Written: May 6, 2011
The alarm clock rang early at 5:45am. Hit the shower, packed the bags, then headed downstairs for the hotel buffet breakfast. The typical bagel, yogurt, banana, and oatmeal diet was more than good enough to get the day started. My dad and I got to the course over an hour before my tee time. The thing is, I had to finish my warm up session about half an hour before my 8:10am tee time since the 10th tee was a long ride away from the driving range. I had a nice and relaxing warm up on the range by going through the bag from wedge to driver. A couple putts to get the speed down and we were good to go.
The starting par 3 10th hole is a 180 yard hole into the wind and all carry over the water. Carry is about 165 yards so if you clank it and don’t hit it solid, well, you’re going to have to re-tee again. Focused solely on my shot and disregarding the consequences, I struck a solid five iron that nestled inside 15 feet away. The birdie putt just slipped by on the edge but there was nothing to complain about with a par on that hole. On the par 5 11th, I was left with 46 yards for my third shot. Visualizing a 40 yard carry for the ball to stop right at the hole, I executed perfectly as I set myself up for an easy birdie from 3 feet away. The next few holes however would prove to be a bit of a struggle. Pars and bogeys and even a double bogey on my 8th hole of the day, a par 5 where I simply just hit a 3 wood second shot way offline. Despite that stretch, I remained calm and committed to scoring the best I could for that day. I followed it up shortly with a solid hybrid for my second shot from 209 yards away, in the rough, ball below my feet, into the wind, and all carry over the water. Turning in 39 wasn’t the best, but there was still the front nine to be played.
On the front nine, I came out hot with birdies on hole 1 and 2 by hitting a 90 yard shot and a 92 yard shot close and converting the putts. The final birdie would come on the 9th and final hole of my round when I stuck an iron shot to about 12 feet and made the putt for birdie and a 33 on the back nine. As they say, it always feels good to make a putt on the last hole.
 |
| Picture taking by the Marina after the round |
The total of 72 came up just a bit short from landing one of the four qualifying spots. There were two 67’s and two 68’s. Anyways, it was a good experience again having my dad on the bag. We’ve been doing this together since 2003 and its become one of our yearly events on our to do list.
After getting a shower in the club, we headed down to Fort Lauderdale and killed some time in the Hard Rock hotel and at Hooters as I awaited my 8:30pm flight to Newark, New Jersey. Once my dad dropped me off at the airport, it was all thank you’s and goodbyes. Certainly, the time together with my dad, mom, and my little bro Casey was time well spent over the last 3 weeks.
I’m on the plane right now to Newark, New Jersey. From there, it’s a train ride away to New York City where I’ll be spending the next two days before leaving for the Philippines on Sunday evening. It’ll be great to visit the Big Apple for the first time since 2005 and get to stay with uncle Martin Limchayseng. Another thing to look forward to: on Sunday I’ll be seeing my friend Kristin Wetzel who now works in New York. We’ll be watching the Broadway play Wicked.
Well, this has been a longer than usual blog post. (Since I’ve been stuck on the airplane with nothing else to do) More posts to come soon! The visit with Bob Rotella and the Miami Heat vs. Celtics game. Stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment