It was a long, exhausting week. This tournament was just close enough to home to commute, yet just far enough to where I probably should have stayed in a hotel. With a three course rotation, I had anywhere from an hour and a half to just over two hour drive each way depending on the golf course. While it was nice to get home, watch the kids softball and baseball games, put them to bed and sleep in my own bed; I had some early wake up calls. Fortunately for me, Geraldine and the kids came down Friday after school and we all had a great weekend in Greenville. It's always fun to see the excitement of the kids when they get to come out on the road with me.
My week got started on Monday. Kevin had a charity commitment in Aiken so he was not arriving until Tuesday. With two of the three courses new to us, I started out early Monday morning and drove just over two hours to The Reserve Club in Sunset, SC. I finished my course work there about noon and then drove over to Greenville to take a look at Chanticleer. I finished there about 5pm and made it home about 7pm for Albany's softball game.
Tuesday morning I drove back to The Reserve and met Kevin for a practice round. Thank goodness they were allowing us to ride carts for the practice round because this is the hardest and hilliest golf course I have ever had to walk in my entire life!! But, because of the cart, we were able to "buzz" around the course in about 2.5 hours and I made it home for some more softball. On Wednesday, we met over at Chanticleer. Mike Hostilo, Kevin's pro-am partner this week, joined us for the practice round. Mike is a longtime friend of Kevin's and played in this event with Kevin in 2010. Chanticleer is a tight, placement type of course that requires drivers, 3 woods, and even hybrids off the tees. We had a good practice round learning all the what's and where's to hit it.
When the tournament started, our rotation was Thornblade (Thursday), The Reserve (Friday), and then Chanticleer (Saturday). Thursday and Friday the weather was perfect. Kevin shot a nice 67 (-4) on Thursday and then blitzed The Reserve with an eight under par (64). Sitting at 12 under and heading over to the tight Chanticleer, we woke up to rain. After our warm-up in the rain, Kevin got off to a solid start, parring the first three holes. But as the rain quit, we ran into some trouble when we double bogeyed our fourth hole and then hit the tee shot into the water hazard on the par three next hole. Staring another double in the face, we walked up to the drop zone and Kevin holed out a wedge shot from 115 yards to save a par. From there on, he played five under par and finished the day with a three under (69). His 15 under total for three days had us in a tie for 6th heading into Sunday. Unfortunately, in the pro-am format, Mike and Kevin's team total of 27 under par fell just one shot short of making the pro-am cut where only 16 out of 168 teams made the cut.
Sunday's final round was played back at Thornblade. Starting the day in some light rain, Kevin came out of the gates playing well. He had an eagle on number two and followed that up with birdies on 5 and 7. He was 4 under through 7 holes but that's when the putter went cold. He continued to hit great shots but we could not get a putt to fall. After seven straight pars, Kevin went for the par five 15th in two and plugged a three iron into the face of the bunker, only about a yard from being perfect. He was able to hack that out to about 15 feet but once again he could not make the putt. Then after another great drive off the par 5, 16th, Kevin hit a perfect hybrid at the middle of the green. But for whatever reason, his hybrid that normally flies 235, flew 250 yards and went over the green into an almost impossible position. We not only could not get that up and down, we didn't even keep it on the green and finished the hole with a bogey. After playing those two back to back par 5 holes in one over par, Kevin walked off the 16th green extremely disappointed. We then finished the day with a sloppy missed up and down from just off the fringe on 18 and ended the day with a two under par (69). It was a disappointing way to finish the event but his 17 under total gave us a 14th place finish and moved him up the money list from 6th to 4th overall.
This week Kevin is off to Mexico. I am not able to make this trip with him. He will be heading down there on his own and will pick up a local caddy for the week. I'm confident he will do just fine without me. He is playing well and I look forward to getting back on the bag in a few weeks in Maryland. Once again, it was great to see everyone come out and support Kevin this week. The walking was tough and the weather wasn't great but its always great to see everyone. Thanks for all the support and I hope to see you all again real soon.
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