The rain was relentless and made for a very long, soggy and slippery round. Started out pretty lame with two double-bogies: an OB 5 on the little island and a 7 on the 1000+ foot par 5. I did grab two birdies in a row on short woods holes, which cheered me up a bit.
The only real catastrophe of the round was on hole 9 aka ‘the genius’. The hole plays from a highly-elevated tee, through a high gap into a rolling fairway. There is an OB road left and river right. Anxious to really crush my drive, I sacrificed accuracy, smacking an early tree and dropping my drive down into a dense fern patch on the hillside.
My group searched for the requisite three minutes before declaring it ‘lost’. I trudged back up the hill for the re-tee. By this point, another group was waiting, adding more pressure. My re-tee smacks another early tree putting me only 100 feet or do into the fairway. At least it wasn’t lost again.
I made my way down the mudslide to the bottom of the hill and prepared to throw my save shot. As I was about 2/3 through my swing, the spotter triumphantly yells ‘GOT IT!’. He had found my original tee shot which had somehow made it’s way into the shrubbery on the early part of the fairway.
Unfortunately, rules dictate that once a disc is declared lost, you’re stuck with the ruling even if it’s found after 3 minutes and 1 second. Ended up with a six on the hole, shooting a pitiful 68 for the round.
On the bright side a bunch of other touring pros are comin over for dinner tonight. Always fun to trade war stories. Looking forward to meeting Greg tomorrow, hope I’ll have a higher caliber of golf to show than I’ve demonstrated today! It can only go up from here!
