Brian Quackenbush Golf

I’m sitting out the final round in the Tarheel Tour event at Raintree CC. I missed the cut by two shots with round of 72-72 (even par).

I am very encouraged by this week despite the poor finish. First, I am swinging the club and putting very well. I hit very solid shots all week and my misses were less “off” than normal. I am absolutely thrilled about my putting.

The story of the week…well, there were actually two stories. First, was how the tee times were absolutely botched by the Tour. Because the 10th tee was so far from the clubhouse, everybody started on the first hole both days. The field was split into two halves and you went in the morning one day and the afternoon the next. This part makes sense. However, Your position within your half didn’t change between the two days. So, if you had the last tee time in the morning wave the first day, you then had the last tee time in the afternoon on the second day. This means you get “middle of the field” course conditions the first day and the worst course conditions the second. Conversely, if you’re the first tee time in your wave, you get pristine conditions one day and “middle of the field” conditions the other. Can you guess who got the shaft with the last group in the wave? If it wasn’t me, I wouldn’t be writing about it.

The primary place where this effects play - especially on a soggy course like Raintree - is in the condition of the greens. On the first day - when we were last in the morning wave - they were a little bumpy. On the second day - when we teed off last at 1:40 - they were bordering on atrocious. I would estimate this was a 2-4 shot disadvantage over people who had the first tee time in their wave over the two days.

In a normal, double-tee, morning-afternoon wave event, this inequity isn’t as severe. If you’re last in your wave, then you follow the first quarter of the field one day and the first three quarters the next. This is quite a bit different than following the first half one day and the entire field the next.

In the Tour’s defense, this is probably just how the BlueGolf tournament software spit out the random pairings. The Tour has a lot going on right now and equity of tee times probably wasn’t top on their priority list. Ideally, they would have either reversed the order of the tee times within each wave on the second day or created four quarters and shuffled them on the second day. There were options…just probably none that were available in the software.

The other story was…well, it was just a weird week. I had a lot of trouble getting the ball to spin consistently on the greens. My first and third holes of the event I landed wedges next to the hole and spun them back 20 and 15 feet respectively. Later, when I flew the ball past the hole several times, it stayed right next to its pitch mark. I had it three under with 2 to play the second day. We were the last of two groups left on the course. A nasty thunderstorm was rolling in and the wind started blowing like mad. I hit my tee ball slightly right and the wind carried it into a hazard resulting in bogey. On our way to the next tee we noticed that the group in front of us had stopped because of lightning…which made me wonder why the Tour didn’t blow the horn to suspend play. I certainly could have used a break until the wind stopped howling. On the final hole, I hit my 4-iron tee shot slightly left and watched it bounce left twice into a hazard. Then, my drop rolled out of the fairway into a flyer lie in the rough. My resulting wedge hit the border between the fringe and the green and bounced 40 feet past the hole for a three-putt double bogey. So, that’s how my round finished and how I missed the cut.

I go back to what I said in an earlier paragraph. I’m very encouraged by where my game is right now…all the way through the bag. For some reason, it seemed like everything was conspiring against me this week. It was an aberration.

I’ve got a week off before the next Tarheel Tour event. I plan to play several times…perhaps once up at Florence CC where I’m playing stage 1 of Q-School.

Rick Wakefield, International CC’s Superintendent and my good friend, passed away on Saturday. This was very unexpected. He was a young man and left us well before his time.

In addition to our friendship, Rick was very supportive of my career. I credit him with virtually all the agronomic knowledge that I have…knowledge that is often important to my success.

He was a very good man. He will be dearly missed by me and all of his friends.

Two rounds are finished at the Tarheel Tour event at Eagle Chase in Marshville. We’re playing a Stableford scoring event this week. I’ve shot two rounds of 69 and am +15…inside the cut line but a mile from the lead.

I expected some rust this week and was not disappointed. It’s been a long layoff between the flu, the sinus infection and my injured toe. I’m also working through the swing changes Jack and I put in motion last week. I’m starting to miss shots right more than before and this is encouraging. I would definitely rather miss shots weak and right than hard and left. I’m also noticing some soreness in my right hip joint because I’m rotating around it properly again. Putting is still good, though it’s difficult to tell on the things they call greens at this course.

Speaking about the course…this is easily the worst designed and conditioned course we will play all year. The greens are in unbelievably poor condition. The design leaves you wondering “why would they do that” on many holes. For example, they put almost vertical sloped mounds in several places adjacent to the green. I’m not talking 3 feet off the fringe. I had two putts today from within inches of the putting surface where my stance or stroke was interfered with by these “straight-up” slopes. One telling characteristic of a poorly designed course is when you have trouble remembering individual holes. After 3 rounds, I really need to think to remember the entire course.

To be fair, the course is about what you would expect for a rural course run on a tight budget (rumor is that the entire maintenance staff is 4 people!). Another player ran into some locals who boasted that the course is a “hidden gem”, so they are obviously proud of it. But, for a professional event, this is a bad design and we got it when it was in its worst possible shape.

I had a great lesson with Jack Lumpkin yesterday. We worked mostly on right-side stability, especially at the end of my backswing. This has been a recurring theme for me working with Jack. This time we changed my setup position slightly which makes it much easier to stabilize. We also made a slight alignment change and a slight backswing change. Overall, everything with my full swing looked very good and the changes are very exciting.

We also made a small tweak to my putting where I moved the handle of the putter forward about an inch. Interestingly, when I place my putter flat on the ground, the shaft points slightly backward (toward the right side of my body) instead of straight up at my belly button. I always assumed that putters were built uniformly, so I was setting up to the putter as it lied flat on the ground - with my hands slightly behind the putter head. Jack pointed out to me that no putter is built perfectly and that most do not sit perfectly flat on the ground when they hang straight down. He showed me two of the same model of Scotty Cameron putters that sat very differently. So, now I’m less worried about how the putter is sitting and am just getting my hands in a slightly better position.