Worm on Doubles
- or -
Wind? Wind? I Saw No Wind...
(Mileage 8100)
So, we just got through playing what is said to be one of the most fun tournaments of the year, the 2001 National Doubles. Every year since '97 I've played with Rivers out of Mobile. This year, instead of playing with Rivers, I got the opportunity to play with Cam (who played with Dickie last year). Lesli and Sue Stephens teamed up to go head to head with Juliana and Sheila Kirkham, plus the ferocious winds of Texas which reared its ugly head for both rounds on Saturday.
Friday Lesli and Cam teamed up and won the mixed doubles by 2 strokes over Sam Ferrans and Juliana. Myself and Joel Kelly played together in the Friday afternoon Tough Shot Nationals and won by 3 strokes. The courses were both changed, with the South Course showing the more dramatic shift. It went from being a long course with a few tight holes to a mixture of accuracy in some dense woods along water while still having distance and wind on the others. The North Course changed, but there were no tight wooded holes, just a bunch of wind and distance. With the water level in the lake (on the North Course) being higher than usual there were some interesting play on a few holes, especially #16 off the dam about 320 feet righty hyzer and the water about 10 feet from the hole, if that.
On the North Course there were 9 holes that were the same original holes with a couple of minor changes and the other 9 were new for pretty much everyone.
The South Course only had about 2 holes that were from the original design, and when asked about the tight holes the locals would respond with, "We're tired of going to all these tight courses on the east coast and being out of practice." All in all I would have to say the North played a little tougher and the South played a little easier, if you like trees.
Going into Sunday, Cam and I were in about 7th place and only 3 or 4 strokes off the lead. We shot a 50, jumping us into a tie for second with the Ricos, 1 off the lead, and Al and Todd were only 2 off the lead. During the final round, me and Cam had our worst round and gave away lots of strokes as Ron and Scott saw the light and played consistently enough through 6, 6, 6 [Ed: the final round at Nat'l Doubles is always, what, 6 holes of worst shot, 6 of alternate, and 6 of best?] to snag their first National Doubles victory. Al and Todd also played well the last round to nab second place, Ricos third, and for us let's just say watch out next year.
We just traveled 1,900 miles to get from the last SuperTour event to Round Rock. Now we're en-route to Raleigh, North Carolina, which is another 1,200 miles. Together in 2 weeks that's over 3,000. We barely have time to wash clothes.
I found a few things wrong with the changes made to the courses, just like everyone else, places where there were tee boxes close to the previous basket, but were blind from the previous tee (so if somebody shanks one into your group they can't see to yell Fore!), and a few other practical layout problems. I think it's important that everyone should try and make their courses more professional.
