Golf.com World Amateur

[MyrtleBeachGolf]

Well, the golf.com World Amateur Handicap Championship begins with opening rounds at 8:30am tomorrow. Looks like just over 3300 players will compete. The weather looks great for the week...temps in the mid 80s with almost no chance of rain and plenty of sunshine. Registration was quick and smooth and the swag bag had some decent gifts in them. I was so busy at work this week I didn't really get a chance to practice much. I was hoping to make sure my driver was dialed in and put in a long session on chipping and putting. I got one practice round in today at a course I haven't played in a few years. It wasn't the best performance going into the tourney tomorrow. My tourney begins tomorrow at Founders Club GC on hole #10 at 9:30am. Hope to hit em straight.

[David in FL]

Good luck!

[TN94z]

Good luck!  I want to hear how this goes

[MyrtleBeachGolf]

I'm here to provide a reluctant update. Yesterday's course was difficult. Every fairway is lined on both sides with waste bunkers. On the outside of the waster bunkers is either water or OB. There is no place to miss off the tee. It's fairway, or it's trouble. Rated 71.1 Slope 130. I shot 45-44 for an 89. Included in that score is 3 water hazard penalties, 1 OB penalty and 4 three-putts. That opening round of 89 put me tied for 19th in my flight. Today was an absolute nightmare. We played Prestwick CC. The course is tough. Very tough. And to add to it, the greens were hard as a rock and LIGHTNING fast. Truly the quickest greens I have ever seen. The golf director was actually on the 18th green at 8:15am with a stimp meter and announced they were rolling at 12.5. No doubt the greens quickened as the day went on. You could not stop an approach shot on the green. You could barely keep putts from rolling off the green. It's a Pete Dye course. Large greens, but with mounding and undulations everywhere. Rated 71.0 Slope 131. There is OB on 17 of the 18 holes. Many holes have either OB on both sides, or OB on 1 side and water on the other. The round took 6+ hours. Teed off at 8:30am. Finished at 2:45pm. We stood around waiting on every shot. It was brutal. I shot 51-51 for a 102. That is correct. 102. My flights scores have not been posted online yet, but I expect to see some high scores. It was a brutal test of golf today. I was glad when it ended. I'm sure I played myself out of contention. But I'd like to go out tomorrow and put up a good score and get back into the middle of the pack. Tomorrows course is a much more fair test of golf. There are some tough holes, but it's fair. A course I'm very familiar with. I have posted scores of 82 and 85 there in the last few weeks. Hopefully I can play well tomorrow.

[MyrtleBeachGolf]

Random side note: Brandel Chamblee is the guest speaker at the 19th hole tonight. I only mention this bc he seems to be a topic of discussion on these forums at times. I won't be attending.

[David in FL]

Thanks for the update. Hang in there.....! :-)

[bkuehn1952]

Wow, tough courses.  One guy in your flight shot a gross 76 (net 63) at Prestwick and leads the flight by 8 shots.  He better cool off a bit or he risks becoming one of the WAHC's "disappeareds".

[MyrtleBeachGolf]

Wow, tough courses.  One guy in your flight shot a gross 76 (net 63) at Prestwick and leads the flight by 8 shots.  He better cool off a bit or he risks becoming one of the WAHC's "disappeareds".

Yes. Oddly enough I played that round with him. He was in my foursome. The guy is clearly not an 11 handicap. But he did putt lights out. He made 6 birdies. The buzz going around the putting green this morning was that he was going to get DQ'd.

[MyrtleBeachGolf]

Wow, tough courses.  One guy in your flight shot a gross 76 (net 63) at Prestwick and leads the flight by 8 shots.  He better cool off a bit or he risks becoming one of the WAHC's "disappeareds".

Quick update on this situation....the guy who shot 76 at Prestwick had his handicap adjusted for day 3. Instead of getting his 13 strokes, he only got 9 strokes today in round 3. He quickly gave up that 8 shot lead and is now in 3rd place.

[bkuehn1952]

I will say this about the WAHC, they really watch the scores and net scores.  I was perusing the results.  A gentleman who was playing off a course handicap of "8" shot gross scores of 73,74 and 76.  He has disappeared from his flight.  Another guy playing off an 11-12 course handicap shot 78,77 and 74.  He is now history, too.  These fellows would have had 8-10 shot leads over their closest competitor so it is not like they were playing pushover courses.

We have all had hot streaks and periods when everything is clicking.  The problem with that story at the WAHC is that all the courses are relatively new to the players and it is 4 straight days of stroke play competition.  Few people are able to perform much better than their long term handicap numbers over the course of a four day tournament.

[MyrtleBeachGolf]

Well, final round today. Panthers Run Golf Club. We played it at 6400 yards; Slope 124. It was the least difficult course in our rotation. I finally got things working in sync today and shot an 82 (net 69) and that included 4 three-putts and a water hazard penalty. Had I avoided 3-putts, could have easily broke 80 for the first time. I birdied both par 5's on the back 9 and avoided trouble most of the day. I had a decent opening round (89) and then played some horrible golf during the middle 2 rounds, but finished up strong on the final day. Unfortunately, my final round 82 will only jump me up to a tie for 32nd in my flight. It was a great experience for first time tournament golf. It was tough, playing difficult courses, with different guys I don't know, playing 6 hour rounds, etc. I hope to compete again next year.

[David in FL]

Good on ya! :-D