No Wimps, Just Winers
My First (Unsanctioned) Tournament of the Year
Located on the property of the Long Trout Winery, the Long Trout DGC is an 18-hole test of your accuracy and distance control. The par 54 layout requires confidence, patience, and a little luck to score well. The fairways are tight, the footing can be challenging, and small errors can compound into big scores before you can say “chardonnay!”
…But a post-round visit to the winery can make it all better…
The course was decidedly cart-UNfriendly, so it — and the mounted video camera — stayed in the car. And since 50% of my attention needed to be spent on watching my footing, 50% of my attention needed to be paid to my new mechanics, and another 50% was spent just trying to stay warm in the cold and the wind, there wasn’t much attention left to spend on taking pictures…
…except for before the round when the crowd was still gathering.
…And in-between rounds when we found that someone carelessly tried to extinguish a cigarette on the side of a dead tree — and the tree started to smolder. We scraped out the live embers from the area and made sure that they were cold before we continued, but this could have been a much bigger issue.
Let’s be careful out there!
More pictures may be posted later, as there were other people with cameras — some even pointed at yours truly on occasion — so if any of those images become available, I’ll get permission and post them.
Scores for the Day
A combined score of 119 was good enough to tie for 3rd place out of 12 — well above the payout cut line!
| Hole | Rd 1 | Rd 2 |
| 1 | 4 | 4 |
| 2 | 4 | 3 |
| 3 | 3 | 4 |
| 4 | 3 | 3 |
| 5 | 3 | 3 |
| 6 | 3 | 3 |
| 7 | 3 | 4 |
| 8 | 2 | 3 |
| 9 | 4 | 3 |
| 10 | 4 | 3 |
| 11 | 3 | 3 |
| 12 | 3 | 4 |
| 13 | 3 | 3 |
| 14 | 4 | 4 |
| 15 | 3 | 3 |
| 16 | 2 | 4 |
| 17 | 4 | 3 |
| 18 | 4 | 3 |
| 59 | 60 |
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | |
| Rd 1 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 59 |
| Rd 2 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 60 |
This tournament was the first test of some of the new form elements that I have been working on. The challenge was going to be to keep those new form elements in focus (since they are not yet driven by muscle memory), while trying to stay warm and not break an ankle on the rough footing on the course.
The first round started “birdie - bogie”, which was fine, as the second hole (hole #9) was a really tough par 3 which plays beside an OB pond. I bogied hole 10 as well, blowing an easy upshot and leaving myself with an obstructed par putt — which I missed low. Holes 11, 12 and 13 were all pars, as I was playing conservatively (and still had not loosened up due to the cold.) Hole 14 gave me another bogie, as I tried to ramp up the drive distance before my body was ready and yanked the drive hard right into some pretty dense woods. But I swung back on the next two holes, finding ways through the trees on both holes and picking up a par (#15) and a birdie (#16). I missed the mando on hole #17, the iconic “Barn Hole”, and had to settle for a bogie — which seemed to rattle me a bit, as I bogied the next 3 holes in a row; with bad tree kicks on each of the holes, and low putts (which would have saved par) on two of them. I “righted the ship” on Hole #3 and managed to “par out” the rest of the round.
Final tally for round 1: 2 birdies against 7 bogies. The putts that I was missing were mostly low. But the real reason for the difficulty seemed to be the inability to get loose and relaxed. I think that it was partly due to the cold and partly a hyper-focus on the changes to my form. During the lunch break I tried to warm up and relax — without sitting in the car for too long which would have aggravated the “not being able to loosen up” problem that I had during the first round.
The second round was more of the same; feeling tight and off-balance for most of the round. Starting on Hole #16 this time, I noticed that I was falling back to some old habits and forgetting my new form changes, which caused me to start pulling my drives and approaches to the right. This caused be to bogie 3 of the first 6 holes (#16, #1, and #3). Once I realized what I was doing, I corrected and managed the next 6 holes to a +1, with the only bogie coming on a silly missed 15-foot putt on hole #7. The final six holes felt like the best of the day, even though some unlucky tree kicks on #12 and #14 gave me 2 more bogies.
Final tally for round 2: no birdies against 6 bogies. This round was a tale of two parts; the first six holes were played with a strange combination of my old form and my new form, with the result being a really BAD form! The rest of the round felt much easier, partly because my focus was back where it belonged and partly because I finally felt like I was warming up. The wind played a factor, but I felt like I managed that well; the cold temperature was more of a factor and it seemed like I didn’t get comfortable until part way through the second round. I’ll certainly keep that in mind for next week!
Positives:
The new form/mechanics work — even with no run-up. I just need to keep them in mind until they become habitual.
Putting was dead center all day — the putts that I missed were all low except for a few awkward stances which messed with the putt mechanics. I even hit a couple of straddle putts!!
The repaired achilles didn’t bother me all day. In fact, I didn’t really ever think about it — until it tightened up on the drive home and made it a little difficult to exit the car when I got there!
Negatives:
The new mechanics aren’t habitual yet, which means that I am thinking about them instead of thinking about the shot at hand. Practice will fix that.
I missed way too may putts low into the side of the cage. It wasn’t a bad aim point as much as it was just a weak putting stroke. Practice will fix that, too.
I need to spend a little extra time on my preparation; things like an extra layer, additional power banks for the hand warmer, and a knit hat (instead of my traditional scally cap) would have made things quite a bit more comfortable.
Next week is “The Lumsicle” at Lums Pond State Park in Bear, Delaware. I’ll be playing this tournament blind, so I’ll be putting a bunch of time into researching the course online and trying to prepare on paper… or on screen.
See you on the course!!