World Of XXVII - Day 3

Day 3 of the "World Of" was even nicer than the previous day if that is possible. When we left for the course in the morning, the temperature was in the high 60s and the sky was clear. The high temperature for the day was supposed to be about 75. Spectacular!

Sometime during the middle of the night, the Big Man and the Big Dog (an interesting pairing) stole out of the house and back to reality, leaving us with our normal prime integer, 7, players. In the morning we played at Shark's Tooth and played our own ball. My two-man game partner was Cameo. I was 1 under bogey through 5 but had 3 double bogeys on the last 4 holes for a 46 on the front 9. Cameo and I "hammed and egged" it pretty well so when I had a good hole, he had a bad one and vice versa. On the back 9, I had a kick-in birdie on the 173 yard par-3 and a 44 for a 90 total. On the par-4 15th hole, Cameo and I were both in the collection area adjacent to the green when we had a T.C. Chen moment. While I have done this more times than I want to remember it is very unusual for a good player like Cameo to chili-dip his chip shot and hit the ball a second time on the follow-through.

The most famous double hit was in the 1985 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills. T.C. Chen was leading the championship in the final round by 4 strokes when he double-hit his fourth shot from the heavy rough at the par-4 5th hole. After a penalty, a chip and two putts, Chen made an 8 and lost by 1 stroke to Andy North. Interestingly, under Rule 14-4, you count the stroke for the first hit and add a penalty stroke to your score for the second hit. There is no additional penalty in stroke play.

The United States made a stirring comeback in the singles matches on Monday at Celtic Manor. Losing 9 1/2 to 6 1/2 heading into the singles, the U.S. needed 14 points to tie the Europeans and retain the Ryder Cup. With victories by Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker, Dustin Johnson, Zach Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Jeff Overton and a stirring comeback by Rickie Fowler to halve his match and a disappointing half by Stewart Cink, the U.S. and Europe were tied with 13 1/2 points each and one match remaining, but Hunter Mahan was trailing Graeme McDowell two down with two holes to go after McDowell's birdie on No. 16 (after the approach shot, fast-forward to about 1:50 on the video). On the par-3 17th hole, both players missed the green and Mahan chili-dipped his chip shot and ultimately conceded the hole and the match. While everyone will remember Mahan's chip shot at 17, McDowells' birdie on No. 16 and two missed 4 footers by Stewart Cink were really the difference. If Cink makes either putt to beat Rory McIlroy, the U.S. keeps the Ryder Cup with a tie.

In the afternoon we headed back to Camp Creek. It felt like we had not played that course for weeks having played the last 3 rounds at Shark's Tooth. We were a little disappointed because the course superintendent had sanded the greens since our last visit, but it turned out the greens were still pretty fast and true. We played a "shamble" in the afternoon. I thought this was a made up "World Of" term, but it is actually a USGA "recognized" form of goofy golf in which all players tee off and the best ball is selected. Each team member then plays his own ball into the hole. According to the "recognized" experts on shambles, this game should be played with full handicaps to permit the higher handicap players to contribute. Since we only had 7 players (so what's new!), Smooth and Arnie, the two best players, and I played as a threesome, against Turtle, the Mouth, Cameo and Stinger, using the one low score. We played with some type of modified handicap system and we rotated an extra drive on each hole. We lost this game in the negotiations before the first drive. We rarely used the fourth drive because it was generally unnecessary and we were conserving our strength and we only had 3 scores against the other team's 4 scores. Although we got beaten like a drum, 6 under to 3 under, it was nice playing Smooth's or Arnie's drive on each hole and being long and in the middle of the fairway. I contributed a little bit here and there, but with the modified handicap, I only got a few shots.

We finished in the dark, just in time for dinner and Monday Night football. The perfect men's golf trip day! I was asleep by 10 p.m., but after 6 rounds of golf in 3 days I was still feeling pretty good.

World Of XXVII - Day 2

World Of XXVII - Day 2 was about as beautiful a day as you have ever seen. When we teed off at 8 a.m. it was in the high 60s with clear skies and minimal wind. The high temperature for the day was about 75 degrees with very low humidity. We played Shark's Tooth, which is a Greg Norman-designed course in Lake Powell, about 20 minutes from the house. When I saw signs for Lake Powell I became a bit disoriented and started looking for the Grand Canyon.

As opposed to Camp Creek, Shark's Tooth is a much more typical Florida golf course with flat terrain so you can generally see from the tee box to the flagstick. The fairways are pretty generous but the greens are very slick. The golf course measures over 7,200 yards from the back tees (1 shark tooth) with a course rating of 74.9 and a slope rating of 136. We played from the next set of tees (2 shark teeth), which were about 6,500 yards with a course rating of 70.6 and a slope rating of 126. The golf course should probably have another set of tees inbetween at about 6,800+/-. The course opened in 2002 and it has been consistently ranked in the top 10 courses in Florida. We played our own ball in the morning and I hit the ball well from tee to green, but had 4 3-putt greens (including some rakes well outside of the leather) and shot an 89.

Over lunch we caught up on the Ryder Cup. When play was called the day before, the Europeans were leading all 6 foursomes and four ball matches on the course. The Americans stormed back to tie one of the matches so the Europeans won 5 1/2 points out of a possible 6 points and the overall score at the end of play on Sunday was Europe 9 1/2, Americans 6 1/2.

During lunch unsubstantiated reports of a "Cameo" appearance were running rampant. As we headed back to our carts for the afternoon round, Cameo magically stepped out of his cab and onto the first tee talking a mile a minute. We played a 3-person scramble with 3 teams. I was teamed with Cameo and Arnie. Arnie continued to drive the ball right down the middle and almost got the new moniker "Metronome", but that seemed so impersonal. I drove the ball pretty well and made some contributions to the team effort. We started off two under par, but gave away both strokes and were at even par after 9 holes. Things were not looking good but we persevered.

On the back 9 we went on a birdie binge as Cameo's putter heated up and he made a couple of long snakes. By about the 14th hole, Cameo could no longer contain himself. Cameo has trouble keeping quiet for 5 seconds, but to his credit up to that point he let me go through my pre-shot routine of standing frozen over the ball for an interminable length of time before pulling the trigger. Finally, as Arnie was relieving himself in the trees and I was standing frozen over my tee shot, Cameo said in that thick Southern drawl, "Boy, what are you thinkin' about over the ball that damn long!" I had nothing to say in my defense except the non-sequitur, "I do not take any practice swings." If Arnie had a normal size bladder, he may have been able to outlast me in the trees. I gathered myself and ripped a drive right down the middle. We made 6 birdies on the back 9 and won the scramble going away.