What a comeback!!

My buddy Ron and I played last weekend at Victor Hills South course. I have had Ron's number for some time now and while we don't play for any money our matches are always for some sort of bragging rights or something like that.

We both doubled the first hole (nice) and he took a two shot lead after parring the 2nd and 3rd holes. Again we both doubled the 4th hole (things were not going my way) and after a very ugly snowman/8 on the short par five 6th hole, I was in a deep hole at 5 down. We tied the 8 and 9 and headed to the 10th tee.

Ron was pretty high on his current 5 shot lead as we made the turn and rightfully so. I had really done nothing to challenge him so far. I could see it in his body english and hear it in his voice that he was really enjoying the butt kicking he had just laid on me on the front.

It wasn't until #12 that I finally cut into the lead. A nice par from the back of the green cut the lead to 4. Hey I had to start somewhere and after 15 holes I had cut it to down to 3 shots.

I hammered my tee shot down the middle on the par 5 17th and Ron missed the fairway to the left. His second shot hit a tree and his third was hampered by a tree branch. I split the fairway with my second shot and he missed the green short with his 4th. After two putting for par to his double I had gotten the deficit to one stroke with one to go.

I was really just trying to catch and tie him on the last hole and that would have been a moral victory at least.

NOTE: Earlier, as we met up in the parking lot prior to the match, I had decided to walk and took my 3 and 4 irons out of the bag to make it lighter for the long day. However, he said that was going to ride, so I caved and paid for my half of the cart. I also put the 3 and 4 irons back in the bag. And it was a good thing too.

The 18th was playing 203 and without the 3 iron I would have had to bunt a 3 or 5 wood to get to the green. Because of the decision to ride I was able to tee up my 3 iron and proceded to lace it right at the pin. It landed about 3 feet dead short of the pin and ended up about 15 feet or so directly behind the pin. I knew at that point that I had a chance to catch Ron for the tie. Then, to my surprise, Ron totally chunked his tee shot and then left his second shot short of the green. My rally was looking really good at this point. We each two putted and at that point I had completed one hell of a comeback. I finished par/par and he finished double/double.

I had turned five down at the turn into a one shot victory. How? Slow and steady wins the race I guess. I shot 46-39. Somehow I was able to maintain my composure (something I am not very good at) and reel it in on the back to overcome some very ugly golf on the front nine. Ron did give away the last two holes with his collapse, but I was able to par them both myself.