Hard to Win with Double 9′s

Yesterday, I played in the 1st Little John Golf League event of 2010.  (Actually, their first event of 2010 starts in 2009, but that’s a different story.)

The setting was Bear Creek – Masters Course. If anyone looks all the way back to the beginning of this blog (a soft launch last March I think), I played an LJGL event there which almost caused me to quit playing golf altogether.

My 1st shot of the tee was into a hazard!  Luckily, it was a par-5 and I was able to save a bogey, so that felt good.  The next 2 holes, I sculled 6-irons from the fairway and couldn’t save bogey either time.  Then I bogeyed 3 out of the next 4 holes and thought I was starting to put something together, until another 6-iron (which has been my go-to club the last month) screwed me on the damn par-3 and I dunked one into the water!

(One of the dudes in our group, Travis, trying his best Vijay Singh par-3 Masters impersonation, dunked 3 tee shots and suffered through a 12 on that hole.  One of the best meltdowns I’ve ever seen, but this kid was a monster with a driver in his hands.)

On the back-nine, I proclaimed to make the Bear Creek Masters course my bitch, barely missing a par putt on 10.  That’s when the golf gods puked on me and I carded a 9 on hole 11… and then again on hole 13.  Hole 11, I made a bad decision (I’m not talking about the decision to even show up) by trying to clear a tree with a 9-iron when I should have punched it under.  (I was in good company because my cart-partner, Randy, was nailing more trees than Woody Woodpecker.)  Hole 13, I pushed my tee shot OB.  Both holes, the bad snowballed into worse and I didn’t come close to recovering.

On the back-nine, I had 1 par, 6 bogeys, and 2 9′s.  Take those nines off and I’d have been in good shape.

So this morning I look and even as poorly as I played, I ended up in 3rd place.  I lost the tie-breaker, though, because it’s based on the net score on the highest handicapped hole which, coincidentally, turned out to be one of my 9′s.

I didn’t deserve to win, so I’m glad I didn’t sneak into any money with that round, but I’m closing in.  I think the next tourney I’ll play with them is in 4 weeks at The Golf Club at Cinco Ranch, where I’ve scored a 94 and 95 the last 2 times I’ve played there.  We’ll see if I can keep those scorecard killers off of my card next time.