One Step Closer To The US Open
I was medalist at the US Open Local Qualifier in Sissonville, WV yesterday with a 4-under par 67. The top three advanced from this site to Sectional Qualifying on June 4th, so I will be competing in this event at Hawks Ridge in Ball Ground, GA.
I went back to Edgewood CC because I played there in 2004 at the Open qualifier and enjoyed the course. I remember the score wasn’t tremendously low to get through…I missed the playoff by one shot with a 73 (it used to be a par 72 course). Yesterday we had 43 players for 3 spots…about the same numbers as in 2004. The difference was that they had renovated the greens and extended a few holes since we last played. I enjoyed the course before and like it even more after the improvements. The greens, though not very fast, are very good. We got a ton of rain on Wednesday, so the course played long. I got off to a good start and birdied 3 of my first 7 holes. At the turn I was still 3 under and had burned the edge 3 times so felt like it should have been a little better. I coasted through the first few holes on the back and then made bogey on 15. I followed this up with an eagle on 16 and parred the last two.
I figured 4-under would be good enough but was still surprised at the scores. There were two 69’s and nobody else broke 70. I guess the course was playing harder than I thought.
This changes the schedule a bit since now I will play Sectional Qualifying instead of the Nationwide Tour qualifier in Raleigh on June 4th. I may also skip the May 29th Nationwide Qualifier in Chicago to give my achilles a chance to recover a bit. It’s an injury I sustained walking all the mountain courses over the last few weeks. I suspect it’s tendonitis or a micro tear and plan to get it checked when I get back to Aiken next week. Since the Sectional Qualifier is 36 holes in one day, it might be wise for me to take the time to take care of the injury now while I have the time.
I’m in Fairfax, VA for a few days and am playing a pro-am at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club on Monday. I will be riding in a cart, so with my injury it is a good substitute for the Nationwide Tour qualifier.