The long drive back home to Minnesota from the desert had me excited to compete and get back on the course. After a couple weeks of practice and preparation at the Alexandria GC, I headed down to "the cities" for the Minnesota Golf Champions event at Minneapolis Golf Club. The weather finally cooperated for the first two rounds after a very unpredictable stretch of conditions to begin the golf season here in Minnesota. My first round found me struggling to hit fairways and give myself the opportunities for easy pars and makeable birdie chances. I was fortunate to make some great up and down par saves on the front nine, and head to the back at only +1. Another bogey on the 230 yard par three tenth followed by a sloppy bogey on twelve, quickly had me at +3 and trying to grind out the rest of the round and have some damage control. One more bogey on another long par three, followed by a couple gritty par saves over the last two holes allowed me to get in the house with a first round 76. I was very disappointed after getting off to yet another slow start in a tournament. Finding myself in 25th place, it lit a fire in me to perform the way I know I can. The afternoon was used to find some answers to get myself back in the tournament over the last two days. Playing 18 more holes (non-tournament round) in the afternoon at a course nearby gave me the chance to regain some confidence and gather a couple positive swing and putter thoughts for the next day.
Round two yielded much better results, and I think the afternoon the day before is to thank for the positive turnaround. Two quick birdies through five holes got things kick started as I looked to move up the leader board. One bogey on yet another tough par three on the front tallied up to a one under 35 as we moved to the back nine. Things really started to heat up on the back nine with a great par save at 10, a near birdie at 11, followed by birdie conversions at 12, 14, and 15 to get to -4 on the day and even for the tournament. An unfortunate break on the 18th pegged my ball directly behind a tree forced a chip out, and resulted in a bogey and a round of 69. This score was enough to move up the leader board all the way to 10th place with one round to go.
After two prime days of weather, we were bound to run into some elements in the final round during a Minnesota spring. A windy and rainy day made the already tough course tougher, and longer. The scores reflected the conditions as the rain began to come down harder as the round progressed. I wasn't able to connect on a couple early birdie chances, and a couple gritty par attempts just wouldn't fall. A front nine 38, and a bogey on 11 to fall to +3 on the day caused me to have to dig even deeper as the conditions worsened. My patience paid off as the turnaround shot came in a blast from the fairway bunker on #12. I found myself in a soaked fairway bunker 217 yards away and desperately needing a birdie to get things headed in the right direction. The 4-iron blast just cleared the lip of the bunker and carried to the front edge of the green, and trickled all the way to the pin at the back of the green. The ball came to rest just 10 inches from the cup leading to an eagle 3, and back to +1 on the day. I was able to put the first 11 holes behind me and had a new found confidence and swagger to climb my way back inside the top 10 on the leader board. I kept clawing my back back with a near miss at 13 for birdie, a great sand save at 14, and a two putt birdie at 15 got me back to even. Easy pars at 16 & 17 gave me one last chance to get back to even for the tournament as I walked to my ball in the 18th fairway. A solid 8-iron left me a 10 foot downhill putt to achieve my goal. The putt tracked the entire way, and fell in the cup for a round of 71.
The 7th place finish wasn't what I was hoping for beginning the week, but I was pleased the way I fought through not having my best and climbing my way back up the leader board. Finishing -4 over my last 7 holes left me confident going into the US Open Qualifier the following morning.
That's all for now from "the tips", but until next time remember....."golf is the only game in which the players are their own referees. It's all about integrity"
Bryce
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