Philly Open and Tyler Too

This is my second attempt at adding this blog post. The first attempt was just deleted somehow prior to me posting it.

Anyway.... now, long story short.

Get to Philadelphia, warm up, hit many trees, putt a lot, get to tourny central for tournament announcements.

First round, play very conservatively in the 30 MPH winds. Let other people make mistakes, hit most putts (I can remember 1 that should have stayed, but was a cut through on a Discatcher). Ended up with a 70, won my card by 3.

Second Round, I was co-leader in advanced with Eric Eichhorst. I started behind quickly by parring the first 4 holes and two others were birding the same holes. I slid back about 3-4 strokes about mid way through the round, where I played very conservatively and let the others make minor mistakes which would award me a stroke on the ensuing holes.

Going into this event, my main goal was to qualify for Am Nationals in Michigan, which would mean me finishing top four. Well, with three holes to go, I figured out that I was still leading the event. I constantly reminded myself not to get "too excited" or "too discouraged" with my next few holes, but to just play consistently and insure the win.

I won, overall by three strokes; won a discatcher traveler, the 2009 Philly Open Am 1, and the right to play AM Nationals.

The next day was Tyler, my home course.
I was very excited to play that day. There was a bit of buzz about me winning the day prior, and it felt like I had a big target on my back. The first round was kind of boring as I felt like I left a lot of strokes out on the course. In between rounds, Adrienne came for lunch, and brought Sprocket with her. It was great to see them and helped to ground me. It turned out that after round one I was leading again, by two strokes (I think). Second round started Ok, but I had some trouble with course management mid way through. I was getting discouraged as Kyle Bennett started to get hot and at one point he was beating me by three overall. I started to get things going when I missed an easy putt within 30'. I had to really dig in to hold on, and wound up birding 4 of the last 6 holes. Arriving on the last hole, the second card was waiting for me on the tee of hole two, when I learned that Eric Eichorst had a hot round, and two of the other players on the second card shot well. Quick math showed that Eric was beating me by two overall and the other two guys were tied with me. I knew that with one hole to go, I'd need an ace on the long downhill hole two, and that a deuce on it would land me in second. I stepped up to the tee, threw, a little off to the left, and wound up about 100' short. I threw a routine up shot, dropped my putt in, and wound up in a three way tie for second.

I was a bit disappointed with my play, but overall was OK giving one back to my friend Eric.

Long story short, the weekend was a success. First Place on Sat (out of 25) and Second Place on Sunday (out of 15 I think).

The next tournaments are the FriZZak open and the Mighty Gaw.

More to come.