It's been over a month, so I should probably write about the Michigan State Publinx Matchplay championship that I played in during July.
The tournament was at Bedford Valley and Stonehedge North golf course in Battle Creek. The tournament consists of 36 holes of qualifying, one round at each course, and then players are divided into flights based on their 36 hole scores. I played in this tournament back in the late 90's, and was always in the first or second flight (both below championship flight). But looking at past scores it appears that enrollment is down, and the senior division is now 50 and over, so the flights have become more watered down. In any case, I determined looking at 2009 and 2010 results that a 2 day score of 157 was right on the borderline to making championship flight.
Championship flight was not my goal, as I know that the best players typically shoot under par, and my game is nowhere near that, nor has it ever been. My first round was at Stonehedge North, the course that I had never played, but had deemed easier judging by the course rating. My group had 3 players total, one of them was a 30 year old guy from Livonia, who wore a hearing aid. He was a nice enough guy, but a bit of a close talker, and very loud, talkative and repetitive on the golf course. He said he had played in the tournament 7 times but had yet to win a match. The other player was a guy around 38-40 from the Lansing area, who also had played before in the tournament, though I'm not sure of his results.
The first days forecast was ominous, and play was predictably slow. I bogied an easy par 5 to start, and after doubling the 7th (tee shot in the trees forcing me to punch out to the fairway, and then a 3 putt after my wedge to the green) and I was +4. The 9th was a long par 5, which I reached the front of in 2, and managed to get up and down to go out in 39. I parred 10, 3-putted 11 for bogie, birdied the par 5 12th, and then bogied the 13th with yet another 3 putt. On the par 5 14th I drove the ball through the fairway and had 240 to the green, going straight downhill. The green was guarded on the left by water, and the right hand side was guarded by trees. Even the flight to the green was guarded by an overhanging tree limb, making going for it a stupid idea. But the frustration from my two recent 3-putts must have made me go for it, and in making sure to not go left into the water, I blocked it right into the trees and never found it. I played from my provisional ball, and chunked a chip shot, and when it was all over I made an 8, when it was almost a sure par had I laid up. I made 1 more bogie on 17, and then on the 18th fairway the rain and lightening hit us, and we were hit with a 45 minute rain delay. After the rain delay I had to hit my first shot out of the fairway bunker, and then my approach went into the greenside bunker. I managed to get up and down from the bunker for par to shoot an 80, but I felt I left an awful lot of shots on the course.
That night I went to Firekeepers to play some poker and hang out. There I hooked up with Chris, who I played with on the high school golf team (he was 2 years younger). He had shot 76 and was also disappointed. I ran very cold at cards, and made some very good brute plays to get ahead early, but by the end of the night people started making strong hands against me and I finished down about a buy-in.
The next day was at Bedford Valley, where I had played a practice round 2 weeks earlier and shot 77. The course was very straight forward, but forced you to hit the ball straight, or miss badly to have shots into the green. Prior to the round I calculated my position in the field to be somewhere in the upper 50's, meaning Championship flight was a legitimate possibility. However, before the round started there was word that they may put less than 64 in that flight. I started very poorly, 4 over after 4 holes, missing fairways to the left, and never got it together on the first nine (playing the back first) and made the turn in 42. After parring #1, I piped a drive down the center of the fairway on #2, however when we got to the area where the ball should be, my ball was nowhere to be found. We finally saw a ball way left of the fairway (like 30-40 yards left) and it turned out to be mine. The only possible explanation was that it hit the 150 yard marker, a sprinkler head, or an animal grabbed it and took it away. Regardless, it made my shot much more difficult, and I didn't handle it well, shanking my approach and making a double. I rebounded with a birdie on 3, and played average the last 6 (despite missing every fairway) and finished with back to back 80's.
