Saturday, July 11, 2009

Mid Summer Classic

Round 1 of the Mid Summer Classic kicked off this morning at Lexington GC, one of the "Majors" at the club; its a 2-day event with 2-man teams, i consider it the second best tournament behind the Club Championship (begins July 25), the purest test of all at 72 holes of stroke play; anyhow, the tournament kicked off this morning at 7:16 am; i happened to be in the lead group, not my preference to have to set the alarm clock for 5:15am on a Saturday morning (thanks Steve Keegan!), today's format was best ball, 90% handicap...tough for us low handicappers,but who said good things come easy anyway?, lets go...bear with me on my first blog ever

I arrived at the club at approximately 6:35am to prepare for my opening round and the first person I see is defending champ Jim Caruso warming up with some chips around the practice green, how about that! no wonder the Caruso team is always geared up to play well; its a tournament that truly comes down to chipping, i experienced it first hand with my steady partner Mike 'Groundskeeper Willy' Keegan last year, when we lost in a chip off to the Caruso's; first thing i did after my stretching routine was to practicing chipping, you never know, it could happen again!

Mike and I were paired w/ Steve Keegan and Dan Brennan at 7:16am, a strong group of golfing talent; i always enjoy the competition and i was looking forward to playing with Steve and Dan because it'd be a while since we last played and I know they would give Mike and I a good pulse on the tournament competition

As usual, the field was filled with strong teams, many of whom I will not name here, but to name a few strong teams I saw on the grounds in the early am, included Bob "PGA" Green and his partner Steve Champagne, a guaranteed contender; of course the Carusos, Steve Tunney and Peter Brown, Jack and Tim McDonough and many more...

A testing golf course awaited the field, the greens running as fast as they have all year (probably 11 on the stimp...just a guess on my part), the rough is thick in many spots from all the rain; and to the players' benefit, the fairways remain wide and conditions were benign

Mike and I were coming off a win in 2007 and a playoff loss in 2008, but we are no guarantee to put on repeat performance in this field, especially after Day 1; we shot a 4-under 67 on a round of fair, unexciting golf, 2 gross birdies and 2 gross bogeys; our playing competitors Steve and Dan made up for our boring play with multiple chip ins, birdies from the woods, and a bogey (!) on the ever so simple looking, but tricky short par 4 16th; i often leave that hole shaking my head why i'm not at least skimming the hole every time for birdie! its only 280 to 290 yards and its a par 4. it proves that golf isn't about distance, its about execution; Steve and Dan ended up besting us with a 6-under 65 ; well done

Some other notable sightings: Peter Scully ripping driver off 10 in pro form (look out), Rob Lynch making his Mid Summer debut with Steve Jackson, and Peter Brown making a delicate putt from above the hole on 18! a crowd pleaser!

I can say I'm very happy about waking up early to kick off MY first MAJOR of the year, it was too hot later in the day (i'm always excited to play, i guess its just the pure thought of waking up at 515 that stings...Steve, thank you and I look forward to doing it again tomorrow morning)

Who is going to pull it out tomorrow? Mike and I are going to make a hard run at it. When I left at 1pm, the clubhouse leaders were at 63. Great shooting. Mike and I are coming after you tomorrow.

Keep it in the short grass.

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