Day Three Mid Pac Open
Now this was more like it. Green
speeds were up. Jason threw up a challenge. Love it!! For us back of
the pack guys this is the real treat, playing pro speed greens and pin
placements. Dr. David was just off the green on 12 after hitting a great
recovery shot from over by the cart path about 160 out. It wasn’t the
distance so much as the fact that he was in the drainage ditch with an
ugly lie. For his reward he chipped a tad to hard and bingo off the
green. Instant double, unfortunately many of us know that one.
I was lamenting to Jason that I shot
90 today and had to par the last three holes to do that and he says, (I am
not kidding here) do that tomorrow and you will move up. I tell him I am
going to write that and he replies “add in that Costco has a sale on “mop
and glow” cases”. Ouch, could we have been lulled to sleep in rounds one
and two? So a word of caution to us high single handicaps, going for the
green in regulation may not be a good idea. Could be like years past when
a good lay-up, just off the green, and below the hole may be much better
than a long putt of birdie.
If you want to see some really
interesting data check out the MP website
www.mpcchi.org and go to the
tournament section and “results”. Then find rounds 1,2,3 statistics.
Really interesting to see which holes were playing toughest each day.
Mid Pac’s version of amen corner
(13,14,15) and 7/8 are tough each day. What I found interesting was that
#5 was so tough on day three. One and 10 are easy starts on each side so
if you blow up on those it only get worse after that.
Looks like day 4 should be a fun
one, although 6 hour golf can be a bit wearing on the mind and body. Hope
to see a lot of you out there following your favorite players. I always
like see what the Pros do on holes I have already played so right after my
round I plan on jumping out there to catch 4 or five holes.
Great event once again, thanks to
all the volunteers who allow us to make this happen.
Day
Two Mid Pac Open
Well it is officially in the books.
The cuts have been determined. Once again the debate ran rampant. Would
it be 169 or 170 in A? Did the 94 that the goat shot throw him into a
spotters roll on Saturday? Who was in and who was out. When the numbers
finally came out there were high 5’s and plenty of groans. Fast Freddie
just made it at 178 and there was hand slapping all around. You read it
correctly, a pair of 89’s gave you a Saturday tee time in the B flight.
There was a bit of movement as
well. A couple of players who were probably more deserving of the A
flight competition level did get to upgrade by leaving the rest of us in
the dust. Kudos to the committee for giving them a chance to shine
against better players.
Now for the day on the links. A bit
damp and very little wind so even though the intent was to speed up the
greens mother nature didn’t co-operate. In some ways this was a good
thing because nary a contrary word was spoken when Jason arrived with his
lovely wife. This year he didn’t need that protection because no one
could blame their pathetic scores on the course set up. (I can use that
word because my score was indeed pathetic)
On this day all of the wayward
scores were self inflicted. The pin placement on number 8 was as bad as
it got and because the green didn’t dry out even that was not the disaster
that our loving super had planned.
One of the things I did notice this
year was that a bunch of us are really starting to show our age. Now mind
you I didn’t see any candidates for the “Biggest Loser”. On the other hand
there were not many poster children for the Shintani Diet ads either. It
does seem there is a graying of the field if you get my drift.
I am looking forward to my early tee
time and am actually just glad to have one. I was hoping to get bumped
into A but I guess two miracle rounds were not in the cards.
Tomorrow should be a hoot. Hope to
have some good “war stories” for you.
Day One
Ah,
the sweet smell of freshly mowed and rolled grass. Well according to
Jason they were not 12 today but will be tomorrow and the pins will not be
as friendly. That should make most of the field that I suspect shot
nowhere near their handicap really happy.
I
did get to sit down and have a cold one with the diabolical architect
after my round today and I will say that he wasn’t really unfair today,
except for the pin on 12 which I will get to later. For the most part it
was a course that could be taken low and a few did. I have seen the tee
boxes farther back the pins closer to the edges so he did show some
compassion.
Before I get to complimentary let’s talk about 12. Pin front middle
looking really juicy from the fairway. However as even Dr. Doom pointed
out that was a hallucination. You see the green slopes away more severely
from the middle than it does from the positions behind the bunkers. Ask
one professional who was on in two and down in 7.
As
you know the goat is a back of the pack B flight kind of guy. Today
however proved that even a goat can have his day. Tied for first at 82,
yah baby!! Of course I may not be able to duplicate the chip in birdie on
10 or the 40 footer for bogie on 2 but hey, I was aiming at the cup. Nice
to have fellow players muttering sandbagger under their breath and talking
about me for a change, but I digress – ego don’t you know.
Here was an ah ha for me that most of you probably know. I had my
youngest daughter caddie for me today and the whole point was for her to
watch where my shot went so I didn’t have to. Although I wasn’t able to
break the “want to see a bad shot, look up” habit totally it really did
help, so maybe the olden days when caddies were the norm was a good thing.
All
in all it was a great day for golf. Kona winds, although light, really
changed up the course. Glad to see a lot of the old competitors still
hobbling along out there. Speaking of old guys, I hear fast Freddie had a
great second shot into number 9 with a 12 footer for birdie. I little
birdie told me he drilled a smooth 8 foot attempt right at the cup. At
least it didn’t ruffle his --- oops almost politically incorrect!
Tomorrow is another day and I can only hope the golf Gods allow me to keep
it together and make the cut. Probably my favorite couple of hours each
year happens on Friday at the open as we wait for the cut announcements.
I know our course super will be there as very interested fly on the wall.