wow that was fun. All I want to do is beat range balls until my hands fall off but I had to get back to the office for meetings and I am on Dad duty tonight. Woof! lol
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Long time reader, second time poster. Alright, I’m not as good as many of you guys on this, and qualifying for championships is a tall task for me, but I enter some qualifiers nonetheless. If not to just try to test the game, play “real golf” and get on some good courses.
Wednesday, I played in the NJ Mid-Am Qualifier at TPC Jasna Polana. Beautiful property, above average golf course, and ridiculous clubhouse as it was the mansion of a Johnson & Johnson founder. Not too bad.
Anyway, shot 79, four off the qualifying number. Two doubles hurt. A chip that hit the center of the flagstick and didn’t go in. A putt that did a 180 lip-out. A three-putt par on a par five. A lot still needed to go our way to make up four strokes, but I walked off the course feeling pretty solid.
Anyway, I enjoy reading this thread. I feel like it helps me figure out how to think in tournaments, how to set realistic expectations, and how to try to bring the best out in my game. Feeling encouraged this year. Maybe this is the year I qualify for a state tournament, may not. But damnit, we’re gonna keep trying.
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Nebraska Fourball was this weekend up at the Dunes course at The Prairie Club! No practice round unfortunately, but was able to talk through the course with a member who gave some good guidance. That place is awesome, and if the Pines course is half as good as people say, is worth the trip to play both.
Didn’t play my best golf, and just flat out didn’t make enough birdies. 4 in 36 holes ain’t gonna do it! 78-74, and had it -2 through 15 playing alright the 2nd day, but 3 bogeys coming home wasn’t what we wanted. None were that bad of shots, just not quite good enough.
In other news, Nebraska legend Andy Sajevic won with his dad, and was -14 on his own ball. lol
And shout out to @QMany for golfing his ball this weekend as well!
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Played in the MGA Public Links qualifier today at Rock Hill. It’s a course that I know well from high school golf but have never played well there.
Today I found out just how bad you can play when you don’t hit a fairway until 13 and only 3 total on the day. My goal for the year was no triples or worse in competition which is still ongoing but man did I make it interesting.
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Regional event got off to a good start, was 1 off the lead after day 1 on a tough day - I shot 76 and there was a +2 PCC. Tight course, I promised myself to stick to a “fairway finders off the tee” approach, and that paid dividends. Day 2 I was grinding to stay in that zone, until I hit 2 in the water on the island green 12th and made an 8. 
Texas Am qualifier…birdied my first. Up and down from the bunker on my second… Feeling myself a bit?
Nah…on my third, a short par 4, I chunked a hybrid off the tee, caught a flyer over the green shortsided for my 2nd…and 4 putted for a 7. Wheels came off quick.
Stuck it out (moreso than the guy in my group who walked off after 13 holes, from like the farthest point out on the course, lol) and was squarely in the middle of the “these guys didn’t have it today” pack.
My face control, direction-wise, has improved a lot over the last ~18 months. I am not reteeing many OB balls and that kind of thing. But what’s been exposed as a result is ground contact inconsistency. Whether fat or thin (and frustratingly, usually a couple of both) I’m putting myself in pretty terrible spots 1-3 times/round, often after a very acceptable drive in the fairway, and suddenly grinding to save bogey rather than trying to drain a midrange birdie putt. Somehow the crucible of tournament golf makes those things much clearer than when I’m just playing casual rounds.
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I’m in a similar boat. I always just tell myself that someone has to go out there and not qualify for these things. As long as I’m not slowing things down, disrupting my group’s play somehow, making really dumb decisions, or giving up on my round, it’s a success for me.
With that being said I am terrified about playing in my first quali in 2 years on Friday
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Played in our State Match Play qualifier this morning and ya know, we just didn’t have it. Snap hooked a driver left that miraculously kicked out of the woods on the first, followed by essentially a topped hybrid out of a trash lie, and then had to hit a punch draw 6 iron from under a branch. Made double and then followed that up by a lost ball double on the next hole. Windy ass day, but not the reason for my trash play. My trash game being the reason. 45-38 to miss the qualifier by checks notes… ten. 
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I played my first ever real tournament round and almost shot a hundred. This is my story.
