Deepwoods Finale at Willow Valley

The final round of the 2009 Deepwoods Championship took place at Willow Valley Golf Club, and I needed a perfect round just to have an outside chance at defending my title.

Through the first eight or nine holes, I gave myself a fighting chance. After bogeying the first hole, I nearly made birdie on the second. The birdie putt, from about five feet, just missed the edge of the cup. The story was the same on hole #3, but the missed putt was for par. On holes three and four, I recovered from terrible tee shots to save bogey. A great pitch shot and pair of putts did the trick on the par-3 fourth hole, while a 7-iron from the fescue near the forward tees and a great up and down from the greenside bunker did it on the par-4 fifth hole. I heated up on holes six through eight, recording three pars in a row. I was robbed of a birdie on hole #8 when my putt from eight feet burned the edge of the cup. After a good drive on the ninth hole, I topped my second shot and then struggled near the green. Triple-bogey was the only blemish on the front nine, but I still amassed 22 points - well on my way to the maximum of 40 points that can be earned in the Deepwoods scoring system.

Hole #10 was solid and resulted in bogey. Unfortunately, I had a bad stretch on holes eleven through fourteen. Except for hole #13, a par-5 that I made par on, those holes killed me. I pulled my second shot on hole #11 into a hazard, then missed a makeable putt en route to triple bogey. I duffed my second shot on the next hole, also sending it into a hazard. Frustration set in on the green and I missed a tap-in putt. I didn't realize a single point was still available at the time. A couple of bad tee shots ruined me on hole #14, a long par-3. Once again, triple bogey was the result. I settled down on hole #15 and recorded bogeys on the final four holes. Had I avoided the bad stretch, I would have easily earned the 40 points I was after. As it was, I finished up with 35 points.

At the end of the day, it didn't matter. With the extra five points, I would have finished in a tie for fourth, which is no different than finishing a few positions further down in the standings. I played reasonably well at Willow Valley. It was a couple of rounds earlier in the year (Peninsula Lakes, Oakridge) that sealed my fate.

Score: 94
Par: 72
Putts: 37
Fairways: 8
Greens: 6