Two Man Match Play - 2007
Two weeks ago I golfed in the first round of the Two-Man Match Play tournament held by the Brookview Men's Golf Association (www.bmga.org). My playing partner Tom and I won this event last year and decided to take a shot at defending our title.
We had a rough start to the day, quickly dropping four holes in the first five. However, as the saying goes, there was a lot of golf left to play. We held at four down and won the ninth hole, heading to the back nine only three down. We quickly brought the match back to even and then went one up. Unfortunately, that one hole lead didn't last and we headed for eighteen all squared up.
Before we teed off, the ranger told us that three groups in front of us already had finished with a tie and had started off on number ten in sudden death playoffs. I wanted to avoid having that extra pressure, so I felt like we needed to win this last hole outright. I also felt that I was the one who needed to win it, because I was the only player receiving a stroke on this hole, due to my generous handicap.
I was nervous before I even stepped up to the tee box. Number eighteen has water on both the left and right side of the tee box and the start of the fairway. I hit a fade out over the left water that came back on to the fairway quite nicely. For a moment though, I thought I was going to drop into the retaining wall rocks or at the very least skip across the cart path. My second shot was nice and straight...straight into the rough on the right side of the fairway about 110 yards out. My third shot was even uglier as I hit the turf behind the ball and fell short of the green by ten yards. My fourth shot was terrible as I left the ball fifteen feet short of the hole and about four feet above it. I thought I was done. This definitely looked like a two-putt. Tom told me to just get it close and then we would tie. That's when I found out our opponents were both putting for a five. If I sank the putt my score would be five, net four, and we would win. I took a look at the slope again, thought I had a good idea of the ball path, and then I made the putt. The ball followed the exact path I thought it would and dropped in for the win. Sweet.
Our second round is planned for June 10. Stay tuned for the results.
We had a rough start to the day, quickly dropping four holes in the first five. However, as the saying goes, there was a lot of golf left to play. We held at four down and won the ninth hole, heading to the back nine only three down. We quickly brought the match back to even and then went one up. Unfortunately, that one hole lead didn't last and we headed for eighteen all squared up.
Before we teed off, the ranger told us that three groups in front of us already had finished with a tie and had started off on number ten in sudden death playoffs. I wanted to avoid having that extra pressure, so I felt like we needed to win this last hole outright. I also felt that I was the one who needed to win it, because I was the only player receiving a stroke on this hole, due to my generous handicap.
I was nervous before I even stepped up to the tee box. Number eighteen has water on both the left and right side of the tee box and the start of the fairway. I hit a fade out over the left water that came back on to the fairway quite nicely. For a moment though, I thought I was going to drop into the retaining wall rocks or at the very least skip across the cart path. My second shot was nice and straight...straight into the rough on the right side of the fairway about 110 yards out. My third shot was even uglier as I hit the turf behind the ball and fell short of the green by ten yards. My fourth shot was terrible as I left the ball fifteen feet short of the hole and about four feet above it. I thought I was done. This definitely looked like a two-putt. Tom told me to just get it close and then we would tie. That's when I found out our opponents were both putting for a five. If I sank the putt my score would be five, net four, and we would win. I took a look at the slope again, thought I had a good idea of the ball path, and then I made the putt. The ball followed the exact path I thought it would and dropped in for the win. Sweet.
Our second round is planned for June 10. Stay tuned for the results.
posted by John at 12:12 PM
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