As some of you may have seen in the Post Anything thread, @golf4miami graciously volunteered to loop for me in a state am qualifier today (he was awesome and a real bright spot on what was otherwise a pretty tough day). Not only was this my first ever state am qualifier, it was my first ever non-roost tournament round. It has been a goal of mine to be able to play in one of these for several years, and when my handicap was low enough to register in February, I jumped at the chance to scratch off another item on my personal goals list.
The goals were simple: gain tournament experience, learn a bunch, and try not to finish DFL. After shooting 99 today, we accomplished 2/3. Let’s break down the good, the bad, and the ugly:
The Good
- This list has to start with G4M. He was relentlessly positive and always had everything completely squared away. I always has fresh grooves, a clean ball, and he did his damdest to keep things moving. He was always quick with a joke and kept my spirits up when things got tough. If you’re ever looking for a fellow nesticle to loop for you, I cannot recommend my guy highly enough.
- Somehow was able to take 85-90% of all of the swing changes from my lesson on Tuesday. I was absolutely smashing driver (as @FisherM24 can attest) and struck the ball well for most of the day
- As evidence: I played the par 3’s in +1 for the day. The only bogey was on the first hole of the day (more on that in the ugly section)
- Steak and eggs for breakfast were elite
- @FisherM24 showed up out of nowhere and walked with us for a few holes. I never cease to be amazed by how supportive this community is, but especially the Flock. Mike used his lunch hour to watch me go double-par-double-double. He’s either a total mensch or has a fetish for bad golf. Not sure those are mutually exclusive tbh
- I actually putted pretty well given the speed of the greens. The big numbers weren’t due to a faulty flatstick (so back tf off LAB weirdos)
- The course was in phenomenal condition and the greens were as good as I’ve ever seen them. Shoutout to the crew.
- I walked 18,000 steps and burned 1300 calories today
- Shoutout @Aham13 and @samba24 for our little mid am support group. I let you guys down today but I will rise from the ashes
The Bad
- Putting my wedge game here feels too generous. Probably belongs in the ugly section. Was an absolute liability today (not entirely surprising given my extremely limited practice going into this)
- Adding speed is dope. Not giving myself a chance to dial it in was not. I made some great swings with 5w off the tee and it actually went too far and got me in some really bad spots. I think this gets resolved soon with some more practice and play but the timing here was tough, and led to some big numbers
- My mental game was ass. I suppose this is to be expected when you’ve played no tournament golf, and I’m still trying to process why today felt so different. Certainly the setup was tough, but reflecting on it I feel like I allowed myself to let imposter syndrome and some golf-related nihilism take over. I got some bad breaks along the way, and rather than locking in and battling, I just let myself think that those were inevitable and I’m not really good enough to expect a better result. The pace of play was also glacial, perpetrated by one member of our threesome, and I let the constant presence of the marshals get in my head and eventually adopted a mindset of “you suck today - don’t be the reason why the group gets put on the clock”. I let myself rush through my process rather than taking 15 extra seconds to commit to what I was doing.
- EDIT: Orange Celsius is mid asF
The Ugly
- We started on the par 3 tenth hole which was playing ~150 if I recall. I hit a nice 9 iron but pulled it a bit, leaving myself an awkward flop shot downhill. Absolutely skull fucked it over the green, then proceeded to chip it to 15 feet. I did drain the bogey putt despite not being able to feel my hands.
- Two holes later is a par 5 that was set up as a par 4 today from tees I had never played. I hammered a drive but pulled it a bit and ended up in long grass. We found the ball, at which point I proceeded to cut my wedge entirely under the ball. Nice divot, zero forward movement.
- Chunked a wedge from 60 yards out in front of Fisher. Shanked a wedge later in the round. Sick.
- After smashing a drive on 17 (our 8th) and getting some relief from GUR, we got a bit out of our process. I saw a sprinkler head that I thought said 99. After leaving a 54 degree woefully short, I noticed the 150 brick as we were walking toward the green. The sprinkler head didn’t say 99…it said 166. Several shitty wedges later we walked away with double.
- After nuking another 5 wood off the tee, my ball was literally resting against a red stake underneath some low hanging brush. After getting the ruling worked out, I managed to hood my wedge and hit it down the treeline, leaving myself an even worse lie. Hit two more wristy wedge things a total of 2 feet, walked off the hole with an 8.
