[12 piece bucket]

Today I finished our annual three day Mens Club Championship. I went in with high confiidence after fine tuning my swing on the range and checking everything out on video. I had a choice of playing gross or net and chose gross because I wanted a true test. I've beaten the guys that won first/second/third today on informal Friday Skins matches, but this was a different ballgame. Unfortunately I can't post this in the Hole-ies/Pole-ies section because I didn't place. I PM'd the following to Yoda and he encouraged me to post it. Its not easy to post about personal disappointments. I really wanted that parking spot!

Yoda,

I didn't place. Our course was in excellent shape and the rough off the fairways was a three-club-rough on every hole due to the heavy rains we've had for the last two months. Had to be right on top of the ball to see it.

Learned a ton. Even though I was disappointed in my performance, I wouldn't trade the experience.

For example, the first day I was grouped with our club champ and a former mini-tour player. While the former champ was throwing his club on double bogies, I was congratulating everyone else while carding a triple. Very hard to have high expectations for yourself, play poorly and still honestly congratulate your fellow competitors on each hole. That chin gets very heavy and its hard to hold up sometimes.

A real character builder.

The things I've been working on at the range did not hold up to competitive pressure. Hence they are wrong. The menace of overacceleration stalked me for a day and a half until I settled my backstroke into an acquired motion pattern with a full finish. Not true acquired motion because of the extra pivot action, but keeping the feel of the right forearm level at the end of the stroke really helped. Only then did I experience good compression and a straight ball without losing any distance on all clubs.

My short game held up very well. Just a simple right forearm wedge putting stroke with a right shoulder rock down plane. I made good money on skins on birdie putts and chip-ins that didn't get covered.

I took notes each day after the round on what worked and what didn't.

I love competitive golf. What a great test. Next year I'll be ready.

Whatever you do . . . don't beat yourself up man . . . you don't do it for a living and nobody died. What you were working on at range may not be wrong. Just like having a kid. They don't come with no instructions. People can tell you all about 'em. But until you got one . . . you don't know squat. That's what a dude told me . . . "If you want to get better, you have to play in tournaments period." Don't wait until next year. Go play in another one ASAP.