The agony

First off, I am still here.  Sorry I have been very busy this summer and as such my blogging has been very delinquent.

In this post I wanted to talk about that old adage: "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades".  Such a true statement as it relates to golf.  In a recent round I nearly had 2 aces!

At the Links at Northfork, on the 4th hole I hit a wedge which landed right behind the hole, hopped back careened off the stick and kicked off the green.  I ended up making a 2 putt par from the fringe.

On the 17th hole, I just missed the cup to the left and the ball bounded forward one hop.  I made birdie on this one.

Of course had I made both of these, I would have had to retired from golf.  Alas, close is only close in golf, so I keep on playing another day.

PHAT tour event 8- Chaska Town Course

The final regular season tour event was hosted at the lovely Chaska Town Course.

I am pretty sure I am already mathematically eliminated from contention on the tour but what happened this round just makes me hang my head in shame.  But first the good news:  The weather was phenomenal!

The approach into the first hole.  This hole would prove to be the sight of another epic PHAT playoff this week.  This time between steady Dan Magnuson and Cinderella story Michael Vigen.

My round was chugging along OK up until the short par 3 4th hole.  The pin was front on this already short hole and I left my ball about 6 inches from hitting the green.  Unfortunately 6 inches short is in some very gnarly rough.  So with my tee shot leaving me about 5 feet from the pint, it took me 4 more shots to get down for a ugly double bogey on the easiest hole on the course.

Nick, Jim, and Bill line up putts on the 5th green, along with a non tour participant.

Dan putts out on the 5th green while Brad watches.

So after my cock-up on 4 I had a string of 3 straight pars before bogeying the easy 8th hole.  Then the wheels came off.  Actually the wheels fell off, then the rotors ground away, until I was sliding down the road on the frame.  Just take a look at the scorecard here for an idea of what I went through.  I can't bear to write in more description.

In the middle of all of that nightmare I also caused Dan to incur a penalty when we inadvertently played each others balls on the 9th hole.  I felt like a complete ass clown for that.  Luckily it didn't cost Dan the win or I would have felt even worse.

On the bright side, Vigen played well.  He scrambled enough to have a chance to win.  All he needed was a double on the last hole for the win but he crumbled under the weight and got an 8.  On to another playoff!

I had to leave to go home and do some work so I didn't get to see this playoff, but in the waning light Dan made par while Michael couldn't match.

Here are the results.
1 81/71 Dan Magnuson
2 94/71 Mike Vigen
T3 ?/74 Bill Starken
T3 ?/74 Jim Crowley
T5 84/75 Jason Simek
T5 82/75 Brad Opsahl
T7 84/76 Jeff Jiovanazzo
T7 84/76 Jeff Heil
9 89/77 Todd Heil
10 87/82 Chad Mechke
T11 ?/83 Nick Smith
T11 95/83 Kris Halsrud
13 88/84 Ryan Winterquist
DNP Matt Oelschlager
DNP Scott Loe
DNP Eddie Rymer

The second major of the year for the PHAT tour- The Phat

The second major of the year was hosted at one of my favorite tracks, The Links at Northfork in Ramsey, MN.  You would think that being a familiar course, I would have an advantage of some sort. Unfortunately my swing off the tee has abandoned my woefully for what seems like the entire year. Sigh.

At least the weather was beautiful.  This was the third straight time playing the course with sunny skies and no wind.  That is amazing for this track.

The Heils played 18 in the morning before the event.  Yet they are masochistic so they hit the range before the event.

Bill and Nick look sharp while making their games sharp as they warm up next to the Heil brothers.


The finish came down to the wire.  We actually had a tie for first with Jeff Jiovanazzo and Jim Crowley.  That resulted in the first playoff on the tour's illustrious history.

Todd, Matt, and Bill watch as Jeff mutters to himself about missing his putt on 18.  Jeff Heil and Nick putt out.  Jeffs putt on 18 proved costly, dropping him into a playoff with Jim.

The rest of the crew watches the final group play up 18.

Vigen hits his approach chip into 18.

Scott putts with his putters handle while Jim lines up his winning putt (which he missed).

The playoff went over to the 1st hole.  Jim recovered from a bad tee shot to get on in regulation and 2 putt for a par.  Jeff had a putt from the fringe shown here to tie but missed the putt.

And so to the victor goes the spoils of the sweet hickory shaft.  Todd mounted the trophy on a recovered barn wood plank.

To recap, here are the results.  Scores shown as gross/net.  For me a T5 was my highest of the year. Still the round was marred by an 8 on the 5th hole.  Just horrendous.

1 77/70 Jim Crowley
2 78/70 Jeff Jiovanazzo
3 75/71 Ryan Winterquist
4 77/72 Bill Starken
T5 87/76 Kris Halsrud
T5 87/76 Todd Heil
T7 87/77 Scott Loe
T7 88/77 Nick Smith
T7 91/77 Matt Oelschlager
T10 86/78 Jeff Heil
T10 99/78 Mike Vigen
12 91/84 Brad Opsahl
DNP Eddie Rymer
DNP Chad Mechke
DNP Jason Simek
DNP Dan Magnuson