| Decatur Country Club - 2007 Match Play Story |
In a hotly contested match
at Decatur Country Club, the gallery favorite, Golfmeister, fell behind
early then rallied furiously in a futile effort to defeat Phillip Smith
in the first round of the 2007 match play championship. Played before
acrowd that generally numbered less than one (Rusty did drive by on
#14), the match seesawed back and forth as Golfmeister gained false hope
by winning the first hole, then lost the 3rd hole when his ball
apparently vaporized while rolling down the left side of the fairway on
his second shot. The ball was never found, resulting in a fat 7 that
Phillip easily overcame with a routine par 5.
After losing # 8 with a second shot that he yanked over
by the fence where he had no swing, Golfmeister had a chance to pull
even with a par on #9 after Phillip pulled his 2nd shot into the pine
bark between #9 and #15, resulting in an infrequent bogey.
Unfortunately, Rusty had armed Golfmeister with a balky McGreggor
putter. The result was a three putt bogey, including a missed 3 footer
for par, so our hero remained one down at the turn.
After making bad shots and bad decisions on #11 and 12,
Golfmeister learned that double bogies seem to correlate to lost holes.
Suddenly he was 3 down with 6 holes to play. Then on 13 the worm seemed
to turn.Golfmeister hit a fine shot to the center of the green while
Phillip hit a tree and bounced back beside the waste bunker, several
miles fromthe hole and under an overhanging limb. Unfortunately, nobody
told Phillip how hard his shot was and he punched a low roller 10 feet
from the hole and then sank the putt for par. Golfmeister 2 putted for a
par and a disappointing tie.
Remembering how Ralph Hamn woke up on #14 and finally
won his match,Golfmeister tried to duplicate the feat. A sandy birdie on
14 cut the lead to two. After a bad bounce from a grumpy tree cost a
bogey and a tie on #16, Golfmeister stood on his home tee at #17 and
launched a magnificent (well, it looked OK in the air) shot 10 feet from
the hole, then drained the putt for a birdie, leaving him only one down
with one to play. At this point Phillip was visibly unshaken.
Golfmeister refused to yield to the incredible pressure
on the 18th tee, and carefully pulled his tee shot far left behind his
favorite tree (refer to the Hamn/Lavender match for a more complete
description). Phillip hit two fine shots and was 40 feet from the hole
in regulation, putting along the ridge in the green. Golfmeister hit
over the trees but short of the green, than chipped up to within 2 feet
for a sure par. Phillip then increased the drama by leaving his first
putt 6 feet short of the hole with a major left to right break along the
ridge. With no gallery to murmur about the difficult leave, Phillip did
not realize the degree of difficulty of the putt and knocked it in the
center of the hole, winning the match and ending Golfmeister's gallant
comeback effort. After kudos and handshakes, the competitors exchanged
e-mail addresses and phone numbers in case they ever decided to date
each other, then went to the pro shop to brag/whine as appropriate.
Phillip shot 76 with some really clutch putts on 7, 13,
15, and 18.Golfmeister shot 78. A follow up e-mail tomorrow will have
more excuses for my play after I develop them tonight. I got beat, but I
really like the match play format and suggest we have a loser's bracket
for folks like me.
In other matches, on Wednesday, Mac Crane won #18 to tie
his match with Murph, then won the first extra hole to win their match
by a hair as Murph's three ball putter got confused and thought it was a
three putt baller.
In other Thursday action, the Weenie's Brad Keenum beat
club champion Dr. Don Jones 2 & 1. Don was reportedly handicapped by
a bad eye (Brad swears he did not poke Don in the eye or spray him with
Mace). Brad was handicapped by playing his usual game, but apparently
made some great putts and sand saves to pull out the victory. Ping Golf
will be contacting Brad shortly to discuss a multi dollar endorsement
deal. It is currently unknown whether Ping will ask Brad to play their
clubs or not to play their clubs. Stay tuned for further developments.
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