Mike's Blog - The Masters Round 3

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 10:21:48

The wind may have let up a little on Saturday but I don’t think the golf course was that much easier than it was on Friday. In fact, it’s just a tough golf course no matter what’s happening. I certainly can attest to that after my day out there. My round of 79 seems awful but I honestly didn’t hit too may bad shots. I still feel good about how I’m hitting the ball.

Once again, I didn’t start out too well. I missed the first fairway and that led to a bogey. I had another poor tee shot off of two but managed to scramble for a par despite having to play a couple of shots out of the trees.

But after that I was solid -- I hit it right down the middle on every hole but it just seemed that I couldn’t pick the right club or guessed the wind wrong all day. On this course, when you start to fall off the pace and you’re not feeling it with the putter, you start to take a few chances. I did that trying to get back in and it just didn’t work out.

On the 11th hole for example, for my second shot, the wind was swirling around so much, I was thinking of hitting three different clubs. I eventually settled on a six-iron but after I hit it, the wind switched and I paid the price there.

The biggest thing I’ve been disappointed with is that I’m not making any putts at all. When you don’t make those putts for par or birdie, you put pressure on your iron game to hit it closer to the hole. When that doesn’t work, and you start getting two, three or four over par, you start taking chances and it sort of all compounds. I made a seven-footer for birdie on the last hole and, with the exception of 15, that’s the first birdie I’ve made in two days. Two birdies in two days . . . you’re not going to do much.

When you get behind and try to play catch up on this course, it’s really tough. With the wind swirling around, it’s even more difficult. You just have to try a pick a club and stay committed to it, But that’s easier said that done. The wind can pick up when you hit a great shot and give you a lousy result. There’s nothing you can do about it.

Overall, the course played really long out there today with the soft fairways. For instance on 18, I hit a pretty good drive but still had a hybrid into the green from about 220 yards into the wind. It’s hard to make birdies when you’re hitting those kinds of clubs into the greens.
It was funny but at one point, I said to Brennan, “It doesn’t seem like I’m playing that bad,” and he said “You’re not, you’re hitting it right down the middle.” I’m hitting it at my targets and feeling good about the contact, but the wind just knocks it down or switches around and kills it – I don’t know but it’s really been one of those weeks for me.

On Sunday, I’ll go out and try to play as well as I can. I really don’t know how to play any other way.

As always, thanks for your support.
Mike