Well, today was better! I got off to a good start again, managing to save par on the first hole after a terribly unlucky bounce off the green. I went on to stick my hybrid to 3 feet on #4 and made birdie! I continued to hit greens and played pretty solid. I was even par through 12 holes, but missed the green on 13 and my par putt lipped out. I maintained my composure, and had a couple of looks at birdie afterwards but none would fall. My mental goof of the day came on #17. My drive drifted a little farther right than I wanted and found a fairway bunker (which I honestly didn't know was reachable). I had a good lie and not much of a lip to get over. I had just thought, "take your medicine and play an iron or hybrid to 150 yards." For some strange reason this thought left me as I approached my ball, and I quickly grabbed my 5 wood (that sounds riskier than usual, but I can play my 5 wood out of bunkers pretty well). Looking back, I really don't know what caused me to get so greedy...the pin was in the back of the green, so it wasn't as if an extra 50 yards would give me that much of an advantage. Now I know at this point I should have re-evaluated, and could have...but here's where it really went south: the last thought I had was a twinge of fear of topping the shot and dribbling it into the fairway. So guess what happened? I topped the shot, it hit the lip, and dribbled into the rough. This is what I have to work on. If at any point a shot other than the one I intend to hit runs through my head at address from now on, I WILL STOP AND BEGIN MY PRE-SHOT ROUTINE AGAIN UNTIL ALL I CAN SEE AND THINK ABOUT IS THE SHOT I INTEND TO HIT. I think it was a lapse in focus and a bit of laziness since it was the 17th hole. Whatever the reason, it was a big mental goof. From there, I had a severe downhill lie in thick rough from 250 yards out. I hit a 5 iron through the fairway into the left rough. From there I hit a great shot, but it took another terribly unlucky hard bounce left into a green side bunker. I was looking at a save for bogey now. I did hit a great sand shot, and made the 10 footer for bogey. By the end of what seemed like an hour long struggle, I saved bogey on #17...and it felt like a birdie. Haha. I finished with a two putt par on #18 to card a 74 for the day.
Not the best, but certainly a better score than yesterday. Overall, I hit the ball well again today, and putted MUCH better! No three putts! I made lots of great putts to save par, and other than one putt on #6, I stayed committed to my routine and process on the rest! Although I putted better today, I was still a little shaky over the longer putts. So after the round, I went back to the practice green and worked on speed control for a little while.
The greatest part about today was the weather! I have to say that God reminded me that He alone orchestrates and determines our weather, NOT a radar system. Haha! I woke up this morning to a heavy rain outside and a radar screen of green and yellow heading straight for Orlando. It rained all the way to the course. I got out both my rain suits, an extra towel, and my rain gloves. I was fully prepared for an extremely long, miserably wet day. But as I began warming up, the rain stopped and the sun came out. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and only He could have caused such an impending green mass to dissipate so quickly. I was so very thankful and amazed!
I tee off tomorrow morning at 8:10 of #1. I'll be heading home straight after, but I'll try and post the results to Facebook and then update the blog as soon as I get home. You can also click on the link above to access the Suncoast Series website which will post the results tomorrow afternoon. Thanks again for following, and have a great night!
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