The TST Member Tournament Play Thread

[David in FL]

Use this thread as a place where we can gather and talk about our actual tournament rounds.  Plans, aspirations, results, and lessons learned.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.  Unlike the "What'd You Shoot Today?" thread, discussion is encouraged as a way for us all to learn from the experiences of others.

Oh yeah, a picture of any hardware won is mandatory!

To start it off.....

I just registered for our County Senior Amateur, hence the inspiration for the thread.  Single day, 18 holes of stroke play with a Gross Championship Flight and 3 Net Flights.  Unless something extraordinary happens over the next 2 weeks, I'll end up in the "A" net flight.  I really wish the individual flights played gross within each flight too, but such is life.  It takes place in 4 weeks, at a course that I'm pretty familiar with, so no excuses not to put in a decent showing, at least in terms of my personal play.  Nothing I can do about the quality of the other players that show up and the handicaps that they carry, so my goal is to play to my handicap and let the chips fall where they may.

I've been playing a lot of golf lately, but have been playing like CRAP.  I'm hoping a little more intensity will help break me out of my funk.  We'll see.  Updates as they occur.....

[Golfingdad]

Great thread idea! I'll keep in touch for sure, although nothing's scheduled for me for awhile. :) Good luck next month!!!

[tristanhilton85]

As long as my schedule allows for it, I'll be playing in my first tournament since high school at the end of October. It is one of the SCGA one day tournaments. It's at a course that I've played once before (Goose Creek, we had a TST SoCal Outing there). I set a goal for myself that if I broke into the single digits I'd start playing tournaments, so that's the plan; however, things maybe up in the air with this one because of work.

[David in FL]

As long as my schedule allows for it, I'll be playing in my first tournament since high school at the end of October. It is one of the SCGA one day tournaments. It's at a course that I've played once before (Goose Creek, we had a TST SoCal Outing there). I set a goal for myself that if I broke into the single digits I'd start playing tournaments, so that's the plan; however, things maybe up in the air with this one because of work.

FSGA runs a ton of good single day tournaments too. It's been a couple of years since I've played in any, but I really need to start again. Less expensive and generally a better turnout than most of the other "amateur tours" that I've played.

[Big C]

Good thread, David! I always enjoy reading about others' tournament experiences. Typically the best triumphs (and sorrows) in golf come when there is a little pressure on the line.

Myself, I played in our men's club monthly tournament yesterday. I shot the epitome of a ho-hum round, with a double on the front and back, one birdie and a smattering of pars of bogies. Final score was an 84 (net 74).

One of the things I struggle with, even in fairly innocuous events like this, is putting under pressure. For some reason, when there is something on line, I tend to lose all touch and I develop hands of stone. Yesterday, I gave myself 4 pretty good looks at birdie with approaches that varied from 7 to 15 feet. In all 4 cases, I never even burned the edge of the hole. My one birdie was a 20 foot downhiller from the fringe, where I was just trying to lag it close. Go figure.

I'm trying to consciously tell myself to relax the grip pressure on my putts, because I notice when I give the putter a death grip, I hit more than my share of stubs and jabs. But any other tips for putting under pressure are welcomed.

I play in the first round of our mens club match play flights this Thursday, which is an event I did fairly well in last year. I will post my results here, good or bad.

[zipazoid]

Use this thread as a place where we can gather and talk about our actual tournament rounds.  Plans, aspirations, results, and lessons learned.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.  Unlike the "What'd You Shoot Today?" thread, discussion is encouraged as a way for us all to learn from the experiences of others.

Oh yeah, a picture of any hardware won is mandatory!

To start it off.....

I just registered for our County Senior Amateur, hence the inspiration for the thread.  Single day, 18 holes of stroke play with a Gross Championship Flight and 3 Net Flights.  Unless something extraordinary happens over the next 2 weeks, I'll end up in the "A" net flight.  I really wish the individual flights played gross within each flight too, but such is life.  It takes place in 4 weeks, at a course that I'm pretty familiar with, so no excuses not to put in a decent showing, at least in terms of my personal play.  Nothing I can do about the quality of the other players that show up and the handicaps that they carry, so my goal is to play to my handicap and let the chips fall where they may.

I've been playing a lot of golf lately, but have been playing like CRAP.  I'm hoping a little more intensity will help break me out of my funk.  We'll see.  Updates as they occur.....

Where's the tournament? Our favorite 6,000 yard course?

I'm afraid my competitive days are over. I just do not have the game anymore; swing's too fragile. I played enough tournaments from age 17 to 40 to know that if I don't have confidence in my swing it would be a train wreck under competition.

Having said that, those FSGA one-day events look like fun & not too stressful. Maybe I'll try one if I ever get my swing in shape.

[David in FL]

Where's the tournament? Our favorite 6,000 yard course? ;-) I'm afraid my competitive days are over. I just do not have the game anymore; swing's too fragile. I played enough tournaments from age 17 to 40 to know that if I don't have confidence in my swing it would be a train wreck under competition. Having said that, those FSGA one-day events look like fun & not too stressful. Maybe I'll try one if I ever get my swing in shape.

No, thank goodness! Actually the Lake County championship. Playing at Eagle Dunes. Good course, great condition right now. Should play about 6,500 yds.

[Pretzel]

I might do a compilation of all the high school tournaments once the season is over (3 tournaments last week, 2 this week, and another couple weeks of this schedule would make it impractical to post for each tournament) but I think the "trophy" pictures would be unnecessary in my case. The medals they give out for high school tournaments tend to be pretty cheesy sometimes, even for first place. The team plaques are nice though, so I might have to take pictures of those.

