Lexington Oaks proved itself a worthy major host, punishing the field yesterday with blustery conditions. The greens were excellent — much faster than they appeared — and fairly receptive. Fairways played firm and fast, literally like Scottish links, with just a hint of grass. You had to play the ball well back in your stance to compress it properly.
Early signs pointed to anything under net-par winning the day. Even those at +6 net at the turn still had a realistic shot at decent points with a strong back nine.
The par 3s were brutal. Putting the blue tees in the "correct" spot on #2 — something Lexington Oaks rarely does — was idiotic, especially with wind in the forecast. Worse, the fun short par-3 13th was tipped all the way back, so only a handful found the green in regulation. Congrats to Tall Mike for winning our first-ever Closest to the Pin contest ($13 club credit).
He also took the event with a rock-solid -2 net, parring the final three holes to seal it. His +3 gross on the par 3s was the best of the day (matched by one other Member). Topor, by contrast, was +12 gross on them!
Moostie extends his season lead and is on pace for a league-tying 5th championship.
Dan overcame a nightmare start, played the final 13 holes in +1 gross, and finished 2nd.
Chandler (possibly me) held a 3-shot lead heading to 16 before a pants-shittingly bad course-management decision. He finished 3rd and still leads Dan slightly in the overall standings.
------------------------------
No make-up round next Sunday — enjoy the week off. We're back in two weeks at Countryway!
I'm struggling to find a February Match Play venue. If anyone wants to book something, comment below. Check the Sunday Morning Rack Rate grid on the blog sidebar if you want to see how bad prices are at the moment.
See you in a couple weeks.
Oh... shout-out to Geoff who made 3 birdies on the back nine... and didn't make a double-bogey all day!
ReplyDeleteLots of triple or worse… ugh.
ReplyDelete