The City Amateur

This year, I signed up to play in the City Amateur golf tournament. Being as I live in a semi-large city, we have a tournament with a cut. Usually, we play 54 holes, with a cut after the first 18 and again after 36. The plan is to start with 210 players on day 1, cut it to 110 for day 2, and cut it again to 60 for day 3. I've never made it to day 3, but yet I keep trying.

As has been the pattern with much of my golf this summer, nothing has gone as planned. Yesterday's round was rained out. This was a bummer for me, because we were playing a short, easy course where I have put up some good scores in the past. But, it meant we all got to tee it up again today, albeit at a more difficult golf course. The tournament was reduced to 36 holes with 1 cut, from 210 players to 105.

So, today I had a 7:20 am tee time. I have a long history of being a choker in golf tournaments, so I tried to change things up a little. I showed up later than in past years to make it more like a regular round. No luck though! I was still nervous on the first tee, though I managed to split the fairway. But, at the green, I missed a 3 foot putt for par, and then missed a 3 foot putt for birdie on the next hole. I'm thinking this is going to be a disaster, but I kept on grinding away, determined not to embarrass myself, even if I didn't make the cut.

I hit the ball poorly all day, but my putting got better and my chipping was great, and thus I managed to shoot an 80 (par is 72), which is in my range of scores for the course we played today. I typically shoot somewhere between 76 and 82 on this course. I've gone lower and I've shot higher, but that's the typical range. The way I hit the ball, I very easily could have shot 85, so I was happy that I was able to scrape it around and put up something that was not great, but respectable at least. And, I had fun doing it, which is pretty much a tournament first for me.

I just found out that everyone who shot 81 or better made the cut, so I'm in for tomorrow. I'm very excited! I know I have no chance to win tomorrow, but I get to play nonetheless. Hopefully I can go out tomorrow and have fun once again.