The good, the bad, and the ugly....

The Ugly
Before my round in Maui, I played in a few tournaments in the month of August.  I played in a two day tournament in Hershey, PA, and played two other tournaments the following weekend at Bulle Rock and 1757.  All of the above tournaments were played on the Golf Channel's Amateur Tour.  The two day tournament was played on Hershey Country Club's East Course the 1st day and the West Course the following day. 

This was my first trip to Hershey, PA and town was great, though it didn't smell like chocolate.  I have heard the town smells like chocolate during the week when the factory is going on throughout the work week.  I guess since I arrived Friday afternoon the factories were already preparing for the weekend. 

Hershey Country Club's facilities were top rate and I really enjoyed the staff at the course.  Time and time again the organizers for the Golf Channel's amateur tour really do a great job of organizing their tournaments.  Periodically throughout the season the Golf Channel has what they call majors where the tournaments across the country are usually played at an upscale course for two days.  Major tournaments cut off the amount of players for the tournament at 180 players and are broken into their respective flights according to USGA handicaps.  Players across the country are eligible to play.  My particular flight called Sarazen(named after the great Gene Sarazen-winner of 7 major championships) for individuals with handicaps within 12.0-15.9  had 27 participants.  No way did I think I was going to win the tournament but was hoping for a top 10 finish(I think top 6 or 7 was eligible for prize money).

Day 1 recap
After the 1st round I was tied for 6th, I shot an 88(45 on the front and 43 on the back).  I felt the course played fairly easy.  The East course plays fairly short for a par 71 course at around 6347 yards with a rating of 71and a slope of 133.  Basically accuracy is key and the greens were fairly fast.  I didn't particular putt or hit my approach shots well but I was pretty good off the tee and scrambled well.  So in my mind since I didn't play well and shot an 88, I could only improve on my score the following day.  Boy was I wrong.....

Day 2 recap(final round)
Though I had to deal with off and on rain throughout the day it shouldn't affected how I played so poorly.  Whether it was due to playing in the second to last group or thinking about playing for a monetary prize, I absolutely did not show up to play.  I would of been better off teeing off with a pitching wedge on every hole.  I didn't hit one single green and didn't make one single putt.  My scores for the front and back nine respectively were a 49 and a 47 for a mind boggling 96.  Started the day tied for 6th and ended up 17th out of 27 golfers. You may say to yourself that it wasn't that bad but in all actuallity my scorekeeper may have made a mistake that I didn't catch until after my round.  On one of the par 5 holes my score keeper(playing partner) inadvertently wrote down a double bogey 7 instead of the 9 I actually received.  I'm pretty sure he was into his playing round, he shot pretty well and placed 2nd for the tournament and I was so distraught with how I played, I didn't care what my score was.  I just signed my card after the round and wanted to go home.  So I really shot a 98 for a course that played 6480 yards with a rating of 71 and a slope of 129.  The feeling I can describe is when you think you prepare for an exam and you still perform poorly.  No explanation, you know the material, you just didn't perform well.  It took me a few days to get over how I played.  It was so frustrating I immediately signed up for two tournaments for the following weekend.  One tournament at Bulle Rock and the following day at 1757.  Now that I can look back, I look at the experience as a positive and can only help me with when I play in future tournaments.  By the way the person who won the tournament shot 79 on the first day and 82 the second day.  He was from Texas. 

