Things are getting very interesting, as Buchert pulled within 16 points of Troy in the season standings. Both are trying to become the first Champion to only play in 6 events — proving that a strong golf-life balance is possible.
Buchert shot a fairly mistake-free round yesterday (one double bogey), on a course that is prime for blow-ups. You can't score out there if you don't have patience and good course management. Even with those things, it might not be your day.
Conditions were... OK. Way better than the last time I was out there (15+ years ago). I can even see how some of our guys vouched for it. But the greens were punched to shit and you can't place pins on down slopes when you're aerating. There were a lot of missed putts that would have been considered "gimmies" in years past. Which I guess is why we changed that rule.
Not properly being able to warm up probably hurt a few of you on the first hole.
Warming up for God knows how long at Tampa Bay Downs... rushing over to the course... pulling in while the entire Club is standing on the first tee... and practicing putting while the rest of your group has already teed off... probably hurt Tall Mike on the first hole as well. Despite all that nonsense, he had the tournament locked up until he self-immolated on the short par-3 15th. That was a sight to behold.
John, Geoff, and Chandler (me!) played well. The rest of you... did not.
I'm shocked we only had one pitcher owed. I'm also shocked there was a 10 stroke gap between DFL and 2nd-to-DFL.
I guess for this event, Chi Chi served its purpose. We had an eagle, 18 birdies, and a bunch of greenies. We probably need to go back to The Groves next season.
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We're off this week for a make-up we don't need. Our next event is August 21st at Grasslands. You owe John $50 if you're playing, and you should send that to him now.
Troy is out, and it's allegedly Buchert's last event of the season. So while Buchert can't lock up the season at Grasslands, he can eject from it if he doesn't score 16+ points. Realistically, everyone down to Faz has a shot to win the Cup.
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The Rapture draft pool is set. Dave will have first pick, with Troy selecting the next two in a snake draft. Their options will be (in order of qualifying): Reid, Casey, Geoff, Chandler, Brendan, Gorecki, Travis, Darren, Moostie, Ho, Danny, Faz, Melberg, Gary.
I don't think there's any point in having the draft until after September 15th, leaving just one handicap revision before the competition.
I enjoyed the course layout (first time playing the course) and thought it was a good fit for the Concussion. There were multiple short Par 4's where it made sense to go for the green. Most of the courses we play throughout the season have way to much risk and not much reward on the short Par 4's. It was fun getting to swing away a few times.
ReplyDeleteIt just sucks that they weren't truthful about aerating the greens. They were abysmal. I'm pretty sure I made less than 30 feet worth of putts on the day.
Tall Mike had the best blow up I have ever seen on Hole 15. He was literally just a foot or two away from clearing the front bunker on his tee shot, which would have led to a pretty easy two putt for par. Instead, he took three shots to get out of that bunker leaving about 20 feet uphill for his double bogey. He putted that about 2 feet past the hole, missed the downhill putt for triple bogey, and then missed another 2 footer coming back up the hill for his quad. He then launched his putter (which hit the cart path and luckily was not significantly damaged), picked up his ball and slammed it down into the green right on the edge of the cup. That led to him immediately having to repair the ball mark and the cup. I cannot overstate how awesome it was. Before going to bed last night I thanked the good Lord for allowing me the opportunity to witness it.
It sounds like Moostie is NOT an equal opportunity offender...why didn't he take a few extra whacks on the sand trap and toss that wedge into the forest too?
ReplyDeleteIt would have been better had he been successful in throwing the ball into the cup, only to have it bounce back up and hit him in the face.
ReplyDeleteYes, couldn't even throw the ball into the hole with all my might at point blank and, sadly, it never crossed my mind I would miss, but it's probably for the best (as Chandler said) it likely would have bounced off the bottom of the cup, ejected at hyperspeed - like me from the tournament - only to hit me in the face and cause the need for dental or eyeglass repair.
ReplyDeleteStill rather embarrassed about my antics..and still fucking mad at that bunker. The less than half an inch of "soft" sand was misleading and was followed by rock-hard hardpan that caught me by surprise and caused a couple body-jarring swings into the unforgiving ground. So much for that sandy op!
Having never played there before, its definitely a course where prior course knowledge is very beneficial - which Topor helped provide on occasion to our group so thanks to him for that. But overall it wasn't in too bad of shape and had a good mix of holes.
Buchert had a solid round that was worthy of the win and our group had some fun holes out there. Buchert nearly drove 2 par 4 greens: 2nd hole (Faz missed the green but did manage to clear the carts belonging to the group in front of us and land on the side of the their tee box) and maybe the 4th or 5th hole which was a long narrow straight away par 4, which we were lucky we waited until the group ahead were on the green because Buchert's drive settled 8ft from the green in the fairway fringe. Im sure they loved that.
On the LD hole, Buchert landed on the kids or ladies tees, which was off to the right of the fairway, but I believe on the tee box would still count for the LD, technically beating out Topor and I which were inches apart in the middle of the fairway. Faz saved all of us from debating this further by outdriving everyone..just barely counting though.. his ball settling in the fairway but using the taller rough grass as a backboard to keep it there.
Topor also landed a ball about 6 inches from the cup on the #3 par 3....almost dunked it!
ReplyDeleteIf that ball bounces out of the cup and hits Tall Mike in the face, we'd have another "Face Hole" to talk about!
ReplyDelete