Week two of match play was this week. Mike and I took on team 9 which was represented by Luther Salveson. His partner could not make it so he ended up going it alone.
The conditions at Columbia continue to be as bad as ever, possibly even worse. The fairways seem to be one of two extremes: Either vast dead brown swaths of winter kill or mushy mud holes. Apparently Columbia put in a irrigation system last year but what they seem to need to work on is drainage. Several of our shots this week ended up being submerged in standing water in the middle of the fairway. One particularly well hit 3 wood I hit landed squarely in a puddle and stopped dead. Had it been a normal course an additional 20-30 yards could have been had.
On an up note the greens are starting to grow in. The aeration marks that from last week have mostly recovered. However, the greens continue to be incredibly slow and bumpy. A couple of strokes were lost when the ball hopped off line from the hole this week. The other problem with playing greens like this is you need to "hit" the ball to the hole instead of letting it role out. This is really bad practice once you go play another course, where putting like that would result in hitting the ball entirely off the putting surface.
I did hit the ball really well. I had two bad putts and two bad chips that resulted in a score of 40. This was with one double and two bogeys. I did scramble well a couple of times and saved par with a couple of one puts.
Luther did not have such a fine day. he spent a lot of the day in the rough or hitting trees. Mike and I ended up winning all points possible for the match. We are now tied for first place with 6 points, the most possible after two weeks.
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