Diamondback G.C. - Round One

Today's Score: 71

Well half of my prayer was answered today. We did have a 1 hour and 15 minute delay due to fog this morning, but fortunately we were able to finish just as the sun went down. When we walked off 18 green, I don't think we could of played one more shot.

So round one is done and I'm at -1 under par. The most important thing is I didn't shoot myself out of the tournament on the first day. Now I get to play my second round trying to move up the leaderboard instead of having to fight my way back into competition. I would put today's round up there among the best I've played so far. I was able to stick to my game plan of hitting fairways and greens and found myself with a lot birdie putts. In fact, right out of the gate I was -3 under thru my first 7 holes after hitting three very close shots to the pin. I made the turn at -3 under and felt really comfortable with how the day was going.

After laying up on the par 5 10th hole, I hit my approach shot from 100 yards to about 25 feet. Not the best shot I've ever hit, but it was below the hole and I left myself a pretty easy putt. So easy that I 3-putted. (It would be nice to have one round without a 3-putt.....just saying) That lead to my first bogey of the day and a nice sour taste in my mouth. Two holes later, a 9-iron that came up short of the green lead to double-bogey (6). All I can say is it was one of the worst brain-farts you've ever seen and should of been a pretty standard up-and-down for par. After a great eagle on the par-5 16th, I was back to -2 under with two to play. On #17, I hit the best shot of the day with a 5-iron on the par-3 that was playing 197 yards. Unfortunately, it was so solid that it flew about 205 yards over the green and into a spot that was nearly impossible to get up-and-down from. I ended up lipping out from about 6 feet.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how today's round went. I still managed to make a few costly mistakes that turned a 67 into a 71, but I feel good about the direction my game is heading. If I can get it going again tomorrow, hopefully I'll be able to eliminate some of those mistakes and get into the hunt. My tee time tomorrow is 8:30 off #10.