Hello future me and interested readers. Here's what happened at The National Golf Club of Louisiana in Westlake, LA for Adams Event #1 3/6/17-3/11/17.
Drove from Dallas to Westlake on Monday before event for practice round. Made notes on pre-made yardage book (primarily green contours and where various clubs/shots traveled). Ate dinner with Neal Ajubita at Luna Grille in downtown Lake Charles where I learned there is apparently a crab moratorium in LA due to overfishing. Regardless of the lack of crab, I achieved a burger and fries much to Neal's chagrin (he called me a northerner). After dinner we briefly visited with our host who was a friend of a friend. Our host showed us to our domecile which was quite choice with a full kitchen, beds, and lakefront access including fishing gear and fishing lights (attract fish at night). I caught a 14" speckled trout with a spoon and Neal caught a similarly sized Redfish on the same lure.
Tuesday was rainy so we worked out in the AM and got a 9 hole practice round in the afternoon. We got lunch at a restaurant where I was laughed at by the server for asking for a side salad. Afterward we went to the grocery store to acquire pb&j essentials and other salty treats. Upon returning to the lake house, we packed lunches for the week and watched the rain.
Wednesday, I arrived at the course 1 hour before my 8:40 tee time in order to prepare myself for the day. It was cold and windy. It took longer than I thought to get all my stuff together for the day (mark your golf balls with a sharpie, gather appropriate layering clothing from the hang bar in the RAV4, assemble your push cart, heed nature's call) so I need to prepare for these things going forward. After slashing some balls on the range and rolling some putts I walked over and met my playing partners Eric and Mike. I hit the ball nicely for the majority of the first round, sticking to the game plan and the yardage book. I hit a couple of big misses out to the right early into our back nine which caused some unfortunate scores. Overall the ballstriking was solid, short game was medium, and mental game was medium on the way to a 76. I tried to show off with driver on one hole which was illogical and lead to a double bogey which was the most glaring mental mistake.
Thursday, I hit it on the green on all par 5's in 2 shots, playing them in -5. I made a total of 5 birdies and 1 eagle en route to a 73. This means that I had a feast or famine round where I was either doing cool stuff or bad stuff. I need to learn how to turn the bad stuff into medium stuff then I'll be rocking. I shot +5 for the event and missed the cut by 9 shots. I was on the wrong end of the tee time draw (playing early day 1/ late day 2), but the guy who ended up winning was in the same wave. I did however hear an unsubstantiated claim that 90% of those making the cut played late/early. Who knows, I don't like excuses. I made a couple of overly aggressive decisions in moments of turmoil, did not take advantage of some situations, and showed hubris in another. These are moments I will remember and avoid in the future.
My ballstriking as a whole was solid thinking about the racketball move and clearly visualizing the target moments before pulling the trigger, in some instances even muttering the intended target to myself before the shot. The rule of 12 produced some great chip shots including a chip in, and overall pitching/putting left something to be desired. Putting with the right hand only was surprisingly accurate and I think I'll pursue it on left to right putts to make sure the toe beats the heel of the putter to the ball to avoid missing these putts low.
After the event, I drove to New Orleans to stay at Neal's apartment until this week's event. I plan to apply the lessons learned from last week to this week's event. Looking forward to it.
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