How I fared in our club championship?

For those who haven't played Midland Trail before, it's a rather long course about 7000 yards from the black tees and the course is tough because of the greens are slower than most. The greens have lots of humps and ridges and the fairways are narrow and angled. It hard to shoot a high score but hard to shoot a low score in my opinion. Last year with a relatively easy course set up, club pros and mini tour players from around the area played in the Pro Member tournament. The low pro shot 69 and there were only a handful at par or better.

I shoot 78 on day 1. Play terribly and make one putt over 4 feet. My lone birdie of the round. My putter typically carries me. If I don't have the putter going it can be a long day. Sometimes I'm asked which club I want working and I always say the putter. I can hit it badly and make up for it my rolling the flat stick well. I end up in the second to last group of six groups. I was 5 shots behind the eventual winner and the previous years champ, Tom Kelley.

The second round I shoot 75. I had a much better score because the putter was really working on the backside. I made everything. I had 3 birdies and avoided any doubles. I bogeyed the last hole y missing a 4 footer. It was the only putt I missed on the backside.

The second round 75 helped me make the cut but I was a long way back. The leader Chris Stout shot a fantastic 71 to go along with his first round 73. My 75 put me into the last group on Sunday. I was nine back on the leader, 3 back of second place and tied for 3rd. I was happy with my position after the bad opening round.

The third round was a bit of a joke. We were warned on the fourth hole for slow play even though there were no groups behind us waiting. The course was set up like a putt putt course. Windmills and clowns guarding the cups. The pins were put in the absolute worst position on each green. The tees were all one pace from the back of the boxes so the course played well over 7000 yards. Oh and the carts were on the path even though it was pretty darn dry. Our goal was to play in four hours. I literally felt like I couldn't check my yardage and I definitely couldn't back away from a shot. For what reason I have no idea. After our warning I went 6 over on the next four holes. I played on of turn- chipped without the flag stick in- putted out from 4 feet- and didn't bother to check yardage or wind on my iron shots. But we caught back up to the group in front of us.

I shot 85 but it wasn't all that bad since our club champ closed with a smooth 82 and the two time defending champ shot 80. The only bright spot in our group was the ultimate grinder Jay Kelly. Jay is a great player and he managed to shoot 78 through all the trials.

My takeaway is that I'll skip this event in the future and play a local event or a golf network tour event. If we can't take 4 and a half hours to decide the champion golfer of the year at our club, then pick it up it's good.

I finished 7th I believe. Mark Aarvig, Paul Janette and Dan Wharton all closed nicely on the final day.