The Memorial Tournament

Round 2 - different round, different story. Got a 'very slow' (a rarity for me) on #3, made a bad shot decision on #5, had a 'bullet' putt on #6, the other bogeys were just poor play on my part I think, although I had 2 lipouts. At least I got my own back on the par 3 16th (many years ago I had my first ever computer golf ace on this hole, on Jack Nicklaus 6). Didn't hit the ball that badly, just couldn't find the pins, and my putting wasn't as good as it was in Round 1. Great course though...

R1, nothing to write home about. But I had some bad luck with my drop on Hole number 11. Hit my second into the water about 45 yards from the green. The game gave me a drop option at either (1) the point of entering the water or (2) quite a distance back. So, no surprise, I took the drop near the water. Big mistake. It was an unplayable shot because the ball was under water. I made a good swing on a pitch shot and the ball moveD only to the surface of the water and sat there - I guess I knocked the stuffing out of it for it to float like that after the shot. To add insult to injury, I incurred another penalty stroke for still being in the water. I was forced to take another drop, and it gave me the same drop options. Mistake on me this time for trying it again, thinking it was just a glitch in the game. Realizing my mistake when I saw I was in the same spot after the second drop, I looked for an unplayable lie key to see if I could get another drop. According to some literature on keyboard commands, there is an unplayable lie selection if you hit ESC. Nothing there for an unplayable lie. I guess underwater shots don't count as unplayable. My only choice was to play the shot again from the water; chose to hit a long flop this time. Same result - 2 more strokes gone. Third drop - another stroke - I moved back about 70 yards and finally found dry land slanting sharply down into the water. Did not even try to aim at the green. Just hit it back to the fairway. I stumbled in from there. One putted for an 11. Pretty hard to make an 11 with one putt, lol. I figure the drop rigamarole cost me about 4 strokes, so the 11 is not as bad as it seems ..... except of course on the scorecard.



A caution to all you TGC 19 golfers - don't take a drop near water with a steep bank in this game. Go back until you find some ground you can trust. You would think I would have learned this lesson the last time I took this sort of drop and, when I hit the ball, it went backward (like a Phil Mickelson flop shot off a steep bank) and landed in the water again.



This game is never boring.

R3. Played marginally better until 18, which I 4-putted; tough pin placement. Almost over.

round 2 bad connection at hospital

Round 3 - Strange game. Had a warm-up round and wasn't playing well, but thought 'what the hell, let's just get it done'. Lo and behold, suddenly I started playing solidly and all went well until the 9th, when inexplicably I got a 'very slow' at the top and my ball sliced off into the trees. I nearly got away with it because it hit one tree trunk, came back across the spectator path, and gave me a chance to get on the green from the heavy rough. Didn't quite make it and all my hard work was wiped out, very annoying. Held it together on the back and I should be still up there. Problem is Round 4 will be difficult...