I'm finished with Second

I thought I would try something new last week and not jinx myself by posting about my upcoming tournament that took place this past weekend. It was called the Ironman. It is a one day tournament where the course is set up about as tough as it can be for a single day. The tees are all stuck right at the back of each tee box and the pins are placed in the toughest spots on the greens. I am talking 2-3 feet from the edge, or on the crest of the biggest slippery slope that you can find.

The round started off great, in fact about as great as I could have expected. I chipped in for an eagle (3) on the first hole. Two under par? Wait a second, this is the Ironman! I knew that I had a very good chance of winning if I could just play my game and not blow up on any of the greens as it is so very easy to do. It is not uncommon for some to 4 or 5 or even 6 putt on these greens. They double cut and roll them, and try to get them to about 12 on the stimp meter. This can make for a very very long day, which is one of the reasons why we choose to tee off at 7:20 on Saturday morning.

Long story short (because if I carry on too much about the details of my round, I'll actually lose a reader or two - no one likes to hear about bad beats on the poker table, let alone the golf course) I finished 2nd. Ok, tied for first really... but it still doesn't count in my mind.

Second fucking place for the fourth time this year! This time, I lost in a count back. Basically, I shot 81 and so did someone else (who happened to career it, he is a 10 handicap!) and the rules state that the win is given to the person who shot the lower back 9... which wasn't me obviously!

To top it off and make it sting that little extra bit, I finished my round with a double on 17 (a 6) and a bogey on 18 (another 6). Really fucking clutch numb nuts. You've done it again. Shot yourself right into second place.

This is the second tournament in a row now where I have had the lead or have had a chance to win outright and have basically folded my way to second. Now when I say folded, I mean fucked it up. Royally.

I can't say that I'm not dissapointed with the way things have gone this year. On the one hand I have been playing the best golf of my life, and on the other, I just can't seem to lock down those victories. I keep chalking it up to me me not having the experience yet when I do get there and have a chance to win, and try not to get down on the actual results of where I finished. The more I get there, the more chances I will have to close the deal. So I guess I'll keep working.

The second reason I wanted to play early was because I was playing in a touch football tournament on Saturday and Sunday. Our team was a "throw together" team and was not expected to even win a single game. Many of the teams were league teams and veteran teams who have been together for years. We had 3 practices and that was it. Well we won one game out of 3 so we are taking that as a positive and look forward to next year. It was a blast, lots of sun and beers, how can you go wrong. We also had a couple of back yard camp fires and Thorndog just finished building the new and improved washer boards, so of course we had to break those in for a few hours.

I see that Instant Tragedy is also a washer player, although I am pretty sure his game is a bit different than ours. It would be fun to compare notes though...

Tonight is the finals for our baseball playoffs. It's a best of three series and we are playing the second place team for all the glory. Reverse Jinx. It obviously has no effect of the outcome of anything I do/do not post about here, so whatever, I'll just keep on writing.

Have a good week everyone.