The Bad
This brings me to Bulle Rock.  Hershey left a bad taste in my mouth and I wanted to treat myself to play in one of countries top public courses.  Now I knew I had low expectations going into this round.  After the Hershey tournament I revamped my swing to follow my driver swing "Outside In vs. Inside out blog".  I figured it worked for my driver it should work for my irons.  Conceptually it makes sense-when I was first starting out playing I just wanted to make could contact with the ball.  I wanted my swing plane to give me the best chance to hit the ball square.  Once I accomplished hitting the golf ball on a consistent basis I accepted my ball flight to move from left to right or what's called a fade(slice or block if its really ugly).  So with this thinking and regardless of how bad I scored at Bulle Rock I wanted to play the round with my new swing.  Bulle Rock(named after the 1st racing horse brought to America) is a Pete Dye design and is probably one of the most difficult courses I've played.  The facilities are top rate and rank above a lot of private courses.  The rating and slope for the course is 72 and 138 with the tees we played from measuring approximately 6360 yards.  There were 17 participants playing in my Sarazen flight, I placed 15th shooting 101.  Shot a 47 on the front nine and a grand ole score of 54 on the back 9.  I still enjoyed my round..... I could of shot a 125 and I would of enjoyed myself.  Again golf is a funny game- you can shoot poorly and enjoy your round.  I feel golf is a game and you should enjoy it regardless on how you play but you will enjoy it more if you play well.  More of a reason it frustrated me playing in Hershey, the game rarely frustrates me to that point.  Even though I shot poorly and finally shot in the 100's this year after coming very close on a couple of occasions this year, it was a lot of fun.  Mind you on a good day I may shoot in the high 80's at this course.  It's just that difficult-the person who won shot an 87.  On most tournaments for my flight a score in the low 80's usually wins the tourney. 

The Good
This brings me to my tournament round at 1757 club out in the Dulles, VA area.  1757 recently opened this year and is one of the few courses where their practice facilities dwarfs the course.  The course is new so I expect in a few years the course will slowly grow into a decent course.  The practice facilities have a good driving range that includes grass tees a challenging putting green and a nice short game area.  For the tournament, it was the last official tournament for the Golf Channel amateur tour before a national tournament was to be played in Florida over a span of 4 days(includes rounds at TPC Sawgrass).  Basically you had to qualify to register for nationals.  At this point I did not qualify or knew how to qualify.  All I knew was if you won a tournament or placed in the top 3 at a major you qualified automatically. 

As for the tourney and 1757, it plays really short from the tees we played from for this particular tournament, 6105 yards for a par 70 course.  The rating and slope were not recorded but if I had to estimate I would think 68 for a rating and a slope of 126.  There was a huge delay on when we tee'd off on the first hole.  The delay on the first tee was about an 40 minute delay on when we were suppose to tee off and when we did tee off.  It probably explains why I posted a 10 on a par 4 hole.  I hit my tee shot out of bounds(hit 1 drop 2), retee(3) and hit the fairway, send my approach shot(4) from the fairway over the green into a pond(didn't know it was there drop 5), retee(6) from the fairway again into the woods, hit from the woods(7) to the fringe of the green, chip(8) to the green and two putt(10).  It was a masterpiece!  Posting a 10 fired me up and I followed the first hole with a birdie and complete the front 9 with a 47.  I Played the back fairly solid until I sent my approach shot on 17 over the green onto a cart path and baaack baaack back & gone.  I had to retee from the fairway and end up posting a snowman 8 on a par 4.  I end up shooting a 43 on the back 9 with a total score of 90.  The score was good enough to place 3rd.  The winner of my flight shot an 82.  For placing 3rd I received $40 in gift cards to golf galaxy(official sponsor for the amateur tour) and won some money for the two birdies I posted on my round.  Though I shot an 90, I was seeing the fruits of my new swing and finally was seeing improvement in my game. 

The following day I received an email from my area director and he informs me that I qualified for nationals in Florida.  I was really excited that I qualified for nationals but declined my invitation due to costs of the tournament and the time I would have to take off from work.  I plan on going next year if I qualify. 

This brings me to present day.  I plan on making posts to the site on a bi-weekly to monthly basis due to time restraints.  In the next blog I will talk about an experience at a local country club I was luckily invited to and about an upcoming two man scramble at PB Dye's course in Md.  I hope my playing partner Chris has a strong back, he may need to carry our team.  I'm going out on a limb and say we shoot 3 or 4 under.  Chris and I have played in a scramble before and shot around a 69 to finish in the middle of the pack.  I'm hoping for better things this weekend.         

Mahalo