Jeff called on his way home yesterday afternoon and filled me in on some of the details of his victory. These included a "90-foot bomb" for birdie on the 17th, which Luke List promptly topped. He will be posting the play-by-play as soon as he can. Stay tuned!
Congrats Jeff -I was following on the internet but couldn't "watch "the last hole!
I was too nervous.
I am surprised though that you didn't hole your approach shot to the last hole-you've already set the precedent,did you miss-hit it or something?
Neil,
After making a 90 foot putt at 17 I thought that an 8-iron from 151 into the wind to a tucked location would suffice after my fellow competitor hit it into the water. I guess if I had to......
After making a 90 foot putt at 17 I thought that an 8-iron from 151 into the wind to a tucked location would suffice after my fellow competitor hit it into the water. I guess if I had to......
Shoot me Bagger,but this may be the only chance I get to ask Jeff
WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO FIT ME! -REMEMBER ORLANDO!
-(or are you too much of a star now)
After making a 90 foot putt at 17 I thought that an 8-iron from 151 into the wind to a tucked location would suffice after my fellow competitor hit it into the water. I guess if I had to......
Jeff left out that the part where his 8-iron finished 6 feet from the pin.
After young Luke List did his thing, Jeff lagged for the win.
Shoot me Bagger,but this may be the only chance I get to ask Jeff
WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO FIT ME! -REMEMBER ORLANDO!
-(or are you too much of a star now)
Neil,
You know that you are my first call upon arrival in Orlando, unfortunately I have not been able to get down there. Most people go north for the summer!!!
I will be coming back down soon. As I recall, your irons were pretty good. Shoot me a PM with your number so i can get in touch when I come down.
Sorry for the delay with this post. After winning the tournament and coming home to celebrate with my family, I had to leave at 6:00 a.m. to travel to North Carolina and do my real job, yes I do have one. I was pretty tired last night so here we go.
I was working pretty hard in preparation for the tournament when I started to hit the ball really bad. In fact, I shot 76 in the Wednesday Pro-Am when the course was set-up much shorter and easier. With about 6 holes to play in the pro-am I did a re-boot on my computer, re-established my wedges, set-up around them and just focused on rhythm and lag pressure. BOOM!!! Everything came back. I played the last 6 holes well and had some confidence to start the day with. In fact, I asked Danny Elkins to check me on the range to make sure I was on the right track and not using a band-aid. After about 10 shots, Danny said he was going to get something to drink because it looked great.
To summarize the first 2 rounds, I hit the ball very solid and putted pretty well. I was 4-under par and 3 shots off the lead. I only made a couple of mental errors (double bogey 7 on my 3rd hole of the tournament and a couple of 3 putts) and felt really good going into the weekend.
On Friday afternoon I asked Ted Fort to watch my putting stroke. Ted is an excellent putter and obviously a great teacher. We determined that I was loosing lag pressure on my putting stroke with short putts (3-7 feet). I worked on dragging the sweetspot down plane with my putter at a constant speed and my stroke felt much better.
Saturday was truly "moving Day". I shot 5-under par 67 with 7 birdies and 2 bogeys. I had 25 putts!!!! this was easy to do because my chip shots were basically gimmies and I hit several appraocches to a few feet. I almost holed out twice and even hit the stick once!! After the 3rd round i had a one shot lead.
My game plan Sunday remained the same, Fairways, Greens, make a few putts but most importantly, STAY IN THE PROCESS. I made an aerly 3 putt bogey on the 2nd hole but came back with a birdie on the 7th. On the ninth tee I lost focus on the easiest driving hole on the course and blocked my tee shot into the right rough. I continued to make poor decisions and made a tough 6 foot putt for a double bogey 7.
I was not upset, in fact I think it was a kick in my ass because i came out on the back 9 firing making a birdie on number10. I bogeyed 13 and birdied 14 to go back to 8 under par and into a 5 way tie for the lead. Now is when the tournament began!!!
After a great tee shot on 15, I had 120 to a tough back hole location guarded by a creek and rough. I hit a beautiful gap wedge that went over into the rough (this was the best shot I hit so far). I got up and down for par.
At 16 I again hit a great tee shot and was left with 178. I drilled a 7 iron to 15 feet below the hole. Luke List was on my line with a chip that he almost made. I saw the line his ball took and had a good read. my ball broke off to the right, luke's did not! We both made par and went to the tough 17th tied.
I had 225 into a cross wind. I hit a 20 dgree hybrid and caught it a little thin, leaving me on the front of the green 28 yards from the stick. Luke hit it 12 feet behind the hole. I was honestly trying to get the ball somewhere in a 6 foot circle from this distance going up a slope then back down with about 4 feet of break. I really did not know how hard to hit a 90 foot putt so I said to myself "just hit it twice as hard as you hit that 45 footer a few holes back". I hit the putt and watched in awe as it took the break with 10 feet to go and hit the back lip and went in for a 2!!! Luke made his and we were tied at 9 under. We knew it was just us now as the other players had fallen back.
We both hit good tee shots and I layed up. Luke had a tough lie 255 from the hole in the rough. His 2 iron found tthe lake and left me an opening. Like a posted earlier 151 into the wind to a tucked flag. the situation forced me to hit a good shot because I had to get the ball to the top shelf or it would come back 40 plus feet. Again I stayed in my process and focused all of attention to the down plane motion, not the flag. As Danny Elkins said later, "that was the best shot you hit all day" and he was right. I hit it 6 feet and watched as Luke just missed his 12 foot par attempt. I now had to 2 putt from 6 feet for the title, which I did.
I have to get ready for the day and I will post more later. I can't tell what this victory means to me. This is by far the most important victory of my career because of the quality of the field and being crowned State Open Champion. It has been a great summer and I am truly blessed.
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