On Sunday I played at Marine Drive Golf Club in a zone tournament. There was 60 players slated to compete. I was lucky enough to be placed in the third group from the start. It is better to be placed near the start in these zone tournaments because this is where the better players play. So I teed off in the third group and started off well with 3 straight pars. Then I ran into trouble by bogeying the next 3 of 4 holes going +3. It got worse for me on hole 8 when I hit my tee shot out of bounds and made a double bogey. I parred 9 and finished with a +5, 41 an unprecedented front nine.
I told myself the back nine is where I going to make up my strokes. In part I started off nearly the same way as I did on the front 4 consecutive pars. Then I turned it up by going birdie-birdie-par. I had some momentum going into 17 when I blocked my tee shot out of bounds and once again finishing with a double bogey. On 18 I just wanted to make par but my tee shot didn't help. I hit my ball into a bunker then hit my approach shot just short of the green. All I had to was make an up-and-down. But it didn't happen because I chili-dipped my chip and my par putt lipped out. I shot a total 41-36 (+1 on the back nine)= 77. I thought for sure I would be out of the top ten. After about nearly all of the better golfers came in only 2 beat my score. I was thrilled on receiving 3rd place but unhappy about my finish.
In the end, 3rd place is much better than being out of the top 10 despite the result.
