A Long Round

I hit solid approaches into my first three greens today, narrowly missed my birdie putts, then the fog set in. It left five groups stuck on the fourth tee for an hour and a half. By the time we teed off, two hours had elapsed. I stepped up over my tee shot and pulled one o.b....double bogey. As we arrived at the fifth tee, five groups again waited on the short par 5. It took an hour for the groups to clear. I layed down for a 40 minute nap. When I stood over that tee shot, it had taken us 4 hours to play 4 holes.

I eventually found my smooth tempo, but my putting left me with a single one putt all day and 36 putts for the round. A weekend golfer cannot beat his buddies with similar putting woes, let alone a pro golfer on an international tour. As frusterating as it is to miss the hole time and time again, I hung tough. I stood on the final tee and said, "I am going to make birdie."

I lasered a wedge into 5 feet and snuck the putt in the right corner of the hole for 77. The only thing good about 77: it is better than 78. The round finished after 8 hours on the course, twice the amount of time it takes to play a normal round.

There were an abundance of opportunities I gave myself today. Although I wasn't able to capitalize and had some adversity on the greens, I am pleased with a few facets of my game. I struck many pure iron shots and mentally, continously reinforced that I would find a way to score my ball.

It is a fickle sport and while 10 or more strokes between one round and another can seem like a huge differential, I know the game I brought to this tournament can post a low score. It will have to tomorrow as I will start the day well outside the cut line. That is one of the many reasons golf is so addictive though; there is always the possibility that tomorrow will be better than today.