Afton

Strub is right to be discouraged after our respective showings at Afton. It looks like the only thing keeping him in the contest is my continued struggle with my driver. I had it under control at Afton, and the result is that even Strub playing his absolute best was just not good enough.

Strub gave me a speech today before the start of the round about how good he was feeling, how today was his day, and how he was going to beat me by 12 strokes. Things looked like they were going to break his way after he hit a nice straight drive right up the middle on 1, and I topped one 100 yards. I gave him 2 strokes on 1 and his confidence swelled a little more. His first major mistake was on the par-3 4th. I teed my ball too high and left 20 yards worth of work to the green, and Strub was sitting pretty just off the fringe on the short side of the hole. I hit one chip 4 feet, with my club passing entirely under the ball and only slightly grazing it. However, he hit his chip all the way over the green, and then left a lot of work coming back to the cup. Both of us came away with 6s and Strub lost his first best chance.

The next hole, I drilled a 5 iron into the women's tee box markers, and bailed Strub out a little more. However, on 6, my day turned around. Playing through a group, we both went up to the tee box and hit monster drives to within yards of the green. Both of us easily parred the hole. I played 7 in good fashion and took an 8 because I lost a ball in the fairway somehow. I hit 4-5 out to come into the clubhouse with all the momentum.

Lunch: 2 hotdogs, 1 Diet Pepsi. I ate one of the hotdogs and about half of the other one. Not sure why I felt I needed 2. To be fair, they were more sausage-sized that hot-dog-. Strub had nothing, and I question the wisdom of this decision. I realize he doesn't normally eat meals before 3 pm and he did have breakfast, but you need some sort of sustenance if you expect to win.

The back 9 saw a stretch of holes that showed why Strub had no chance in this tournament. After a 6 on 10, I ripped off 5 straight holes of pars or bogeys. I was hitting huge drives, and nice straight long irons, and giving myself chances at birdie on most holes. Strub wasn't playing bad, but he just couldn't keep pace. I knew I was in great shape to break 100 going into 16, as long as I didn't have a colossal breakdown. I had a few minor bumps, but I easily came in with a 97 to card the best score of the year. If I play anywhere near the level I showed I could play for an extended period of time, Strub is going to have a rough summer.

Going into 18, I needed anything less than a 12 to break 100. I had no idea what Strub's score was, but he was actually in that ballpark as well. He managed to score exactly 100 by losing a ball, and then making the decision to play off the rocks near a cartpath because he decided that was a better lie than he would get on the leaves behind it. He made these sort of poor decisions all day. He was about to play a ball out of a creek to save a stroke until I strongly suggested he just drop it and take the stroke penalty instead of wasting 2 in the creek. In that regard, Strub is the Rajon Rondo of this tournament. Strub's irrational love for Rondo is a common point of contention between us. I feel that Rondo is overrated as an offensive point guard because he makes circus passes to get on the highlight reel, and the result is that many of his passes are just far enough off target to ruin the shooting opportunity. Strub is out there showboating just like Rondo, hoping that his unbelievably bad fashion sense and willingness to play shots out of creeks and off cartpaths will get him on SportsCenter. Unfortunately for him, nobody's watching, and instead it is just costing him strokes.

Can Strub ever break 100? The question is open, but maybe not. He may just not be quite a good enough player. He just doesn't make the big putts when it matters, and he is just not good enough around the greens. Its ok, there's no shame in being a 100 golfer. It's a tough game, and its not for everyone. Maybe if he keeps plugging away at it, he'll get there eventually, but I think he should be very proud of what he has accomplished. Feel free to congratulate him on shooting 100, and maybe he will see that sometimes the attainable goals are the best ones.