2017 U.S. Open Qualifier

[DaveP043]

Good luck, @Pretzel, I'll be waiting to hear the results next week.  

[Pretzel]

Alright, just got back from my practice round and finished setting up my computer after moving out of the dorms this last Friday. 

Today I played pretty well and shot 73 from the qualifier tees, but I made a goof on the second par 3 of the front nine. It's supposed to only be 188, but I ended up playing off the tees from a par 5 that were right behind the par 3's tees and played it from about 230 yards, which led to one of my bogeys. I made 3 birdies, which was nice, and ended up having only a gap wedge approach shot on the par 5 11th thanks to the breeze (my drive on that hole, according to Google Earth, was a new personal best of 405 and in the fairway too!). 

Front nine I shot one over, with a birdie on the first par 5 and a pair of bogeys on the first par 3 (I had underestimated the wind and went long) and the second par 3 (played from the wrong tees, hit into a bunker and didn't get up and down). The second nine started off well, with a birdie on 10 when I had to chip over some sprinkler heads on the fringe rather than putt, and a birdie on 11 after that colossal drive. Pars until the 16th hole, where I got in trouble by hitting into a deep fairway bunker and had to lay up short of the green to be able to clear the grass knoll in front of the bunker which was around 10-15 feet tall. Pars on the 17th and 18th holes meant I finished at 2 over, which I was fairly pleased with. 

A couple things to note about the course:

• There was a fairly stiff breeze today, in the neighborhood of 15-20 mph that made some holes (like 11) really short and other holes (like the already long 17th) quite long. It was coming from the southeast today and there is a breeze of 5-10 mph predicted from the southwest for tomorrow. By 2 PM it's expected that the wind will increase to 10-20 mph with 40 mph gusts, so we'll see how the weather treats me tomorrow. 
• The greens reminded of Chamber's Bay. Ugly as sin, but they rolled fairly well. I made some nice putts today, but I feel like these greens were definitely readable. Some greens had some crazy slopes and one had only ~3 viable pin placements, but they were mostly fair with a pretty clear break and nothing too tricky. 
• The fairways were wider than I remembered, which is nice. It meant even on some of my misses I was still in the fairway, rather than the rough or the native grasses.
• Speaking of the native grasses, they weren't as penal as they were the last time I played there. They were pretty sparse and short, allowing me to get as much as a 4-iron on the ball with pretty solid contact from the native. The only difficult part about it was finding my golf ball the two times I went into it.
• The bunkers actually have sand! What a relief, compared to the very hardpan bunkers I've been used to recently. 

Overall I'm looking forwards to tomorrow. I've got an 8:36 tee time and if I leave by 6 I'll have an hour to get a burrito and travel to the course (it took me an hour to get there today, but that was with what appeared to be a triple semi crash holding up a lot of traffic on the highway) while still giving me about an hour and a half to get ready at the course itself. I like to shoot for an hour and a half since it means if traffic or other problems come up I still will generally have at least an hour, and if I don't need the full time I can just relax for a bit before I go play. 

I'll update tomorrow with my results as well as thoughts from the qualifier. I'm hoping to play as well as I did today, but I shot a 78 yesterday at my home course so anything can happen. I think I ought to do just fine.

[David in FL]

Knock 'em dead!

You already get major points for planning on eating a burrito at 6am on the way to the course!  

[DaveP043]

8 hours ago, Pretzel said:

I'll have an hour to get a burrito and travel to the course

Breakfast of champions! 

[NCGolfer]

Can't wait to hear how it goes...play well!

[TN94z]

Good luck!! Can't wait to hear how it goes!

[Pretzel]

The way I see it, burritos are the perfect meal before a round. You get some protein to keep you full, some carbs to wake you up, and some green chili to help cleanse your colon before your tee time.

[David in FL]

5 minutes ago, Pretzel said:

The way I see it, burritos are the perfect meal before a round. You get some protein to keep you full, some carbs to wake you up, and some green chili to help cleanse your colon before your tee time.

As long as the cleansing takes place before the tee time, and not 30 minutes after!  

[jsgolfer]

Good luck!  Grab one of those 5 slots.

[coachjimsc]

Good luck today! Stay patient.

[MacDutch]

Go @Pretzel go!

[DeadMan]

2 hours ago, Pretzel said:

The way I see it, burritos are the perfect meal before a round. You get some protein to keep you full, some carbs to wake you up, and some green chili to help cleanse your colon before your tee time.

(says the guy who frequently grabs a McDonald's breakfast before playing golf in the morning...)

[freshmanUTA]

Don't forget about us when you're in the U.S. Open!!

[p1n9183]

20 minutes ago, freshmanUTA said:

Don't forget about us when you're in the U.S. Open!!

If he quealifies for the US Open i´will travel to the US and be his caddie for free 

[David in FL]

7 minutes ago, p1n9183 said:

If he quealifies for the US Open i´will travel to the US and be his caddie for free 

Now there's an offer you can't beat!

 

[phillyk]

The leaderboard. Can't remember @Pretzel name though. 

[bkuehn1952]

He did not play to the level of which he is capable.  When he re-caps the day, hopefully he feels positive about the experience and gained some good insight into playing at that level. He certainly will be a better Newport Cup participant for having participated in the qualifier.  Bad news for the East Team.

[Pretzel]

Well, it appears as though I played much more like I did on Saturday than how I did on Sunday.

It was pretty ugly today, I shot an 84. I couldn't keep the face square to save my life, with ~60% of my full swing shots starting right and going further right. That said, it wasn't a terrible experience since I played with a guy who ended up shooting even par.

I shot 5 over on the front and was regrouping on the back nine (two putted from 70 feet on 10 for par) to try and at least keep things respectable. The problems arose when I tripled hole 13 and I let it get into my head. I could've turned things around, but I didn't and I have nobody but myself to blame there. I just flat out stunk today, though the silver lining is that I had zero 3-putts.

Guess I'll be waiting for my letter from the USGA to arrive in the mail soon.