My best and worse decisions probably came in the same round, from putting myself in with a chance of winning the event, to losing it on the 18th. It's only a 9 hole course, so we play it twice and it's considered a "Championship"
It was my Club Championships in 2002, my first (and only) event at my club due to injury. Was playing with one of the favourites for the competitions, so I was just hoping to staying in touch with him for the first 9 and see where I lay after that. After 3 holes I was 2 shots behind him after hitting a miserable 6 on a short par 4.
The 4th/13th is a short Par 4, Left Dogleg of 286yds, decided to risk it all early and decided to go for the green with a Driver, you can't actually see the green as the hole drops about 50 yards from the green and there's a lot of rouge shrubs about who tends to foil my attempts to reach this green.
I hit it well, and to my delight it had just cleared the shrubs and rolled down to the fairway. I chipped it close and made a birdie.
The rest of the round went extremely well, my partner had played himself out of contention with a 7 and 9 on the 10th and 11th.
We were one of the first groups out, so we were playing the 18th at about 11am and a wind was up helping me. The last hole is a 492yd par 5, with a fence on the left side to keep the youths out of the course/out of bounds. The first time I played this today (The 9th) I hooked my ball off my fence and it bounced back into play, I made a 5.
I'd hit 85 to this point and my partner had said he won this last year with a net 71 (He played off an 8) and he was on about 81 to this point. I was playing off 22 at this point so a nice 8 would put me in with a chance...
But no, Mr MacAvoy (yes, the TinCup Character, you'll know why in a minute)here decided to bring out the Driver and wanted the course record.
I hit it well, better than I hit my drive at the 4th in the same round but that wind that was helping decided to change to a right to left wind and took my ball over the fence out of bounds. I should have went up and played it from where it went out from, but no... another ball out of the bag and I teed it up again... proper Roy McAvoy me...
Guess what...I hit it better than anything I'd hit before, and hooked it over the fence again.
I decided to go up and play out from the hole from where it went out, I wasn't taking the risk again. There was 2 groups behind me on the tee just wondering what the **** had just happened, my partner to his credit did calm me down as I walked to my ball, so I resisted the temptation to bring out a club to get me to the green... in 5.
I played safe and "smart" golf for the rest of the hole, and made a 8.
I was in the clubhouse with a net 71 (93 on the day)
4 groups from the end, someone holes a pitch shot from about 55 yards on the last, for a net 70. A person in the last group made a net 70, so I finished 3rd when I could have made a 69.
Suffice to say, I never hit Driver again for 18 months.
Anymore sad stories?, or am I the only one?
