I signed my card just off the 18th green, handed it to Trevor, my playing partner for the day, took my clubs off the cart and headed for home.<\/p>\n
I didn’t want to watch another disappointing round go up on the scoreboard behind the 18th green. I didn’t want to stand around talking with the other players about how I’d failed again at my Major, the Alpena City Open.<\/p>\n
I wanted to be anywhere but the Alpena Golf Club. So I pulled on the double straps and walked the mile and a half home.<\/p>\n
As I sit in my office this morning, I’d love to tell you the anger, frustration and disappointment are gone. That would be a lie. In a few hours I’ll tee it up for another meaningless second round after an opening 83 that has me ninth in a 13-player field, 13 shots behind the leader.<\/p>\n
At 4 a.m. I woke up still mad that I hit 3-wood on the sixth hole.<\/p>\n
I was in complete control of my game to that point. I was driving it beautifully. The nervous start that has derailed so many of my City Opens never came. I felt calm. Comfortable.<\/p>\n
Fairways. Greens. \u201cFinally I thought, a solid start in a City Open.\u201d<\/p>\n
The wind was into us on the sixth (we start on the back nine the first day), and I’d been hitting driver great. But I made the decision too quickly. As soon as the 3-wood left the clubface and started toward the trees, I was already cussing myself out. Why didn\u2019t I hit the driver. Why?<\/p>\n
I found it. Then I played Plinko through the trees for a while and eventually tapped in for triple. The next hole I was in the trees again. Plinko again. Triple again.<\/p>\n
You know that GIF of the Formula One car where all four tires suddenly fly off? That was me.<\/p>\n
The 17th hole at Alpena Golf Club is the hardest hole of the 36 we play in the Alpena City Open. The long par four is tree-lined, narrowing to maybe 35 yards at the landing area for most drives. A five is a good score.<\/p>\n
My hybrid found the fairway but left me almost no shot to the heavily guarded green.<\/p>\n
From 180 yards I needed to hit a 25-yard slice around the trees. It’s not where you want to be after back-to-back triples.<\/p>\n
I pulled a four iron, hoping to hit a three-quarter cut around the trees jutting into the fairway. Right then I would have gladly signed for a bogey.<\/p>\n
I hit it to eight feet.<\/p>\n
And somehow that made me even madder.<\/p>\n
How? How, fucking how, does the same person who just hit that shot make back-to-back triples?<\/p>\n
This game is torture.<\/p>\n
I steadied myself for a while and stood on our 17th hole with a chance to break 80. A decent drive left me a difficult pitch, but the ball was sitting on some sort of ant hill. I chunked it under a tree.<\/p>\n
Double.<\/p>\n
The last hole was a blur. I’d done a pretty good job staying in it mentally after the disaster in the middle of the round, but by the 18th I was empty.<\/p>\n
I just wanted to get the hell out of there.<\/p>\n
As I walked up the last fairway, I thought about something former PGA Tour player Edward Loar once asked me.<\/p>\n
A few years ago I played with Edward at his home course in Texas. I played well that day. Walking up the final green he looked at me and said, “How in the fuck did you shoot 86 in your City Open?”<\/p>\n
I laughed then.<\/p>\n
I wasn’t laughing Friday.<\/p>\n
My wife and I only have one car. The plan was for her to pick me up after the round.<\/p>\n
Instead, I started walking. Part of me just didn’t want to see anybody. Part of me thought maybe I deserved the punishment.<\/p>\n
As I headed down Golf Course Road, another player stopped his car, rolled down the window and asked if I wanted a ride.<\/p>\n
I told him no. “That good, huh?” he said before driving away.<\/p>\n
I cut through the nursing home parking lot across from the first hole. A family leaving after visiting a loved one glanced over, probably wondering why someone was walking toward the nursing home carrying a golf bag.<\/p>\n
Then through the subdivision. A man mowing his lawn stopped and stared. If he was a golfer, he understood.<\/p>\n
By the time I got home I was drenched in sweat and still angry. Steph didn’t have to ask how I played. The fact I walked home told her everything.<\/p>\n
“I’m sorry, babe,” she said. Annie and Jack gave me hugs.<\/p>\n
Soon I’ll be able to look back and find the positives. I wasn’t nearly as nervous as I have been in years past. Even after the two triples, I stayed in it mentally. I was more aware of what was going wrong with my swing. There were positives.<\/p>\n
Just not today.<\/p>\n
Today I’m thinking about the fact it’s 365 days until I get another shot. I’m thinking about turning 50 before I play it again. I’m thinking about Eric Peterson, who will probably win his fourth straight this afternoon, getting another year better while I get another year older.<\/p>\n
I’ve been lucky enough to cover the U.S. Open, I\u2019ve been on Golf Channel, and Monday the Big Break: Meet the Players (sorry, had to plug it) comes out. None of them make me as nervous as standing on the first tee of the Alpena City Open.<\/p>\n
The City Open is a tiny little tournament in my hometown. There aren’t world ranking points. There isn’t television. Winning it won’t change anyone’s career.<\/p>\n
But for one weekend every summer, it’s the only tournament in the world that matters to me.<\/p>\n
Next year I\u2019m going to win the Alpena City Open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I signed my card just off the 18th green, handed it to Trevor, my playing partner for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-799505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}