Strong Finish In First Event
I finished strong in the Tar Heel Tour event today at Rivertowne CC. I started with a birdie on 1 and then burned the lip on 6 of my next 7 holes. I was 2 over going into the ninth hole and needed to get something going. I hit a great drive and a near perfect utility club into the par 5 but had another awful break. The ball caromed sideways off the collar of the green, bounced into a bunker and buried under the lip. Instead of a reasonable eagle putt, the best I could do was blast out to 30 feet and two putt for par. So, I turned at two over par in very difficult conditions but felt like I could have easily been 4 or 5 under.
This is where I was proud of my mental game. I buckled down and put the bad breaks behind me and birdied the tenth hole. I parred the next several holes in a very tough stretch of the back nine and then birdied the 15th. This is a 490 yard par 4 that was playing dead into the wind. I absolutely smoked driver, 4 iron to 15 feet and made the putt. This honestly may have been one of the best birdies I’ve ever made…the hole was that hard! Then, on 16, I hit a good drive and a 3 wood - again dead into the wind - to 15 feet on the par 5 which I then two-putted for another birdie. I made two pars on the last two holes to card the second lowest round of the day.
I finished in 4th place, two shots out of a playoff. I feel absolutely great about the week. I proved that the changes I’m making in all aspects of my game are starting to have an effect. Though things aren’t exactly where I want them to be quite yet, they are definitley moving in the right direction. More importantly, I see a clear path about how to keep improving. I think this is a feeling that I’ve not had in a couple of years. Perhaps due to this my mental game is better on the course. I was able to shrug off bad breaks better than I’ve been able to in years.
The 4th place finish should guarantee me a pass into the Match Play championship in two weeks. The top 32 on the money list are exempt from qualifying. The next event starts Tuesday back down in Charleston.