USDGC - Monday thru Wednesday

Here's what we've been up to since Sunday...

Monday morning around 10am or so Jeff, Chandler and I arrived at the course for Chandler and I to try and qualify for the open flight. Jeff carried my bag which was a big help. I started out a bit rough. I actually bogied the first two holes by missing 20' putts...ouch. I have to admit I was actually really nervous, or excited. Either way, my nerves were a bit jumpy. I was also playing Winthrop for my first time, which we call "playing blind". No big deal for me, I was treating the round as more of a practice round anyhow, if I qualified that would have just been a big bonus.

ticket to ride	breakfast of champions	player's meeting	non-human distance holder!

Chandler started out a bit rough as well and by hole 7 he decided that the round wasn't gonna cut it, he peeled off to restart. In qualifying, you're allowed to restart your round whenever you want to, and it's another $25. The first attempt is $50. I continued with my round and finished with a 73, 8 strokes out of qualifying. I did learn a lot of place NOT to land, however, haha. Chanman played the "third time's a charm" gig and shot a fantastic 62 on the third round, tying the second best round of the qualifiers! W00hoo! (Chanman drinking from my shoulder!)

After my qualfying attempt Jeff and I took a break for lunch and then decided to head back out for another practice round. Low and behold, ahead of us in line for the course was Steve Brinster, Avery Jenkins, and Nate Doss. After the first hole they invited us to play the round with them. I've never met Steve Brinster, but Jeff and I have played with Avery and Nate before, it was really fun seeing how world champions play Winthrop Gold. If Jeff and I could throw 50' further (with accuracy), make all of our 50' putts, and never mess up an upshot, we could probably hang with them. :)

Tuesday was relaxation day for Chandler and I. Jeff wanted to play one more practice round, after that we went to a board game store and bought "Ticket To Ride" and played that for a couple hours, and spent some much needed downtime at the house.

Chandler's first round went pretty well, he shot a 65, which is a great start. Jeff and I were carded together with Brandon Baily of Virginia and Troy Whidden of New York. Both Brandon and Troy are really cool guys and we had a great time playing together. Chandler was also with us for parts of our round, taking fotos and keeping things fun. Jeff shot a solid 67, his putting was great and he made really good golf decisions all round. My round started and finished well, but I picked up 7 strokes on four holes in the middle. Gonna need to do better than that today!

Chandler's tee time for today is 9:40(est). I tee off at 1:10 this afternoon and then Jeff tees at 2:10. You can follow Chandler's scores at http://www.usdgclive.com/leaderboard/open/, and Jeff and my scores will be up at http://www.usdgclive.com/leaderboard/open/. I think they are updating the scores every 6 holes.

Thanks to everyone who's been texting and facebooking us with encouragement!