I hate to admit it but I have been having a tough year. Even though I changed how I hit my driver which is now giving me more distance, my overall game has gotten worse. That or the competition has gotten better which could be the reason for me now calling the B Group home.

I knew I had to get in a win before we made it to the Winter Classic Championship and I was determined that the 3 Club Challenge would be my first win of the year.

I went to the driving range four times to work on my 3 wood, which has not been my friend this year and my 5 wood, which I haven’t used at all. I also went to Pine Knoll to work on my short game. This is where I learned that I could not control my 7 iron or my 8 iron enough to use it for chipping. I even created a spreadsheet of yardages at Veterans and how far each club was going to get me for each hole. I had put in the time and the effort, this Challenge was going to be my bitch.

As I pulled in to Veterans, I make my final decision on choice of clubs, the 3 wood for driving and long second shots out of the grass, the 9 iron for chipping and the deep rough and my putter.

Chris arrives and decides to ride with me instead of Sunshine (Rey was a little slow getting to the course but not as slow as Eric who didn’t make it at all). That was good for me since this would allow me to show my little brother just how much my hard work was going to pay off.

But that’s not quite how it played out….

My 3 wood wasn’t too bad off the tee but it was a fickle son of a bitch if I needed to use it for a 2nd shot. And of course my 9 iron was always coming up short no matter how well I hit it. Meanwhile, Chris gets 5 pars on the front 9 to finish with a 41 to my 49. Hell, I’m 8 strokes back and we still have to play the back nine. In the back of my mind I’m thinking that the wheels have to come off of Chris’s game and I just need to be patient and be ready to stage my come back.

I re-focus and get one back on the 11th hole but that was just a big tease from the Golf Gods. On the par 5, 12th hole, I send 2 drives to the right and into the tree line. The 2nd tee shot wasn’t that hard but I couldn’t find it and now I was hitting 5 with another 400 yards to go. I finish my putt for 10, but at least it’s not an eleven. On the 13th hole I get an 8 and on the 14th I grab a 7. At least the scores are going down but I now know that this day is not my day. Chris is playing like a man possessed.

After the 17th hole, Chris has 2 more pars and a score of 44 and a total of 85. The 18th hole is a par 3 which means that Chris is looking at a score of 88 USING ONLY 3 CLUBS. Chris hears the footsteps and finally feels the pressure and finishes the final hole with a 5 and a final score of 90. Can anyone believe that? A 90 with just 3 clubs!!!

Of course I am depressed and disappointed. All of my practice and planning was for not. I finish with a 104 to Dan’s 105, Rey’s 115, Rock’s 124 and Sludge’s 139 but I know that with the handicaps I’ll still finish in the 80s. Just FYI, Matty Sludge has a 76 on the front 9 which is pretty impressive and it almost makes me smile. Almost but not quite.

And then Labor Day arrives and the Golf Gods send me some mercy.

On Monday, Dave shots a 101, Jake has a 106, Joe T finishes with a 109 and Eric has a 116.

After looking at all of these scores I can only think of one thing that makes any sense of this … Chris must have sold his soul to the Devil for this win. At the end of the dayI guess it doesn’t matter because a win is a win.

This week I have decided not to complicate this blog with all of those confusing numbers.

Handicap score:

Chris – 72 (Par)

Dan – 75 (+3)

Joe – 82 (+10)

Eric – 85 (+13)

Ray – 86 (+14)

Dave – 87 (+15)

Joe T – 89 (+17)

Jake – 90 (+18)

Rock – 95 (+23)

Matty Sludge 103 (+31)

Matt T - DNP

Bryan – DNP

Weekly Money List

Chris - $3.36

Dan - $3.12

Joe - $2.88

Eric – $2.64

Rey – $2.40

Dave – $2.04

Joe T - $1.80

Jake - $1.56

Rock - $1.32

Matty Sludge - $1.08

Matt T – DNP

Bryan – DNP

Leaderboard

1st – Chris - $19.77

2nd – Rock - $19.68

3rd - Joe - $19.34

4th – Bryan - $19.23

5th – Joe T - $18.72

6th – Eric - $18.44

7th – Dave - $17.58

8th – Matt T - $16.80

9th – Dan - $16.35

10th – Jake - $15.57

11th – Rey - $13.45

12th – Matty Sludge - $9.83

Money Owed:

Money owed up to the Commissioner’s Cup / money owed for WCC & Last 2 Broken Joe Championship rounds / TOTAL

Dan - $44.00 / $14.00 / $58.00

Dave - $14.00 / $15.00 / $29.00

Matty Sludge - $13.00 / $14.00 / $27.00

Bryan - $8.00 / $14.00 / $22.00

Chris - $7.00 / $15.00 / $22.00

Eric - $5.00 / $15.00 / $20.00

Joe - $5.00 / $15.00 / $20.00

Jake - $4.00 / $15.00 / $19.00

This weekend is the Commissioners Trophy and I have decided to do “Match Play” at Franconia Golf Course. On Sunday I asked when everyone could play and based on that information (or lack there of) here are the tee times and who is playing who.

Saturday:

7:10am

Cart 1 – Dave vs Jake (Jake gets 2 strokes)

Cart 2 – Joe T vs Bryan (Bryan gets 4 strokes)

718am

Cart 3 – Rock vs Dan (Dan gets 1 stroke)

Cart 4 – Matt T vs Matty Sludge (Sludge gets 2 strokes)

Sunday

7:00am SHOTGUN

Cart 1 – Chris vs Joe (Joe gets 4 strokes)

Cart 2 – Rey vs Eric (Eric gets 2 strokes)