Orange County National - Round One

Round one has been suspended for the day due to severe thunderstorms in the area.  We got through four holes, but just as I was about to putt on the fifth green, we heard the weather sirens.  We waited for a couple of hours, but the radar shows heavy rain and lightening the rest of the day.  So we'll resume round one tomorrow at 8:00 a.m.  

On the positive side, I did get off to a pretty good start.  I'm still getting adjusted to the green speed since the putting green isn't exactly representative as I mentioned in yesterday's post.  But, overall, I was proud of my start!  I left a birdie putt short on the first hole to tap in for par, but then found some trouble on the second.  My tee shot was in the fairway, but I didn't catch it solid, leaving me with a 5 wood into the green.  I hit it okay, but it caught the lip of the front bunker and fell in.  When I got up to the green I realized I had a seriously bad lie.  The bunker was washed out, but my ball remained close to the lip (which was about two feet high).  The lip was literally curved over the ball, so there was no way to advance it out towards the hole.  I considered my options.  I knew that par was more than likely out of the question, so I was trying to do damage control now.  I didn't like the idea of taking an unplayable further into the bunker, nor the idea of just blasting at it to get it into the middle of the bunker.  I noticed that there was just rough to the left, so I decided to hit my sand shot left.  This was great because I got out of the bunker, and was now left with a chip for par.  I had a ton of green to work with and a severe uphill slope to the second tier where the hole was located at the back of the green.  I hit a great bump and run to just outside of 5 feet and made the putt for bogey.  I know that it was a bogey, but it felt almost like a birdie!  I was proud that I chose to remain calm and think through the situation instead of just reacting to a bad bounce!  

The very next hole, I hit a killer drive and stuck a 9 iron to about 18 feet for birdie.  I made a great putt, but misread the break.  I made my par and went on to make another par on the fourth hole.  I'm currently waiting to putt out for par on the fifth green.  The fifth hole was playing directly into a stiff wind today and so I had another 5 wood into the green.  On top of that the hole location was in the very back right corner with a bunker guarding the right side.  I hit a great shot, but played it a little too safe.  I was pin high on the green, but about 60 feet away having to putt through some massive undulation.  I have about a 9 footer left to make for par tomorrow morning.  

Thanks for your encouragement, and I'll be starting again at 8:00 tomorrow.  As long as there are no weather issues, we'll begin the second round tomorrow afternoon at 2:00.  So, I'll have a lot of things to blog about tomorrow night (hopefully all birdie stories!).  Have a good afternoon!