Mike Report Round 3 at The Open

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:53:19

"Another day and more of the same here at Royal St. George's. Overall, it was good day. I played well, but just like Friday, I didn't get much out of it. Again, it's hard to keep the ball in the fairway off the tee, even when you hit perfect shots from the tee. And it's tough putting out there too. I missed a bunch of putts inside eight feet, which was a little frustrating.

That's what this golf course gives you. That's what it does. It's just not a straightforward course. There's some funny stuff out there that can get you and it will and it did. I really thought I'd have a low number when I started out. I burned the lip on the first hole and did the same on No. 2. Finally on the third, the putt dropped. And I made two more birdies on the fourth and fifth. On the seventh, I hit the green in two and had an eagle putt that slid by the cup. The next putt for birdie was only three or four feet, but it was extremely tough. Just before me Darren Clarke missed his. It broke hard left and I thought as soft as I hit mine, it would have to break to the right (since I was on the other side of the hole). But that's the way they set the pins out here; they set them on such crowns that from different sides of the hole, they break in different ways. They may look almost like gimmees, but you just can't let up on them - you have to concentrate on every putt.

And the same goes for very shot in the bag, even though the yardages go right out the window. For instance, I hit eight iron on seven from 200 yards. And on 11, I had 240 yards to the green, hit a six iron, landed it 20 yards short of the green and it ended up 20 yards over the green. It's tough to pull a club when you're hitting 270-yard six irons.

After the promising start, I lost strokes on eight and nine which really took the wind out of my sails. The back nine was pretty uninspiring. It's actually very tough to do any scoring on that side. If you're going to get anything done, you better do it in the first seven holes. After that, it's tougher than tough.

The whole course is absolutely relentless. There's a few times out there when you have to scratch your head because you have no clue how you're going to get the ball close to the hole. And I also scratch my head at my tee shots on 12 and 13 that I hit right down the middle of the fairway. One hopped straight right into the bunker and the other straight left into the rough. Even though I was only left with 70 yards or so, it's a little frustrating, but that's this golf course.

There's really no fun on this golf course. I'm kidding, of course, but it's that difficult. I still like even par to win. I was hoping that if I could get in around three or four, I might be in good shape. You can always look back at what could have been. I could have had five under today, quite easily, but it wasn't to be.

So tomorrow I'll come out and just try to post a number. Sunday of any major is tough and I'm sure it will be here, too.

Thanks for your support.
Mike
"