Mikes Blog - Round 3 RBC Canadian Open
Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:29:39
Itʼs funny but for most of my second round and the first nine on Saturday, I just felt flat. I couldnʼt get anything going even though I didnʼt feel that I was playing poorly. In fact, I felt good about how I was hitting it.
For instance, on the second hole, I hit what I thought was a good shot and it just snuck into the rough by about an inch. If the ball is just a sliver right of where it ended up, Iʼve got a six-footer for birdie. Instead, it goes into the long rough and I had to hack it out with my wedge. Unfortunately, that led to a bogey.
On the 12th hole, I made a bogey when my tee shot was pushed by a gust of wind. On both of those swings, I felt good, but I didnʼt get anything out of them. Thatʼs golf sometimes.
I told Brennan after that if we could get to double digits, we would still contend and thatʼs when everything came together and the energy returned.
It all started on the 14th where I hit my second shot from 190 yards to about eight feet and made that. I made another one on the next hole, added one on 17 and then hit a nice wedge to three feet on the last for a fourth birdie in five holes and finished up at 10 under.
Iʼll have to admit that the last two days have been tough on my patience. Not so much on the course but in getting out there to play. Thereʼs been a lot of waiting. On Friday, I didnʼt tee off until 4:30 and then today, while I was supposed to play at 12:40, I only hit one shot before the horn blew and we had that long weather delay. I think that might have been why I felt so flat out there.
It's been tough for everybody to wait around, especially when you have no idea when youʼre going to start. We're not used to playing this late in the day. Your clock gets on that schedule to be done around dinner.
When you play late, you have to deal with the setting sun and the energy is slipping away. I think we were probably all hitting it 15, 20 yards shorter off our tee shots than normal because there wasn't the power there.
Tomorrow I wonʼt do anything different, Iʼll just go out and play golf. Iʼve won tournaments from coming off the lead before and I know that getting off to a good start will be a key, but Iʼll just try to play the course the way I have from the first round. Hopefully I can make a few birdies and challenge down the stretch.
As always, thanks for your support.
Mike
