Rock Hill Round 1
I had an interesting situation today in the first round at Rock Hill. On the 13th hole (my 4th of the day), I had hit two shots on the par 5 to a perfect layup 59 yards from the flag. It was cut on the front behind a bunker and I needed to spin it a lot to get it close. We were playing lift-clean-place due to the wet conditions. I replaced my ball on a very good lie, took my stance and grounded my club, and then the ball moved. I told my playing partners that my ball moved, marked the ball, moved it again and then hit my shot. I hit it about 8 feet and hit a great putt that lipped out.
Now, I thought that I had proceeded correctly and assumed that I had incurred a one stroke penalty resulting in a bogey six. I was understandably upset since I had just hit 4 great shots on the hole. However, it wasn’t over. I ran into a rules official on the 16th tee and asked if I had actually incurred a penalty since we were playing lift-clean-place. We went through how I proceeded and figured out that I actually made a mistake. I was supposed to replace the ball after it moved and I didn’t. This was an additional two shot penalty, but it’s a situation where the maximum penalty I could incur is two shots. So, I went from lipping out for birdie to double bogey on the hole. At the 16th tee, I figured I had played 6 holes without a mistake and was 3 over par.
Unfortunately, today was a day where things weren’t going my way on the green either. I was hitting good putts on the lines that I read. But, a combination of slight misreads and bumpy greens kept me from making anything. So, I felt like I played well across all aspects of my game, but shot 75.
I’m still encouraged by all aspects of my game and know this was just one of those days. I’m looking forward to bringing it back tomorrow.