
Expect a @Junkyard sighting either late 2023 or sometime in 2024. It's happening!
@JB planted the seed by telling us how big my putt was on 17 and then telling us where we sat on the leaderboard on 18 tee. To be fair, I wasn’t very rattled, I just made some very bad decisions and caught a bad break. I don’t remember if @blazinden hesrd the conversation on 18 tee. We both were avoiding looking at results throughout the whole thing
Love these!Chapter 3: The Battle (A Cowboy's Perspective)
The tone was set on Day 1. The tone was set in the first 9 holes. Every team, but one, was going to be fighting an uphill battle for the favor of the lovely hand known as Ballyhack. I was fortunate (or unfortunate depending on you perspective) enough to witness the Shot Heard 'Round the Blue Ridge Mountains. The first shot across the bow, if you will. Fire in the Hole came out swinging (both literally and figuratively). Now, in any golf format that includes several teams, you know that if you can't keep up with the team in the other cart then you don't have a chance. You have hang with or beat the other guys. They are, after all, only a portion of the field. Now, at the time, I had no idea where the rest of the field stood. But I knew where WE stood.......and we were getting boat raced by the guys that were 6 inches away from us.
Now, we (Canyon Cowboys) blew any chance we had of hanging with the big boys in the first 9 holes of this event. The second 9 wasn't much better but at least we didn't let the wheels fall completely off. Our measuring stick was right in front of us and we just couldn't, for some reason, keep pace. Every time it looked like we could gain a little ground, we were knocked down another peg by an absolute "shot of a lifetime". That term seems ironic in reflection. It, literally, implies that it can't (or won't) be duplicated. Yet, it was.........over and over again. @blazinden and @BuffaloPlunger played a ham and egg game that I have never, ever seen before. Especially on such a challenging track. It's as if they, figuratively, stood on the first tee and yelled at the top of their lungs to this beast of a course "Whatchu got"?! And, ultimately after that first 18, walked off saying "Ballywho"?
Now anyone, who has a competitive bone in their body (and I do), absolutely HATES not being "in the mix". And, by the end of the 18 hole combined shamble, we weren't. It would have been easy to have a mild hatred for the guys that were putting you through the wringer. It just wasn't possible on that day. I had posted, before the vent, that part of our team strategy would be to root on our opponents. We did that. Even though we were getting gorilla stomped it was actually fun watching these guys pull of some of the shots they were pulling off. I don't know if I've ever witnessed so many clutch putts, approaches, chips, pitches and drives in 27 holes of golf. Not in person. It got to a point that it was almost common. The words went from "Are you f***ing kidding me"? to "Of course they did". And they BOTH contributed. Nobody rode the others' coattails.
As I had mentioned, we picked up a LITTLE steam on the back 9. By the time we made the turn to hole 19 of this 27 hole first day battle, I had gotten word that we were in second to last place. Now, I'm not a leader board watcher. Can't stand it, actually. I've played a few tournaments that use a live scoring system such as Golf Genius or the like. I've been fortunate enough to have been on two teams that have won such tournaments. In both, I never knew the score or where stood on the leader board until it was all over. So, as you can imagine, I was none to happy to to receive this information. Not only because I knew that we were that far down the leader board, but that I knew ANYTHING about our round (I didn't even know what we shot when the scorecard was a foot from my face). But, something strange kind of happens when you learn of these things. A silver lining, if you will. At that point, I knew that we had nothing to win.......we also had nothing to lose. And, we played the Alt Shot session accordingly.
We knew that, ultimately, we were never going to be in the mix. There were just too many strokes to overcome. But what we were damned certain of is that we weren't going to just go quietly in the night. We weren't going to quit. @Jank wouldn't allow it. He's got a fighter's spirit. Maybe that comes with the confidence of being a 5 handicap who KNOWS that he's better than that. Maybe that's just his spirit. All I know is that I'm glad he was on my team to pull it out of me. We handled ourselves well in that last 9 holes. We didn't set the world in fire, but we didn't cower in the face of adversity either. We fought back and we fought hard. Hard enough that IIRC we played the LAST 27 holes of this Experience as well as any team in the field.
At the end of the days play, there was an Experience wide buzz about the top of the leaderboard. Fire in the Hole was the talk of the town, so to speak. But there were a few teams in position to say "Not so fast". First in Fun, The Vatican, and Crypto Cavemen were within striking distance and were in no way ready to concede anything. There was a mix of excitement and exhaustion. Dinner, a second nighttime putting contest and subsequent gathering contributed to both. @Muchmore18 took home the grand prize the previous night in the putting contest. On this night, I was fortunate enough to take home the split prize with the most perfect no look putt you could have possibly drawn up. The speed was absolutely perfect. One less half revolution and this ball comes up millimeters short. A spark! LFG!!!
Competitions like this are about numbers. It's the measuring stick. The summation. Our final round, however, was about nuance. About reckoning. Not to the field, or our fantastic partners for the day (thank you @rlew and @Junkyard for the most pleasant frenemies that we could have possibly asked for). This was about accountability. Accountability to ourselves (not to mention our many supporters throughout this entire journey).
We got through the first three holes without puking all over ourselves. at some point @Junkyard asked if we wanted to know where we stood. I told him "Nope, I'm just going to play golf". I'm straight up stupid when it comes to this and I'll fully admit it. The latest example was this past weekend. I was playing with a friend and two random guys that we got paired with. I knew that I had carded some birdies but I didn't know how many. At 15 I carded my last birdie of the day. At that point, one of the other guys asked "How may birdies is that for you, today"? I told him that I wasn't sure. My cartner looked at the card and said "He's got 5". I've never had 5 birdies in a round in my entire life. Hearing that was the death knell. I proceeded to triple each of the final 3 holes to card a 92 (yes, I really suck). I was heartbroken. 5 birdies and I didn't even break 90.
To that point, I didn't want to know where we stood from an actual standpoint or a strokes standpoint. In the end, we accounted for ourselves well. Well enough to card only one bogey and tie a best ball record in the Budget Golf Championship with a 63. I'm not one to argue which 63 is more impressive. I am, however, proud that we posted that score at one of the toughest courses I have ever played. By the time that we actually holed out our last putt on 18 I knew that we had accounted well for ourselves. I didn't know exactly how well but I felt pretty damned good about it. What I didn't know was the chaos that had had taken place before us or what what was coming up from behind.......
Upcoming- Chapter 4: The Gallery
I told you how big your putt was AFTER you made it. I wouldn’t put that pressure on prior to the putt. You rolled it in and it was awesome.
Niiiiice!!
I feel you, brother. I just don't want to let it go..........
Funny that you say that. If I ever make it back to Ballyhack, I'm going to try the left side. I might actually post a decent score.....
I REALLY wanted one of those HACK hats but when I put it on it was an immediate 'Nope'. Hated the way that it fit. I was bummed....
No trouble anywhere in sight. Just swing away freely.....
The sign agrees......Might have been the fastest ball speed I have ever experienced
