Ron, Steve and I attended the Battle this past week end. I am happy to say that not only did I retain the Fall Family Championship and the shirt, but I am also co-champion of the Battle.
It really wasn’t much of a match for the shirt this year as I posted 2 scores of 83 (net 67) in the early rounds. It was decided Saturday night that the 4 top scores in the Battle would play together Sunday so match play was not an option for the shirt as I was the only one of the three of us in the top four. Ron and I decided to just go with a net score for the Fall championship.
Starting Sunday’s round I was not sure how far behind I was for the Battle championship. I was told it was around 11 or 12 strokes. As I was also giving 12 strokes per round to the leader I knew making up 23 or 24 strokes was a long shot. After 9 holes I shot a 50 and the leader had a 55. I now had 9 holes to make up 18 or 19 strokes. At that time I figured it was over and was just hoping to hold onto the shirt.
Well, after another 8 holes things looked a bit different. I didn’t really know where I stood, but I knew it was close. Unfortunatly, the pressure got to me. I pulled my tee shot into the woods, chipped out, laid up (still behind a tree in the left rough), knocked one on, and then 3 putted. So much for stepping up like a champion.
As it turned out I shot 45 on the back and the leader, Dave Milner, shot 64. We still didn’t really know who had won and had to wait for Rick to add up the totals. Obviously, I was 12 back when the day started and not 11. First time in the history of the Battle there are co-champions.
As for the shirt, Ron shot something in the 100’s so that wasn’t very close. I keep the championship until the next challenge.
So, set your plans for next year and you can all challenge me for not only the Fall Family Championship, but the Battle of Battle Creek Championship.
Congratulations.
I’m not playing much these days mostly because of the messed up nerves in my hand. I’m having surgery to repair them on Tuesday. The doc says I have ulnar tunnel syndrome (similar to carpal tunnel but affecting different nerves and usually not caused by repetitive actions). He says it will take several months for the nerve to regrow and feeling to come back to normal.
Because it’s likely to be a while before I can play again I went out and played twice this weekend (and sucked bigtime – shot 60, 53, 56, and 47 for my nines). I actually had a pretty unusual front nine – I had a 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and a 10. Obviously my game was all over the place. What’s really strange is that I played the par threes really well – just one over par (three pars and one bogey – I missed a six foot putt for par on the bogey hole so I easily could have been even par). I can’t remember ever scoring that well on those holes (then again, I didn’t hit a single green, they were all up and downs for par – and the putt that I missed was probably the shortest).