Q-School Florence - Recap
Yesterday I shot a final round 69 in nasty, rainy conditions in the final round of Q-School Stage 1. My round yesterday was the 6th lowest of the day and that moved me up from 14th to 9th place, well within the top 27 and ties that advance to the Second Stage.
In the morning we really weren’t sure how many holes we would finish. The forecast for rain was that bad, and thunderstorms were expected in the afternoon. I decided to go with rain gloves as soon as I stepped on the practice tee…those things really work. I started off strong with a birdie on the very difficult par-3 second hole. Then, I gave one back on the equally difficult third. Still, going into number 5 I felt good. I had a mental lapse on 5 and three putted for bogey from short range. Then, I made another bogey on 6 from the middle of the fairway. So, after 6 holes, despite hitting very good shots, I was 2 over par. The last 12 were when I started to heat up. I birdied 7, 9, 14 and 18 against one bogey at 13. I made a ton of short to mid range putts over the last 12 and generally controlled my game very well.
Ben Case did a great job on the bag this week. I couldn’t have asked for better caddy skills in dealing with the variety of crappy weather we had this week.
Stage 2 will be November 15-18 or 16-19 depending on which site I am assigned to. Since I finished well, I should get my first choice for Stage 2. Unfortunately, I don’t remember which site was my first choice. I’m thinking it was Lake Jovita in Dade City, FL. I guess I’ll find out when they send out the assignments in a week or two.
I’ll be taking a break for a day or two…these things really wear you out.