ship shot 70, 18 is barely reachable today, wind was completely diff. direction from the practice round we played

I caddied for one of my buddies, we didn't have to stick around for a playoff...

btw I know the course isn't exactly long, but only 2 pins were up from center, the other 16 were all back

just weird, USGA also stuck a couple pins right in the middle of the ****ty ass sections of newly sodded greens

I have never seen a USGA qualifier playoff start on 18. Done on the PGA and LPGA becuse that's where all the cameras are

They probably started on 10 or 1 for the playoff.

Now showing one of the five -2s as lone 6th place, and the four others as T7. I guess 4 for 1 now. Although maybe could be 2 for 1 or 3 for 1 but the system doesn't bump the others down.

missed

sucks

damn

crap.

He could be an alternate. Have to wait for him to give a full report.
But it does suck

there were 2 alternate spots

There are usually 2. They just updated it. He is alternate #2. I have no clue how they pick alternates for the sectional. And I don't know if he would be an alternate for the Memphis site only or he might get chosen for a different site. University of Michigan junior Matt Thompson is 1st alternate out of his local but shot even in his local. Seems like a guy that shot 2 under would get preference. But ... who knows what the USGA thinks anyway.

Me thinks he's going to be real pissed not birdieing 18. Once you've done a couple of these you have a real good idea what the number is going to be without seeing the board.

BO

ehhh...I'm not happy, but it's kind of a tough spot on 18. Hit a great drive and had 232, probably 227 to carry a bunker and pin was on back right with runoff to a hazard right. Wind left to right and in a touch 10ish mph. The problem is I think -2 has a good shot with how bad the greens are but -3 would be nice and -1 is dead obv. If I miss hybrid at all or wipe it/float it/block it I am in trouble so I played it well left and then just hit a bad shot and pulled it. In the left bunker by about 15 feet and the sand is like pancake batter. Just dumped it out and it ran down to 12 feet and putt caught bottom lip.

Really was a solid day for the most part. The greens are AWFUL. That isn't putting it strong enough to be honest. Goal was to hit 18 greens and have a ton of tap in pars and get a few somewhere along the way, shoot 3 or 4 under and that would be good enough. Really pulled it off well expect for one swing. On 10 I had 160 with a back pin, only 5 from back edge, and knew I couldn't get 8 iron all the way there so I tried to punch a 7 and pured it right through the wind. Ball in back bunker by 5 feet and, like above, awful sand. Dumped it out and it ran out 10 feet. Bad putt coming back. My gameplan should of had me hit an 8 and if it jumped perfect otherwise I would have 15-20 feet and easy par/look at birdie. Aside from that I really played pretty solid only having to chip one other time. Pulled drive on 7 and had to punch out 40 yards short of green. Pitched it to 6 feet and made it. Was really happy with that save after birdieing the hole before to keep some momentum.

In the playoff a guy canned a 45 footer on the first hole and another made a bogey. So 3 moved on for 1 spot and alternate positioning. I made a nice 6 footer that broke a ball to the right on second hole to stay alive. 3rd playoff hole is #18 and I ripped driver but barely didn't carry bunker in middle of FW that I covered in regulation. Laid out to 110 and hit bad wedge to 18 feet and missed. The guy who got the second spot had a 3 wood left and flared it right and it was headed towards the water mentioned above. It lands on the cart path and takes off. The whole way up the guy is complaining about a bad break and I am thinking dude if it misses the path it's in the water FOR SURE, at least now you might have a chance that it bounced over the corner of the water...which it did. He is 40 yards right in a ton of trees and hits it out to 3 feet. Ridiculous. Then I bogeyed 5th playoff hole and my long day was finally over.

All in all a nice day. 10/14 FW. 13 greens...several fringes. 66 of 69 on mental scorecard. Really tried to grade hard also. At the last event I would think about whether or not I was committed to the shot and would sometimes give myself an "I think I was" yes. Today I went with if I have to think about it then it is a no. 2 of my 3 "no's" were maybe/maybe not so I went with NO.

