Round Reviews

Surpisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, in the last two weeks, I have played three rounds: snowy doubles over new years, the Ice Bowl tournament at FDR and finally, a round yesterday with Saito and Mike at Tyler State Park.

First, the doubles. Dave, Mike M, Saito, Tomoko and myself braved the fresh snow to play a New Years Day round at Prompton Lake, 20 minutes or so from our cozy cabin in the Poconoes. Saito and Tomoko had the option of picking their final team member, and in a very wise move chose Dave. Mike and I were left to continue our doubles woes. Basically, we were utterly destroyed. Saito and Tomoko combined for a birdie on hole 1 and the triple threat team never relinquished the lead. The combination of Dave's driving and putting (with an occasional assist from Tomoko) with Saito's laser guided approaches left Mike and I fumbling like newbies. I don't remember the exact score but by the end they had thoroughly put the spank down, about +1 to +6. Nevertheless it was an exhilirating day, the course was just so so but it was fun to get out and about and romp in the snow.

This past Saturday, Mike and I woke up unnaturally early to go play in the FDR Ice Bowl. We layered the long johns, ponied up our 20 bucks, grabbed a free disc, condom and assorted other goodies and got ready to tee off in the advanced division. Mike and I were not on the same card so I was unable to observe Mr. FDR's play closely, but at one point we crossed on the course and he gave me a two thumbs down when asked how his round was going. I actually started very well, almost birding a few holes I never even come close to thanks to the extra distance my drives were getting after skipping off the hard packed icey snow. In my first group was one dude who apparently won the Marshall Street advanced division in 2005 and had just turned pro. We were pretty close until the final 9 of the first round when I started missing putts and hitting trees, even shanking a 5 footer, Chester style. The pro in my group ended up tied for 1st after round one. His game was solid, nothing flashy, all pars and one birdie (i had two) but of course no bogies (or double or triple bogies), each of which i had several. So then we ate some chili and drank some beer and got ready for round 2. My score was good enough to put me on the second card of the advanced players starting round 2. Unfortunately I started off very poorly and was soon out of contention. I finished almost smack in the middle of the pack with Mike M. a few places behind. Incidentally i actually won the closest-to-the-pole contest on hole number 3 with a pretty drive right down the middle to within 6 feet, but failed to collect my prize. Unfortunately, Mr. FDR was definitely not having his best day. If he had played the course the way he is capable of he would have been in the top 5 or so of the division (not bad out of 30). I must say though that the advanced division was a perfect fit for us. Either of us could have won the novice division and the pros were certiainly a notch (or two or three) ahead. Advanced was great because it was a challenge, most of the players certainly knew how to drive and putt, yet on our best days I think we could contend pretty well. All in all very fun and I am definitely looking forward to hitting some more events this year.



And then, yesterday, the 47 degree weather pretty much demanded that discs be thrown. So Mike skipped out on his drunkenboat meeting, much to Ravi's chagrin, and joined Saito and I at tyler. The first round 27 saw a tight battle between Mike and Myself for the lead with Saito not to far behind. I had opened up about a 4 stroke lead but then tripled on the dreaded ravine hole to negate my lead. I clamped down though and kept the hard charging Mike at bay. Going into the back nine the scores were +8 for me, +10 for Mike and +14 or so for Saito. Mike managed to shave a stroke off but I played almost error free to fend him off. Incidentally a lot of the pins had been moved to the C position so the course was playing a lot longer and harder then it had been previously.

We then played another 18 and I almost had the ignominious honor of becoming the first person to fall to Saito. Lets just say a few mental errors resulted in some bad holes and about midway through the round mike had +1 whilst Saito and I were tied at +6. Despite my early troubles, i resolved that I was not going to become victim to this dubious honor, a fate which will be reserved for Ravi at some point in the coming season. So on the very long and hard hole 11, I was able to give myself some cushion over the menacing Saito by scoring par whilst Mike doubled and saito tripled. So now the scores were +3, +6, +9 and Mike was back in my sights. I managed to cut another stroke off and had my opportunities to complete the comeback but just could not convert. Meanwhile, Saito had not given up and played the rest of the round extremely solid, gaining a stroke on the final hole to make it Mike +5, Ben +8, Saito + 9. Phew!