Poinciana Golf Club 4/27: Monday Reflection #2
Intro: This was one of those weekends that is only possible out of season come summer time. 54 holes in one day. The conditions were tough throughout the day, 15-20 mph swirling wind that we were never quite sure exactly where it was coming from on any given hole. We started off playing two 2v2 scramble rounds. The teams were the same as last weekend as we currently have an ongoing, what we like to call, “blood feud”. I teamed up with my brother (Dan) vs my dad (Gary) and good friend Brett. They won the first match and we won the second match and we were tied overall strokes between the two matches. Most people would consider that enough golf for one day, my brother being one of them. The remaining three of us, however, decided that we needed 18 more holes as a three-man scramble. The vibes were high and drinks were perhaps flowing, two large contributing factors towards our decision to play on. Our target goal was to shoot even par.
The Back Nine: We started this round going off the back 9. Opening up with a par 5 that Brett has solo eagled before and I have come close a few times as well. That being said, we started off with a heartbreaking bogey on the first of only three par 5’s on this course. We knew we needed to score on the par 5’s to have the best chance to reach our target of even par. Crazy winds, drinks flowing, 36 holes already clocked in, I would be lying if I said there weren’t talks of everyone’s tanks running a little low. Already committed to the cause however, on to the next hole we went. We parred the next two holes until we finally got some life in us with a birdie on hole 13 after my dad hit a beautiful tee shot a short par 3. Surely we thought that the flood gates would open from there and the pars/birdies would keep coming. We quickly found out that was not the case and bogeyed the next two holes to take us to two over par. We finished the back 9 with pars and remained two over.
The Front Nine: Similar to our start on the back, we bogeyed hole 1 to further continue our journey into the plus numbers, placing us three over par. Bringing us to hole 2 which is the second of the three par 5’s, we missed our chance to score again, but at least this time we managed to get a par between the three of us. We parred the next two holes before reaching the final par 5 of the day. We took my drive that I miss hit just well enough to be in the fairway leaving us about 160 yards to the green. None of us managed to hit the green, but we ended up taking mine which was 15 yards short of the green with a great line to the pin. Brett and I went first both opting to chip, leaving us about 10 feet for birdie. My dad went last choosing to putt instead. He is known for his off the green putts, but what happened next felt scripted. He took his time to line it up after seeing how our chips rolled. Took his stance over the ball, and struck his putt. I was standing behind the pin so I had a perfect view of every tumble, roll, swerve his ball made. It broke maybe three different directions until it got about half way there and I saw it heading straight for the hole. I raised my hand and started walking towards the hole and…plop…RIGHT IN THE HEART! My dad let out a few victory cries and we celebrated like someone made a hole in one. Finally, we capitalized and eagled one of the par 5’s. We were now one over par with 4 holes remaining. All being par 3’s except for the final which is a par 4 and the #1 handicap hole on the course. We parred the next 3 holes in a row, now facing the daunting task of needing to birdie the final hole. We took my tee shot, I hit my 4 iron off the toe which killed some distance but left us in the middle of the fairway with an open shot at the green, 145 yards out. Into the wind a bit, I decided to go with my 8 iron for the approach shot which we ended up taking as well. I hit the ball flush and produced a high flighted cut right at the green which stuck about 10 feet from the pin. All we needed to do was sink a 10 foot putt, and we reach our goal. Another thing that makes this hole challenging is that the green is often times breaking hard and away from you. The putt order was Me, Brett, and then my Dad. I rolled the first putt barely missing it on the low side, but we now had the perfect line that we just needed to match the speed with. Either this putt goes in and we go home feeling amazing, or we miss it and have one more chance to not leave the course disappointed, thinking about what could have been if just didn’t “insert any of our mistakes here”. Brett stepped up, lined up his putt, and rolled it end over end right into the center of the cup…we did it. Looking at us from a distance you would think that we just broke some course record or won the masters, but we didn’t care because we set a goal and we managed to reach it on the final hole. Not a bad story book ending for some bogey golfers.
Closing Thoughts: It was honestly a tough day overall with the wind conditions. Even good golfers struggle with distance/direction on days like that. While it might not seem that spectacular of an accomplishment with a three-man scramble shooting even par, we felt like we conquered the course. We left many shots out there, but it was all worth it to claw our way back and have a story book ending on the final hole. We stayed at the course and sat in the shade reminiscing about what just transpired and celebrated with a few more rounds of beer before finally leaving for the day. Next stop…UNDER PAR!?
