Today I was more rested and more “ready” physically to play. One problem: my brain was somewhere else. Perhaps it was helping out the Mars lander or something.
On the first tee I pulled my ball OB and carded a 7 on the opening par-5. That hole is so easy my golf buddy Al calls it “baby cakes.”
I leaked oil on the front until I blew a gasket again on the extremely hard par-3 9th. I pulled my tee shot up onto the cart path behind this green, surrounded by a huge bowl. I dropped and had to chip off of gravel en route to a double bogey. At that point in time, I was 7 over for the tournament and five over for that damn hole. I took a picture of myself flipping that hole off and it felt a little better.
I had so many close birdie putts which I missed it nearly made me ill. I nearly aced #6, only to miss a two foot birdie putt. On #7 I miss a 10 footer for birdie. #8 I hit a spectacular approach to two feet only to miss again. Its very distressing when the strength of your game goes down. My putting is usually deadly, but it was the cause of my death on day two of this tournament. I missed 7-8 birdie putts inside eight feet.
The one bright light was my iron play. I was hitting lasers at the flags. But if you can’t putt, all the great ball striking in the world can’t help much. Just ask Sergio Garcia.
I limped my way home to an 81 and felt quite dejected. Once again, in this two day tournament I posted one good round and one round which knocked me out of the money. I did watch the two finalists play a three hole playoff which was fun, while drowning my sorrows in a bad tasting domestic beer. I was happy to see my friend Tyson take 3rd place though. Today’s round he shot a 68 but had 10 freaking birdies. That’s insane!
I need more experience under pressure. This was my first real tournament since 2007 and my gag reflex is much too weak due to lack of experience. I felt shaky all day and really had to fight hyperventilation. At the end of the day, I felt like I’d done about 14987 ab crunches. Must play more tournaments…
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