The fifth and final round of the 2018 Deepwoods championship took place at Peninsula Lakes Golf Club. I was in first place going into the round, four points ahead of second place and five points ahead of third. In fact, I was at the top of the standings for the entire year. I shared the lead after Round 1, took sole possession after Round 2, and held it through Round 4. After Round 5, I was still in first place, but I allowed the second and third place competitors to tie things up. We played one sudden death playoff hole and I lost the championship. Wow.
This was tough to take. I didn't have to play great golf in the final event to take the title. All I needed was an average kind of round. I played two rounds in the week leading up to the event, registering scores of 89 and 91. I wasn't hitting the ball perfectly, but I was managing my game very well. I took this approach into the Deepwoods event, confident that I could pull it off if I played within myself. The thing is, I managed my game and my emotions perfectly in the final. I can't fault any of the decisions I made. When things went poorly, I focused on the next shot, believing that good moments would compensate for the bad by the time all was said and done.
It wasn't really a bad round. I had three bad holes, but that's not unusual. I've scored well in the past, despite having a few stinkers. On Quarry 4, a par-4, my drive was smothered and went less than 100 yards. 5-wood then went slightly left into a fairway bunker. From 105 yards, my sand wedge came up a bit short, finding another bunker in front of the green. I took three shots with my 56 degree wedge and rammed them all into the lip. I switched over to the 60 degree and put the ball on the green. A 2-putt finished the hole off for a score of 9. I wasn't even bothered. I would get zero points on that hole with a 7, so a couple of extra strokes meant nothing. There was lots of time left.
I made par on the very next hole, a much longer par-4. I needed to approach with 5-wood because my drive, although straight, was very short. I also needed an up and down from right of the green, but I did it. The par made up for a double-bogey that I had on Quarry 3 after my second shot from a fairway bunker was hit fat and was basically wasted. I also made par on Quarry 9, a 141-yard par-3. This one made up for a double-bogey suffered on Quarry 8, a par-5. My third shot was from the middle of the fairway, 145 yards out. It came out low, clipping the edge of a bunker in front of the green. I should have been able to pitch on and 2-putt for bogey, at worst, but my pitch rolled into the back fringe. I was too delicate putting downhill and the fringe slowed my ball right down. Two more putts were needed. So after nine, I was okay. I had two points to make up for the debacle on Quarry 4, but there was lots of time. Even if I didn't make them up, my current point pace was adequate.
I began the Hillside nine with a par on the first hole. This hole featured a long birdie attempt that was pretty good, but which left a nervy distance for the par putt. I drained it nicely. It was the third time in the round that I made a long lag, followed by a good intermediate length putt. I did it on Quarry 6 and on Quarry 7, but those were for bogeys. Still, those were some quality 2-putts.
Hillside 2 was my second bad hole of the day. It's a 196-yard par-3 on the side of a hill. I hit an easy 5-wood off the tee, but pulled it towards the driveway up on the high side. Hitting a provisional, I pretty much hit an exact replay of the first. As luck would have it (or not), I found the provisional ball, but not the original. Just finding the green from that position with my next shot was great, but I followed up with another long 2-putt for a triple-bogey. Zero points though. Had I found the original ball, it would have been a bogey and two points. I was still not perturbed, as there was lots of golf left to play.
Two great bogeys followed on Hillside 3 and 4. The latter was especially good, as this is easily the hardest hole on the course. As good as those results were, they didn't help me pull back any lost points. For that, I would need a couple of pars. Instead, I had another triple bogey on Hillside 5, a par-3. My tee shot was left of the green, flag high. I tried to flop one over a bunker, but I sculled it and it rammed into the bunker lip. My sand shot only made it to the rough. My chip was just a hair short. My putt lipped out. Argh! Slightly better on any of those shots and I would have been fine, but alas.
I did not panic at all. The bad holes were history and I simply focused on the next task at hand. I played three pretty good holes in a row, but they all produced bogey. Now there was one hole remaining. I knew I couldn't run away with the championship. I had opened the door and it was possible that one or two of my fellow competitors could catch me. I reached the green on this par-5 in four shots. Another 2-putt from distance would secure bogey. This time, I left the lag putt too short, and the nervy length second putt was a breaker that burned the edge of the cup. I took a double bogey, effectively surrendering a point.
In fact, I scored only 29 points on the day. How did that happen? The point total was poor, but I felt pretty good about the way I played. I hung in there when things went bad, but the compensating pars never came. When points were tallied at the clubhouse patio, it was a 3-way tie for first place. Myself and two others would go to a sudden death playoff. Unfortunately for me, the two I was competing against were the lowest handicap players in our group. One was a 6 handicap, while the other was a 9. By comparison, I'm a 17. We would play Quarry #1, which is rated as the hardest hole. That meant we would all get a free stroke on the hole. For me to win, I would have to beat the low handicappers straight up.
When one of the other players put his tee shot in a pond, it gave me some hope. Myself and the other player split the fairway with our tee shots. Next, I hit my worst shot of the day. A 5-iron that was intended to fly over the pond was completely duffed and went for a quick swim. I had to take a penalty and drop. My fourth shot finished in front of the green. I flopped over a bunker and 2-putt for a triple-bogey. Meanwhile, the fellow who splashed into the pond with his first shot took a penalty and drop of his own. He hit his third to about 12 feet, setting up a chance at saving par. He gave it a nice run, but missed, settling for bogey. It wasn't enough, as the final player hit the green in regulation and 2-putt for par. I never gave myself a chance.
One more point was all I needed to avoid the playoff and win the championship outright. When you look back at all the little plays where a single stroke could have been saved, it makes you sick. The putt that burned the edge of the hole, the duffed shot from the fairway bunker, the putt that got caught up in the fringe, the ball that was lost precisely where the provisional was found, the sculled flop shot, and so on. Any one of those turns out just a bit better and the entire story changes. I now have four second place finishes in this league to offset just a single victory. It's a terrible feeling.
Score: 97
Putts: 37
Fairways: 5
Greens: 2
Penalties: 1
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