Written: October 14, 2010
It’s 8:45pm already, long long day and I say that because we’ve been awake since 5am. I’ll make this recap quick. An 80 on the first day yesterday left me paired with the rest of the 80’s shooters today, including my teammate Erwin Madrileno for the second earliest tee time of the day at 7:08am. On the hackers tee, which is #10. The way the pairings went today was by score. The latest tee time on hole #1 were the leaders, and the earlier you played, the farther off you were from the lead. Then the tee times looped around to the 10th tee. The best of the worse half of the field teed off first, followed by the last placers teeing off last on 10. The typical loop tee time. So there I was, with Erwin and two other Koreans teeing off on the 10th.
The front nine went like this: 5 out of 9 greens in regulation. Of the 5 holes in which I hit the green, I 2-putted all of them for par. Off the 4 other greens that I missed, I got up and down once, pitched in twice on back to back holes #11 and #12 from approximately 20 yards, and failed to get up and down on 18. Not bad, a one under par opening nine. I believe it’s the first time ever that I’ve holed out on consecutive holes. That really got me going as it put me at 2 under through the first 3 holes while I was still searching for my swing.
On the 10th hole of the day, I was feeling a bit more comfortable. My proposed swing thought to myself prior to the round had started to prove itself worthy. It’s a trusty one that I keep going back to when things go astray. For some reason, when I start losing my ball striking, I would tend to compensate by picking the ball cleanly. I’d do this as if the turf was my enemy, that if I took a divot, I’d stick my club into the ground and it would get worse. Well, guess what, it’s the opposite. The more I picked the ball, the more I was afraid of hitting down on the ball, the more my shots would waver. In addition, I reminded myself to take the club straight down the line on a path that is not too far inside. Anyways, it started to click midway through the round as I began to strike it more solidly. On the 10th hole, I hit a solid drive, left with 175 yards to the back tier of the green, I stripe a 6 iron to 3 feet for a birdie to go 2 under. From there, it wasn’t a perfect stretch home but I managed to par out. Some I would consider good pars with good saves while some were missed opportunities. Overall, a 10 stroke improvement is something to be proud of. 80-70 for a 6 over 150. Another good round tomorrow and I just may find myself in the top 10.
After the round, the girls and us guys went upstairs to enjoy the delicious Canlubang food. My friend Alex and I shared orders of sizzling bangus and garlic chicken. Yummy! Then, we all went to Country Club for an afternoon range session. After that, half an hour of stretching as worked on flexibility. To wind down, Brent and a couple of us watched this intriguing movie called “the hole” which I’ll only recommend if you’re the type who enjoys those freaky, suspense movies that include psychotic characters.
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| Sizzling Bangus and Garlic Chicken for lunch! |
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| Daunting Hole 18 of Canlubang |
Tomorrow, I tee off at 7:40am on yes, hole #1. First tee time starts at 7:00am. From there, I can tell that I did good work on moving day. And, as I mentioned on last night’s blog. An 80 opening round doesn’t mean it’s a lost tournament. It’s all about perspective and positive thinking. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. Goodnight!
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