Schizophrenic Weekend

As my previous post stated I played the MD Am Stroke Play Championship this past weekend. It is contested every year at Mt. Pleasant Golf Course in Baltimore on the 4th of July weekend. This is an old public golf course in mediocre condition typically, but with a pretty classic layout. On the conditioning front the greens are not USGA spec and as a result are rather bumpy, grainy and inconsistent. Some would describe them as shitty...lol.

Anyway Friday I started in the last group off of 1. And I promptly three putted that hole from 30 feet....weeeeee here we go. Then I birdied 3, 10 and 18 playing very very solid all the way. So first round 69 put me in the lead by 1 shot. Actually round 1 could have been 4 or 5 shots lower very easy. I burned lip after lip after lip and was getting a little crazy. But 69 is a good start and I played super solid all the way.

Round 2 was another story. I missed shortish birdie putts on 10 & 11 (I started on 10) then 3 jabbed 12 from 20 feet. Solid pars followed on 13-16 and then it got really weird. On 17, a long downhill par 3 of ~215, I chose 4 iron. The green is very deep and somewhat narrow. It is a really good par 3 with a drop off on the right, a deep bunker on the left and an overgrown hill further left. The hill is no good and, of course, I hit my first truly bad shot of the tournament there. Snap hook up on the hill. Lost ball. Back on tee I hit the next in the middle of the green and 2 putts later I had double. On 18 I sort of popped up my drive and then hit a less than stellar 8 iron to 35 feet and 3 whacked that hole. Turned in 4 over and really felt like I only hit one truly bad shot. On 1 I ripped driver 3 wood on the green of the 550ish par 5 only to 3 jab that hole. I clearly tried to jam that eagle putt in and paid the price with a 3 putt par. From then on I was rather uninspiring with closing bogeys on 5 and 9. Very disappointing as basically my chances to win were basically gone. Now it was a matter of trying to secure a high finish.

Sunday I started off with my third str8 three putt on 1 and boy was I hot. I followed that up with a hideous 9 iron left of the green on 4. Biggest green on the course and the one place I can not miss it is left and I do exactly that for yet another bogey. On 5 tee we had to wait a bit and I calmed down and tried to get going again. I really just didn't want this thing to get out of control. With that I birdied both 5 and 6 with virtual kick ins to get back to even for the day and +4 for the tournament. A bogey on 7 derailed that birdie train, however, and got me back going the wrong way. I was +2 for the day when I returned to the 17th and promptly snap hooked a 4 iron into the same hill again and made double. Finished at 75 and was really disappointed.

Was +8 for the tournament and +4 on one hole. I also had 7 3 putts over the tournament. That is very unusual for me although on these greens you sort of expect some 3 putts. I have been putting lights out at BCC where we have really, really good speedy and slopey greens. But I hit the ball really really well for 3 days, particularly with the driver. It was my first real tournament of the summer and I'll look forward to jumping right back into the fray again in 2 weeks at the club.