Going to try the same conservative strategy tomorrow. Tons of greens in reg and lots of easy looks and a few birdies. 12:36 with Spenda on the bag.....how can this go wrong?

http://ntpga.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/n...eaderboard.htm

Low score tomorrow gets to slap Spenda around for awhile?

You surprised two guys shot 6 or better with those course conditions? Seemed real sketchy. Hard to explain to people the feeling inside after grinding 23 holes with no payoff. Know what you're going through, just make up for it tomorrow.

Regarding strategy tomorrow, am planning on 3W off 12 for sure, thinking about 3W off 5 depending on wind. Opinion on 5?

Greens were dotted today, 17 is about 10 on and 5 from the right. Going to let my score and wind determine the play for me off that tee. Pured driver and had simple pitch from 30 yards today to similar pin. Plan on being well under par by then and hitting hybrid to the 100 yard marker though.

Overall, hole locations aren't difficult.

BO

nitBO playing as well?

name to follow?

Seems like this afternoon was a bad time to nap.

gl tomorrow ship.

And BO!!!

oh no Bo's true identity might be revealed

no worries, I won't do it, I'm all about the interweb anonymity

if the golf regulars don't know this already, they are just lazy

because it takes 2 seconds to type it and like i would know what thread of the 850 or so in this sub-forum his name would be

This.

i agree. It is very interesting following you both.

Good playing ship, not the desired result obv but maybe you'll still get in. How do they go about choosing the alts anyway? Will people have to specifically drop out from your local or do they go across all locals and go by best score?

I was hoping you didn't see this earlier ship...I prob shoulda just deleted in case you were checking out a few posts while waiting. Anyway, I definitely didn't want to put in any bad thoughts in your mind if it turned out you were on 18 getting ready to play. Thanks for explaining what happened there. It looked like a raping hole and that's why I brought it up.

Go Low tomorrow Ship.

Ian Ford 81. Such dead money.

Not sure how the alternates will work. I know it is tough because you will probably get a call the day before and be expected to be anywhere in the US ready to go. Most likely I will just go to the Dallas site and cross my fingers somebody sleeps in or something.

Don't worry about negative thoughts, I should be good enough to weed through anything and honestly since the mental side is a major leak I want to grind through some tough mental spots anyway. Sure the hole wasn't hard, but it did play to a 4.85 stroke average...it wasn't a complete freebie birdie. I wasn't checking 2+2 for head shots before the playoff! The only reason I posted on here before the playoff was because I was on my phone waiting for a call back and email while standing on the tee for the first playoff hole. The deal I mentioned was closing at 8:30 yesterday wound up getting put on hold because natural gas (electricity prices) was moving up and the provider had to reprice the deal. Once my client couldn't get the deal done at 8:30 I figured no biggie as I thought I would be done around 1:30 since the USGA is so vigilant on pace of play and I would still have several hours to work before the 4 pm deadline. It took 5 and a half hours to play and that really hurt my timeline for the deal. If we didn't get the contracts in by 4 it would have cost my client 200k. Not good for them, but that also wouldn't look good for me as I told them I was playing in the Open qualifier since I thought it would be done before I teed off and the guy is a golfer....golfing while they lose 200k isn't a good thing. Had I not gotten ahold of him 10 minutes before the playoff started to impress upon him we needed to sign ASAP I was considering bailing to be able to keep my phone on. The reason I was still on it right before the playoff was I was waiting to see the first of 14 contracts come in via email and then I would know the rest were on the way. It did about 2 minutes before it was time to play. I can tell you the first tee shot was a little easier to hit after seeing the contracts come in.....WHOOP!

Thanks....tons of it out there!
Not surprised, the layout is easy and luck in a few putts and there you go. Up to Spenda if he is good with that....

I am hitting 3W on 12 for sure also. If the tees are back on 5 it is driver all day. Did you even see the back tee? It is about 500 from back there. 17 is layup all day unless a few over par.

Good luck bud...see you out there hopefully and you can meet Spenda!