Thursday, October 28, 2010

PGA Q-School 1st Stage - Round 3, Pinehurst, NC

I turned things around today and made a much needed improvement after my 2nd round disaster. I hit it better than either the 1st or 2nd round, but I still had some horrible swings. I hit horrible approaches on #10, #17, #1, and #3 - but I was lucky to save par on each of those holes.

The best thing about my round was how it ended. I got a major jolt of energy with an eagle on my 17th hole (#8). I had just played #6 and #7 really well and continued that with two great shots onto the 8th green. My putt, however, was nearly impossible. The hole was on the left side of the green. I found myself on the back part of the green, on a higher tier. I had to putt alongside the tier, letting it fall straight left as it died. Once at the bottom of the tier, the putt would break back to the right and the green was sloping away from me. I died the putt just on top of the tier and it took a left turn, then turned back right, and snuck in the left side of the hole. It felt like hitting a grand slam. All of a sudden my ho-hum even par round was 2-under.

I hit 2 solid shots on #9 and missed my 20 footer for birdie, but I definitely felt the surge of confidence after holing that eagle putt.

I'm still outside the cut line, but I have confidence going into the final round. I've been in a similar situation many times this year. Eight times this year I've been in the final or 2nd to last group on the final day of a tournament. All of those experiences, good and bad, should come in handy tomorrow.

By now, you probably know where to go for scores.

Neil

2 comments:

Scott said...

Good luck Neil, hope you have a great day!

Brad Johnson said...

I know this isn't very timely, but nice job on the PGA qualifying. I was checking the scores on the last day and was disappointed that you didn't make the cut to the next stage, but it seems like you've really put yourself in those final round situations this year, even more than last year. That can only mean even bigger triumphs next year!