Canasawacta- I told you it was a marathon

Strub really really should not have let me beat him today. I was feeling awful when I woke up, and tried to tell him to forget it and that I was just going to sleep in. However, he dragged (drug? drugged?) me out of bed and off we went to beautiful Norwich, New York, home of the whatever random basketball tournament we saw there today.

I hit a good tee shot on the first hole and immediately felt better about my chances. I proceeded to hit my next ball I have no idea where, and things went downhill fast. I hit a 9 on the par-3 second hole after losing my first 2 balls. However, Strub struggled on 3 and I hit a few good shots to gain a little confidence back. I finished 9 holes up 6 based on strong driving and good play around the green. I hit the approach irons a little better, but my real problem is still the putter. The last 2 weeks have been Sahara Desert-dry, and I have been putting awful since then. It rained last night, but I still couldn't hit a good putt all day. I think I 3-putted 15 times today.

For some reason, the 9th hole does not end anywhere near the clubhouse. There is a shack with presumably food and drinks, but it was closed today. I really could have benefitted from something more than Burger King breakfast in me, especially since the groups in front of us were so slow that we took 2 and a half hours to play 9 holes and it was getting dangerously close to lunch time.

The back 9 saw me and Strub trade strokes back and forth and go nowhere. The highlight for me was 18, which was a short par 4 protected by several bunkers. I had been contemplating whether I would lay up or go for it for several holes, and I decided to go for it. I ripped the best drive I hit all day and I was confident I had missed the bunkers on the front edge. When I got up to the ball, I saw that I still wasn't safe- I was actually in the backside bunker. My bunker play has been atrocious for the last 2 weeks. The problem is that I don't have a plan for bunkers, other than don't hit in to them. I have been in 2 bunkers in the last 2 weeks, and needed multiple shots to get out of both of them. However, this time I lucked out a little. The rain had beat the sand down, and the ball had only slowly rolled in, so it was sitting up on top of a nice packed surface. All I had to do was make contact with the ball and knock it out. It was just like hitting off a range mat- you want to catch all ball, or as much ball as you can. I cleanly played it out, had a birdie putt, and then fittingly 3-putted for bogey.

The back 9 ended up a tie, so I beat Strub by 6. The way I played, I deserved to lose badly. Canasawacta also features a lot of holes with such severe dog-legs that you cannot hit driver, which takes away a lot of my length advantage and should only help Strub. Instead, I closed the gap from 13 strokes to just 7. This is why I was not worried after Thursday. I know that I play consistently better golf than Strub, so as long as I don't have another meltdown, I expect to comfortably reel him in and then pass him.