Colorado Open Qualifier Recap

Qualifiers seem to be the toughest format in professional golf. Here ya go, play one round with anywhere from 70-120 people for 8-12 spots. Basically we require you to come out of the gate shooting 67 in easier events and 64 in harder ones. What a challenge. But also, this premise is a significant reason why golf is one of the greatest games to be played. There’s no room for BS, no room for blame on others, it’s simply you, the ball and acres of neatly manicured grass. So simple in concept yet the farthest thing from easy, unless your name happens to be Scottie Scheffler. Of the 5 qualifying sites, I chose the one in closest date proximity to the actual event. I truly believed I was playing well enough to be a qualifier. And I was right…. almost . It was a stressful round. Not due to anything other than simply myself. It was the yin and yang of quality and trash golf.

On 15 I made a horrible course management decision. A triple tiered green with false front and water with 6 foot ridge behind. The green was shallow but wide, the pin being in a small bowl front left. My thought process at this point was I desperately needed birdies so it never occurred to me to hit it center green and wait to take advantage of easy finishing holes. I started it left edge of the green assuming my normal draw would bring it into the bowl. But, made poor contact and it landed on the front fringe and bounced straight back into the hazard. Crap. Luckily the ball wasn’t fully in the water just stuck in reeds and thick grass. I hacked it out to 10 feet and left the putt on the edge. Bogey. Absolutely ripped a drive on the following par 5. Had 8 iron in and caught a hot lie and air mailed the green. Pretty simple chip but my pitch didn’t check as much as theorized leaving myself about 6 feet. Knowing i probably need to birdie the last 3, this putt was essential. After multiple reads and practice strokes, I rolled it dead center. 17 is a 348 par 4 guarded by simply a false front on the green. Split the green with my tee shot but didn’t have the speed to get over the hill. It settled on the front edge. A playing partner hit his about 6 inches behind mine. When he hit his putt, it bounced and skipped all up the hill and came way up well short. I took mental note and delofted my putter a tad and took an aggressive stroke. Too aggressive. It rolled seamlessly nearly 8 feet by. By far the worst putt of the day. Great, now I have to make this downhill slider. Again following multiple reads and as much focus as I could find, I made it on the high side. The sigh of relief when it went in was so loud, my competitors on the other side of green but commented they could almost feel the relief in my sigh! Now to 18 standing at even par. A birdie is 100% necessary but still probably not enough. This hole was 378 uphill to a green with what seemed like an elephant buried in the middle. My tee shot was hammered up the left side and ended up bouncing into a deep lie in the rough. 48 yards to a middle pin. After looking at the lie for a bit, it looked thick. I tried to hack it to the top of the center green mound and let it release down towards the flag. Execution only just missed. I landed about 2 feet short of the apex and the ball landed as if on a cloud and rolled all the way back down the front. Now I had 64 feet over Mt Killomanjaru to make birdie. My read was great but left it 5 feet short. Oof, another potential for great work but just so average. My post round consensus would be to become more aware of risks on certain shots and pay attention to where greens feed off to. And go into the round with “I can make it” not “holy crap I better hit every shot perfect or I’m screwed” .

Stats taken through the round show course management wasn’t fantastic and my par 5 scoring sucked. My left rough par save percentages were at 30% which is super low. My putting was a solid for the most part. Solid stroke and green reading. Speed seemed to be the only wavering piece. Another common theme this summer. It’s now incredibly important to build off the good but also figured out why my mind is so lost during competition. “It never gets easier, you just get better” or you don’t and taking up accounting!