This was an odd week.  The weather again was cold and before my second round I had my clubs stolen.  As far as the golf went, I hit the ball pretty well and gave myself plenty of chances for birdie, but unfortunately my chipping and putting was not there.  I only made a total of 7 birdies all week.  All 7 of my birdies were in my first two rounds.

Round 1 recap:

In the first round of the tournament I tried to play pretty conservatively and give myself as many chances as possible to putt for birdie. I got off to a solid start and shot -2 on the front nine with no bogeys.  On the back nine I hit some good putts early on that did not find the hole.  Then I birdied the 14th hole to put me at -3 and bogeyed the par 3 15th after plugging my tee shot in the bunker.  I finished the round at 70 (-2).  Other than my bogey on 15, I played very solidly all day.  I hit the ball to the fat part of the greens for the most part and tried to be patient and wait for the putts to drop.  Unfortunately, only a couple dropped, but it was a stress free 70.

Round 2:

After having a morning tee time in the first round, my second round tee off time was schedules at 12:50 p.m.  I got to the course about 1 hour early to start my normal routine.  As I was walking to the clubhouse to run to the restroom before I went out to practice, I set my bag down right in front of the clubhouse door, where the pro shop was.  I noticed all of the players were waiting inside because they suspended play because balls were rolling off greens because of a steady 40 mph wind and gusts up to 60 mph.  As I was standing inside looking at my bag, while talking to some players the Tour staff announced that everyone needed to go to the Grill room for an announcement about the suspension of play.  So we all headed over and no more than 5 minutes later I returned back to the spot where my bag was and it was gone.  Initially, I though that it may have been a player who confused my bag with theirs.  Then I walked around to the back of the clubhouse where about 60 bags were and I asked one of the cart guys if they had moved any bags to the back and they said they hadn’t.  Then I saw Trent Leon, one of the players in the event and he was in the same situation, except his bag was missing from the back of the clubhouse in the cart area.  This is when I began to think it was stolen.  My problem was I had my wallet, car keys, and watch in my bag at the time.  After running around like a chicken with my head cut off for about an hour and a half, while the cart guys started patrolling the parking lot to see if they saw any bags, they found my bag in a field behind the parking lot.  I was so relieved.  Whoever took my bag probably was not a golfer because they stole $95 out of my wallet in my bag and my driver.  Of all clubs, I thought for sure my putter that I ordered from Scotty Cameron at the PGA event in San Diego, CA would have been gone for sure.  Because of the wind delay, I did not even get to tee off for my 2nd round that day.  Fortunately, I was able tell Titleist about the situation and they overnighted me a driver for the next day.  Unfortunately, I was not going to be able to get it until the 3rd round because it was not going to arrive until about noon and I teed off for my 2nd round at 8 am.  I played the whole 2nd round with a 3 wood.  The weather was cold and windy again the next day.  I got off to a little bit of a shaky start in the 2nd round.  I was +3 after my first 6 holes.  After a couple of early bogeys on the back nine I was able to birdie my last two holes of the round to finish with a 75 (+3).  With the wind up and the course playing tough, I hit the ball well again this round.  I had two bad swings on back to back holes where I hit the ball in a water hazard, which led me to two double bogeys back to back.  This put me at a total of 145 (+1).

Round 3:

Joe, the guy I’m splitting expenses with came to the course between the 2nd and 3rd round to deliver the driver that Titleist sent to me.  I teed off for my 3rd round at 3:50 p.m.  I got in 10 holes before it was called for darkness.  In those 10 holes I had 3 bogeys and no birdies.  Again I hit quite a few good shots, I was struggling on and around the greens.  Out of the three bogeys I had, I really only should have made 1 of them.  The next morning there was a frost delay, so they called the tournament short and decided to allow everyone to finish their 3rd round and that would be it.  That kind of bummed me out because I was looking forward to having 26 holes left to play that day to improve my standing.  I got off to a solid start with pars on my first 3 holes.  Then I made a bad decision on a layup and made a bogey, hit a decent shot on the next from 215 yards on the par 3 and it kicked down into a swale and I did not make an up and down, and the next hole I hit a poor tee ball to the left and hit a great recovery shot, but failed to make up and down on an easy up and down.  I finished this round with a 78 (+6).  This put me at +7 for the event.  I finished T62 for the event.

Even tough this week did not go as well as I would have liked in the third round, there were a couple of positives to take away.  I overcame adversity when my clubs were stolen and I had to play with a 3 wood for my 2nd round. Also I found my ball striking this week again.  Now I just need to match up both sides, the ball striking with the putter.  This week I am in Ocala, Florida for a Hooter’s Tour event.  I will continue to work and maintain my ball striking, but I will be spending a little extra time this week around and on the greens before Thursday in order to try and get that part of my game straightened out for this week.  Also, hopefully I will get to see the sun this week for the first time since moving to the east coast!