Olde Sycamore Final
Well, the final round didn’t go very well at the last TarHeel Tour event. After two good rounds holding everything together under the pressure of a nasty hook, the wind kicked up and put a magnifying glass on my swing mechanics. I got into trouble early and was 5 over through the first 8. I wasn’t making the putts in the final round that I had in the previous two. I was hitting good putts that weren’t going in. It was just one of those days when nothing went right.
I was a little down on myself about squandering a good start again this week, but then realized that I still finished 12th despite ball striking that was really awful according to my standards. It was a very long 5 weeks on the road and it was time to get home and get the swing mechanics taken care of.
So, Thursday I had a lesson and straightened out a couple of flaws. First, I’m getting outside with a shut clubface on the backswing. This move - a tendency I’ve had for a while - requires me to time the transition to my downswing right to square the clubface at impact. I also moved my grip a bit to the left (weaker). So, I’ve got 9 days to get everything moving in the right direction before I go back to Charlotte for 3 consecutive TarHeel Tour events. Plenty of time.
After the round, I drove back to Fairfax and the drive prompted me to describe a typical final round day here. Most mini tours setup the final round so you play early because the players need to get on the road to the next event. Therefore, you play between 7am and 9am. This means you need to get to the course possibly as early as 6. After factoring in driving time, packing your stuff and packing the car and the normal morning routine, you could be getting up as early as 4am and probably no later than 6am. Hopefully you were able to get to sleep very, very early because it’s already been a long, mentally stressful week and you need your rest for the final round.
The final round - with all its accompanying stress - finishes between noon and 2pm, you sign your scorecard, throw your stuff in the car and get on the road to home or the next event. A typical drive is 4-6 hours. Now, if you’re playing something like the Hooters Tour, then the next morning you better be up bright and early to get in your practice round before the masses arrive. Otherwise, you get home the next day is all about recovery. If you’ve been on the road for a few weeks, you’ve got mail, laundry, etc. After this last trip I had a stack of mail literally one foot high.
So, another motivation for getting to the PGA Tour: you fly to most of your events and you can get your mail forwarded to you.