Jeff
You made the cut...you are playing the weekend...congratulations...you should be very proud of yourself.
Round 2 was not what you had planned for ...but that's done. Saturday is a new day and you are starting fresh...two good rounds on the weekend and let's see what happens. Enjoy the weekend...you are at a place where most of us will never experience....competing with the best in golf. Good luck and happy hunting for those birdies.
HG
Something going right in Jeff's head... bogey followed by birdie ( hole 6 and 7)....bogey followed by birdie (10 and 11) .... Tiger Woods does it.... Jeff Hull does it!!
Now the fun starts - Keep it up Jeff. Currently T1 for sand saves!!!! 1/1
Jay ( tied 42 with Jeff) and John ( T23 at -2) had solid rounds too....
Well done Jeff. I really enjoyed following your rounds on the internet and hope to see you to see your name up on the leaderboard in many more tournaments to come. Hope to see you in the field for the early season tournaments in Australia next season. I can offer to carry your bag.
Congratulations to Jeff Hull on a tremendous accomplishment. To 'come off the bench' -- no, make that to come out of the grandstands! -- and make the cut in Nationwide Tour event (one that included 35 PGA TOUR winners) is really special.
For the record, Jeff fired rounds of 68-76-77-79=300 on the longest course ever played in PGA-sanctioned event. And, I might add, under some of the toughest conditions. Here
is an exerpt from the pgatour.com's story:
"With the par-72 Kinderlou Forest Golf Club already playing at 7,781 yards, the last thing the 70 players who made the cut this week needed to see on Sunday were wind gusts reaching 35 mph. But that is exactly what they got, with the windy conditions forcing the stroke average to 75.229 during the final round. "
I'll let Jeff tell more about it in a post of his own, but I can assure you that they were brutal. There was only one sub-70 score on Sunday -- a 69 by winner John Kimbell -- and a glance at the weekend scores tellls you all you need to know about what the players were up against.
As usual, regardless of conditions, putting told much of the tale. Winner Kimbell also led the field in putting, averaging 26.8 putts per round. Our Hero averaged 30.5. Jeff's figure included an average of 2.0 per GIR on Friday (32 total) and 2.2 per GIR on Sunday (34 total). Unless you're nailing those Par 5s in two -- tough to do when they are averaging over 600 yards! -- that doesn't make for many birdies.
I told Lynn last night on the way home that I was going to post on the week at Kinderlou Forest on The Nationwide Tour. I would first like to thank everyone on this site for your support and encouragement before, during and after the event. I can't express what that means to me.
Overall I have come away from this event with many more postives than negatives. On the plus side I:
Shot a bogey free 68 in round 1 and saw my name near the top of the leaderboard
Was 1-under par through 47 holes and in great position to make a move
Gutted it out in round two after a bad start and needing to par 2 very tough finishing holes to make the cut (especially after missing an easy up-and-down followed by a three putt).
Never lost my composure and stayed positive the entire week. Nerves were never an issue.
Other than not being as long as many players out there, I can hit the ball with as much precision as they can.
Learned how these players prepare and practice before an event, especially what the caddies do in the practice rounds.
On the negative side:
My putting still needs much improvement, especially in the 5-15 foot range. The only difference between me and them is this area.
I need more precision around the greens. When I chip or pitch it to 4-6 feet on a tough shot they are inside 3 feet consistently. I need to step up my training program. Unfortunately I ran out of gas mentally and physically toward the end of each round. There is a huge difference between walking a tournament and using a cart, and I am in good shape. I did not stay within my game plan. Usually this is the best part of my game but the course and conditions got the best of me and I started to "press" a little. Trust me, you can get out of rhythm pretty quick on a 7700 yard course with 30 mph winds. I need to stay within my game. Steering is the number one malfunction in the golf swing and I was guilty at times. Always remember the club's target is lowpoint and the ball's target is the fairway or flag. Aim your machine and drive the clubhead through the ball!
I also learned some interesting things about tour stats, some of them don't mean that much. Driving Distance, for example, is only tested on 2 holes each round. Hit it perfect all day and miss one of these holes and your distance is lower. I played with Garrett Willis the last day and I hit it with him all day. He was 35th in distance and I was 65th, go figure.
Usually I would say that fairways are very important, but not on this course. There was no rough to speak of and many holes it was more advantageous to miss the fairway. Many of the holes had doglegs with fairways sloping away from the dogleg, this caused many balls to run through the fairway into the "rough". For the most part I hit it where I wanted to.
Greens in Regulation is a very important stat. However, when a hole is cut 3 or 4 paces from the edge of a green, your best play may end up on the fringe. I hit some really good iron shots that ended up just off the surface, but I was still putting with a good chance to make. In fact I had a couple of chips that were easier than if I had actually been on the green putting. On the last day I really tried to hit as many greens as I could. On the front 9 I hit 6 greens, one green I could not reach because of a poor drive, one green I hit the top of a bunker and it rolled back in, and one green I hit the exact shot I wanted, it hit the middle of the green and rolled off the back. So I played 8 of 9 holes exactly like I wanted to and shot 3 over par because....
PUTTING IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STAT ON TOUR!!! Every player I talked to said the same thing, everyone can hit the ball well, its the players that can get it in the hole who win. The real difference between my 68 on Thursday and my 79 on Sunday was putting. Sure the conditions were much worse on Sunday but I had 28 putts on Thursday and 34 on Sunday hitting fewer greens. In fact, the last three rounds I missed a lot of makeable putts that I made in round 1. Give me a 72 or 73 the final round and I would have been thrilled. I played like it, I just did not score like it.
I must have been good luck to other players because I played with the low round on Thursday (64), one of the low rounds on Saturday 68 and one of the low rounds on Sunday (72). What really separated these players was their ability to get the ball in the hole. There was no fear of missing, only the desire to make the putt. I really learned alot this week and had a great time doing it. It only makes me want it more.
The most important thing I learned this week is that there is no substitute for the love and support of your family and friends, during good times and bad. I certainly was blessed to have had this during the week, I will never foget the experience.
Shot a bogey free 68 in round 1 and saw my name near the top of the leaderboard
My putting still needs much improvement, especially in the 5-15 foot range. The only difference between me and them is this area.
I need to step up my training program. Unfortunately I ran out of gas mentally and physically toward the end of each round. There is a huge difference between walking a tournament and using a cart, and I am in good shape.
I did not stay within my game plan. Usually this is the best part of my game but the course and conditions got the best of me and I started to "press" a little. Trust me, you can get out of rhythm pretty quick on a 7700 yard course with 30 mph winds. I need to stay within my game.
Hybrid Mode
