On Sunday past, Blair and I played in our second round of the Clear Springs Golf Course 2 person Best Ball tournament. We anticipated a great deal of rain, but luck would have it that it by past our location and we only had a few sprinkles through the round. The course was in fantastic shape, our playing partners were great fun, and we played very well for 16 holes! Overall, it was a great round. We played much better than our final score of 3 over 75, but alas, that is golf. As Charles Dickens said: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

As per the first round, we started on the back nine. We started off well and were hitting the ball straight and in the locations we wanted. With a bogey, par and birdie in the first three holes, Blair and I were feeling confident about our round. Unfortunately, we hopped on a roller coaster for the rest of the first 9 and were left with the ‘what could have been’ as we drove to the number one hole and the back 9 of our round.

The last 6 holes of the front 9 were like this: double bogey, bogey, birdie, triple bogey, birdie, birdie! Yup, we were all over the place and it was not because of poor shots. It was because our tee shots rolled out into hazards. What I mean is that we were hitting the ball farther on the second day than the first and this caused us a tremendous amount of angst. On the three occasions of above par scores, our ball rolled 15 to 20 yards farther than expected and left us with either a penalty stroke or a shot unable to reach the green.

On the triple bogey, I should have taken my medicine instead of trying to hit out of the hazard. I continued to grind out the 16th hole and was left with a 15 foot putt for a double. I felt comfortable at this distance that day and made what I thought was a perfect put. I was a bit light and as my ball teetered on the edge to drop in, it stopped and rolled back from the lip of a hole by a half a ball. Not really fair, but that is what we all had to deal with.

After four birdies and a bunch of other scores we finished our first 9 holes with a score of 3 over par 39. We were very happy with the score given all things. So we were hoping to build on our strong finish of the first 9 holes.

The second 9 holes was one ‘close, but no cigar’! We shot 7 pars, one birdie and one bogey. We lipped out for birdie on 4 of the pars and for par on the one bogey. We played a very strong back 9 and left many strokes on the course. Overall, we shot four strokes better than the first day and finished with a 75. Blair and I just finished out of the prizes (by retro), but were very happy with our last round. We look forward to playing in this great event again next year.

I do want to mention that on the 110 yard par 3, third hole, I hit closest to the pin. I hit a knock down pitching wedge to the left of the pin and watched my ball roll to two feet away. I made the slick right to left putt and walked off to the next hole. I am not sure what my prize is for this good shot, but when I find out I will update this article.

I would like to thank the staff at Clear Springs. They put on a great tournament and kept their professional positive demeanour as they worked 14 hour days. It is because of their great customer service, our golfing experience exceeded all expectations.

This was the first best ball tournament I played in for many years. I really enjoyed competing and I hope to do more next year. But for now, I am going to happy with our performance and remain grateful for the friendships I forged during the event.

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!