[Unforgiven93]

This could be a cool thread! I have a few tournaments coming up in september.  A couple NCCGA events, hopefully NCCGA nationals, and another amateur event run by my state's golf foundation.  I'd love to win at least one of them.

Since school is about to start I won't get much time to practice, but when I do I will be focusing on getting my driver in the fairway more and working around the greens.  After watching the PGA championship in person, I was impressed the most by how easily they hit the fairway and how good their short games were, so I decided that is what I should focus on.

I will keep you guys updated!

[MacDutch]

I play a lot of tournaments. Most of the times they are based on Stableford in two categories. My categorie hcp 16 or better. Will post some info and pics of the tournament I played last sunday. :-)

[Grndslmhttr3]

I want to start playing in tournaments, they seem like a lot of fun.

[MacDutch]

I played a two day tournament last weekend organised by a Dutch golf-forum. My score the first day is blurred by Korsakov light, but thanks to the pictures I made, I still remember my score the second day.

We played the Gelpenberg, a difficult and long course I had only played once before a couple of years ago. I was really in form with the driver, missed the fairway only once.

Still managed to make bogey but the mushroom did not survive.

My big problem that day was coursemanagement and playing the par 3 holes. On a long par4 (440y) I aimed my drive for the fairwaybunker on the rightside of the fairway and ended in the sand. That was a 250y shot, and only because of the wind I managed to reach that far. So not very smart, the next shot was even more idiotic, tried to get out of that high lipped bunker with a fairwaywood. It worked, but only a couple of yards out of the bunker and in the rough. Made a tripple!

The par3's were the kiss of death for me: twice a bogey and twice a double. All ended up with 30 stableford points (90 strokes) and 4th position in my group. Made some nice pictures!

[David in FL]

I played a two day tournament last weekend organised by a Dutch golf-forum. My score the first day is blurred by Korsakov light, but thanks to the pictures I made, I still remember my score the second day.

We played the Gelpenberg, a difficult and long course I had only played once before a couple of years ago. I was really in form with the driver, missed the fairway only once.

Still managed to make bogey but the mushroom did not survive.

My big problem that day was coursemanagement and playing the par 3 holes. On a long par4 (440y) I aimed my drive for the fairwaybunker on the rightside of the fairway and ended in the sand. That was a 250y shot, and only because of the wind I managed to reach that far. So not very smart, the next shot was even more idiotic, tried to get out of that high lipped bunker with a fairwaywood. It worked, but only a couple of yards out of the bunker and in the rough. Made a tripple!

The par3's were the kiss of death for me: twice a bogey and twice a double. All ended up with 30 stableford points (90 strokes) and 4th position in my group. Made some nice pictures!

30 points and 6 over on the par-3's?!  We're gonna be in trouble come October if you keep that up!

[MacDutch]

30 points and 6 over on the par-3's?!  We're gonna be in trouble come October if you keep that up!

Looking forward to it David :-)

[Pretzel]

Alright, a bit of a recap for my tournaments this week. Yesterday at Twin Peaks Golf Course conditions were tough. Scoring was abnormally high with the winner shooting 74 and me shooting a 78 (I shot 73 here in tryouts and the winner shot 68 here during tryouts the same day). Part of this was due to gusting wind conditions, with wind constantly changing speed and directions mid-shot making it difficult to judge. In addition, anyone who's played here can vouch that front pins can be the kiss of death if you even hit the center of the green on certain holes (18, 12, 5, 10, 11, and 14 come immediately to mind) due to a severe back to front slope in combination with fast greens for the tournament. I shot an exceptionally poor 41 on the front and held on for a 37 on the back nine only making one birdie all day (an 8-iron hit to two feet on the 13th). I ended up placing fifth overall with a field of a few more than 40 (there were around 10 teams of 5 each). Today I played Boomerang Links, a course that fits my tee shots like a glove. I usually play a large draw (15-20 yards) with the driver and there isn't a single dogleg right on the course. The day, however, was very up and down for me. I hit every par 5 in two and played them at -3 (the three putt was from 75 feet on the 580 yard 11th) but I had a couple holes that I struggled on. Pushing a tee shot into the native led to a triple bogey when I chunked the second shot underneath a tree (this was the 8th hole), but I bounced back well with a birdie on the par five ninth. It was quite the up and down day for me, with 5 birdies, six bogeys, and one triple to end up with a 76 (+4) and an 8th place finish overall. So far this high school season I have placed 5th (with a +6 78), 9th (with a very poor 81), and another in the top ten with a 75 (I don't have the exact placing for Eaton Country Club) in addition to these scores so I feel confident going into the second half of the season next week. I should end up within the top 10 in the conference easily and have a chance to do well at regionals since they're at a local course I've played frequently in the past (Ute Creek). I'm also looking forward to the state tournament in Pueblo at Walking Stick, which is another fun course that I'm familiar with.

[David in FL]

You hit a 580 yard par-5 in 2?! Damn! :-O

[Pretzel]

You hit a 580 yard par-5 in 2?!

Damn!

I was killing the tee shots today. The altitude does help some, but even still I'm not saying how far my two longest drives went for fear of being ridiculed. My coach saw them and that's good enough for me.

[David in FL]

I was killing the tee shots today. The altitude does help some, but even still I'm not saying how far my two longest drives wen t for fear of being ridiculed . My coach saw them and that's good enough for me.

I don't talk about my drives for the same reason. :~( Oh to be young again!