My thinking after the round was that it wouldn't be good enough to make championship flight. The guys in my group shot 79-87, and 85-92 or something to that effect, so I was the low score in the group. When I returned to the course later that evening and saw the scores, I counted and saw that I was in 64th place all by myself. In other words, the bottom seed of the championship flight, which means that if they do a 64 person flight, I have to play the medalist of the whole tourney, who shot 67-70 for the 2 days. Sure enough ,an hour later when the brackets came out, that was my fate. At least I knew that I had no pressure on me, and I would likely not have to worry about hotel accommodations beyond that night.
That evening I again went to Firekeepers, playing 1/2 and 1/3, turning a small profit, including playing the nut flush very trickily at a 1/3 table to make some decent money.
The first round of the matches was a shotgun start, with my match starting on the 1st hole. My driving woes continued as I snap hooked it into the trees, though my opponent (Steve) made birdie to go 1up early. On #2 I drove down the center and Steve drove left and was partially blocked. He hit a good recovery shot, and got up and down for par, and I parred to halve the hole. The third hole was similar, in that I was in the fairway and he was under pine tree on the left. He hit a phenomenal recovery shot to 20 feet, and I pulled my approach about 30 feet left. I proceeded to 3 putt and he 2 putted and I was 2 down after 3 holes. On #4 we both barely missed birdie putts and halved the hole. On #5, a long par 3, he hit the green and I proceeded to shank a 4 iron, and was now 3 down after 5 holes.
The 6th hole I had a ray of light as he pulled his drive into the trees, but I proceeded to do the same thing, and we both had to punch out to 155 yards out. His approach ended up on the fringe, about 15 feet away from the pin, mine landed about 20 feet short. I rolled in my par putt, and he missed his, and I was back to 2 down after 6. The 7th hole was more of the same, as I immediately hit a monster hook into the greenside bunker of the next hole, effectively eliminating me from the hole. 3 down after 7. His tee shot on the par 3 8th landed just short in the same bunker I was in the previous hole. I hit a good safe shot onto the green, and 2 putted, and he failed to get up and down and I was again 2 down. But I just couldn't hit the driver straight and immediately hooked it into the trees on #9. He made that moot by making birdie, and just like that I was 3 down at the turn. I managed to win 2 holes on the side, but instead of building on that momentum with a good tee shot, I immediately left the door open and gave back the hole I had just won, which you can't do in any match, let alone against a guy as good as Steve.
On the 10th I missed the green with my approach, but got up and down with a great flop shot to save par and halve the hole. On 11 we both hit the green but I was only 8 feet above the hole. After he missed his birdie putt, my putt hung on the edge and I missed an opportunity. The long par 3 12th was more work for me, as I missed in the left bunker, however I hit a good bunker shot and made a nice putt to halve the hole and stay 3 down with 6 to play. The par 5 13th I went with my plan (the one I didn't follow the previous day when I hit the water with a driver) and laid back with my hybrid. Steve piped driver right to the waters edge, and could reach the green from there. I hit a good layup and wedged to 15 feet. His 3 wood approach clipped a tree limb, but it fortuitously stayed out of the woods or bunker, and he pitched to 2 feet for a gimme birdie. My birdie putt lipped out and I was now 4 down with 5 to play. I made another very good up and down on 14 for par to halve the hole, and go dormie 4. After we both missed our birdie putts on 14, I conceded the match and lost 4&3.
It was a respectable score considering that he was the medalist, but I played so awful that I couldn't help but be disappointed. He was 1 under par for the round, but I really felt that I didn't make him work at all. In looking at the results online, he won his next 3 matches to make the semi-finals before losing.
It was a fun tournament, and I learned a lot playing with the medalist. I learned that I am really not that far away from him in terms of skill. The difference is the consistency in ball striking, and the short game. His chip shots were all very close, and every putt he hit felt like it was going in. It also reminded me to think a little more around the golf course, and not give up as many strokes as I did, as I could have earned a better seed and perhaps played a worse player in the 1st round.
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