As soon as I signed my scorecard, I hopped in the car & made the eight hour drive home. So this is my first chance to update my blog about yesterday's final round. If you happened to check the website, you already know it was a pretty good day! I finished with a one under, 71! I wasn't in the money this week, but at least there was consistent improvement over the three days of competition.
I was particularly proud & thankful for my finish because I did not start off as strong as yesterday. A poor drive on the first hole left me with a long iron into the green, which I I pulled left of the green. Instead of pacing a off my rather lengthy chip and trying to hit to a specific number, I briefly took in the length of my chip, "saw" the shot I wanted to play, and executed my chip with that "picture" in mind. It seemed to help. My chip finished three feet from the hole & I saved par.
Overall, I chipped & putted much better yesterday with 3 out of 5 par saves & only one 3-putt (30 total...4 better than the previous two day average 0f 34). The one three putt came on the third hole (#12). I actually made a nice lag putt from 50' to about 3 feet. I missed the three footer though. I made a very poor stroke that caused every golfer's deep buried fear of the mysterious "yips" to ever so briefly creep into the back of my mind. I concluded that I had become far more concerned on the outcome & lost focus on taking to putter head straight back. A little frustration carried over to my tee shot on the next hole (a severe dogleg right with bunkers guarding the fairway) & I hit an ugly fade that found a deep fairway bunker. I admit, I was shaken. This was not the most promising of starts. I took my medicine and hit the longest club I could get out of that bunker (8iron) which came up very short of the green at the 100 yard marker. A par save was still possible but FAR more difficult now. I took a little off my pitching wedge, & hit a great shot that landed just by the pin & rolled to 8 feet! I focused on making a good stroke, straight back & through, & made the putt for par - dead center!!!! I was pumped! What could have easily become a damaging, big number hole became a huge save & boost to my shaky confidence! I refocused on fairways & greens. My first birdie came on the par 5, #16 where I hit my approach to three feet! On #18 tee box, I knew it was going be a tough hole again today. The wind was stiff & into our face. I reminded myself to play this hole much smarter than I did the first two days. I hit a good drive but was still 200 yards out. I took a 3wood & aimed right of the pin, knowing that I would come up short, but short right was a much better chipping opportunity than anything left. The idea played out & I left myself a bump & run to the pin to save par. I didn't hit the best chip, but made a great putt to save par!
I didn't catch my approach shot clean on #1, but thankfully, it was a good miss, & ended up 10' from the hole. I made the putt for birdie to go to one-under on my round! I found myself with another 15' putt for birdie on #2, but completely misjudged the direction of the slope & missed the putt. I pulled my approach shot on the next hole, & wasn't able to make the save. However, my lengthy birdie putt on the next hole found the bottom of the cup & I was back to one-under! I gave myself two other birdie opportunities that were 15' or less, including one on the very last hole, but none fell. Nonetheless, I finished strong with a string of regulation pars to card a 71 on the day!
A 71 bumped me up to 17th place overall. I'm home this weekend, but return to Florida for two weeks on Monday. I'll be playing next week in a Suncoast event at Falcon's Fire golf course Tuesday through Thursday! Thanks again for following me this week, and I look forward to the next competition! I truly appreciate all of your kind words, thoughts, prayers, and encouragement! Have a wonderful Master's weekend and a Happy Easter! He is Risen!
Soli Deo Gloria
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