- 3 holes later (our 16th), I make my only truly bad driver swing of the day and blow my ball right into the hazard. At this point I am fully in my head about pace of play and rush my way through every shot after my drop. Super thin 5 iron, chunked 6 iron that lands in a fairway bunker. Chunked shot from there to a gnarly lie from like 60 wher (gasp) I hit a horrendous wedge that lands short of the green. Walk off with 9.
To be honest, I don’t know that my next tournament round could be any worse. It’s absolutely not how I wanted to play, but I also feel like there’s a lot of good to take from it and things that are very correctable. I am proud of myself (and Ryan) for the fact that WD’ing was never a consideration. We were the men in the arena today, and while it went about as poorly as it could have, we didn’t throw in the towel. That being said, I really hope my next round is in a cart with 6 cold beers and practice round pins.
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That’s all that matters. Good for you for putting yourself out there and learning some lessons for next time.
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“The only thing that matters is this / the next shot.” I find that mindset very freeing after a bad swing or series of swings and also good for keeping your head out of the clouds when things are going well. Ymmv
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I would like to preface all of this with the fact that I am not in anyway an expert on anything, nor am I trying to be a dick in this post. Just curious about a couple things.
Starting with:
I would be curious to hear what you were thinking having a lesson with swing changes two days before your first ever competitive round. That seems like a real recipe for disaster.
This also jumped out at me:
Did you put yourself in the best position for this thing? It seems like it was a big deal to you, which is awesome, it should be, but it also feels like you’re either being a little flippantly self depreciating or you didn’t truly lock in for it. I don’t know anything about your game, life, situation, it just feels you maybe were mentally hyped, but had some missteps in the physical prep. Or maybe I’m way off base.
Kudos to you for not only doing it, but this recap, too. Sucks it went poorly, but I genuinely feel like just getting signed up and submitting a card is a fucking gigantic W. So good on ya. Excited to hear about your next one.
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All fair critiques and questions that I have myself. The fact of the matter is this is likely the last chance I’ll have at doing something like this for a while with another little one due in September and already limited support for such endeavors otherwise. Playing in a stroke play event has been a goal of mine for number of years and this was kind of my shot to do it.
It kind of sucks that GAM puts these events on in early/mid may. I played some decent golf on spring break in early April but the weather has been mostly shit here until recently. Combine that with 60+ hour work weeks and normal toddler induced chaos and you kind of end up with this. The lesson on Tuesday was not intended to be a major overhaul of anything, but that’s apparently where my swing was at. I was hitting it like dog shit and quite honestly the changes we made on Tuesday saved me from an even worse score.
Finally, we played this thing with 40 year old Mizuno blades which I think you’d appreciate
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Man, you didn’t even list the #1 positive of the day which was hearing the absolute banger of a golf name: Alistair Ironside. 
Truly the fact that you never once even mentioned the possibility to me even after it was clear you were starting to get tired and the number was going to be high gets you big marks in my book. To go hand in hand with that - honestly, other than a single hole (the par 5, our 16th) I don’t think you ever really gave up on a hole or seemed all that outwardly dejected. You never threw a club and immediately started looking forward to the next shot pretty much every time. There is something to be said for that and I appreciated watching that.
I told you on the last hole that it’s clear you have the game to play in these events. The swing and ballstriking were really good and like you said, the putting was really solid all day.
I think the absolute biggest challenge to overcome yesterday was the slow play from not only your playing partner (who was absolutely atrocious) but from the group ahead as well. Which was only compounded by them releasing public tee times right behind you guys when you made the turn onto the first hole and then added onto further when Ranger Rick started following the group closely to try and prod you guys along. Having a biker gang and Ranger Rick absolutely killed any potential momentum we could have grabbed on that second nine of the day.
This means the absolute world to me, so thank you and I hope to get to carry for you again in the not so distant future!
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Can confirm 
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Which dude was slow?
Push cart guy
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I asked him at one point how he thought the pace was and he said he didn’t see any issues, which I guess tells us something.
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Wait, y’all have to walk for state am qualifiers???
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You betcha. And this course isn’t exactly a walking course either.
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