Langley Cup Returns Home
After watching the Canadian Tour pros tear up my home course (which held up nicely mind you -- 11 under ain't bad) we got to play it in tour conditions with long rough and fast greens yesterday. Harry had been bugging me to play the Langley Cup final match which I had been delaying for a combination of reasons (I wasn't playing well for a big one) but was well within the time frame allowed. Fortunately with a stellar +2 on my first round at Westmount this week I thought my game was reasonable enough to give it a go. Plus, I wanted him to stop bugging me about it :)
I do love the match play tourneys, they fit me better than stroke tourneys it seems. I'm not a "naturally good" golfer -- particularly this year, ugh -- but my mental game is pretty good and I think that's where I make up a lot of the holes in match play.
That said, Harry and I decided to play an epic Langley Cup final on the course in its top condition. Without getting into the *snooze* level of detail that some others might, the match went like this:
Front 9: 1 Up, 1 Up, All Square, 1 Down, All Square, 1 Up, 2 Up, 1 Up, All Square
Back 9: 1 Up, All Square, 1 Up, 1 Up, All Square, All Square, 1 Down
So here I am on 17 one down. I miss my par putt after my chip from deep rough, Harry makes his bogey and I have a 3 footer to keep the match going. Fortunately that goes in.
18 I hit a drive right down the bunkerline right and end up with a tough lie, Harry punches from trees up right of the green and I hack it out to 5 yards short of the green. I chip to 8 feet, he chips to 12ish and just misses his putt to win. I make my 8 footer and we're Square thru 18.
So we decide to walk back to 18 and play it again. I hit my drive left over the trees onto #1 and ends up in the rough. Harry's in perfect position. I hit a sick shot out of the rough, over trees, over the bunker and it finishes like 8 feet away. Truly a magic shot. Harry then hits his right beside mine -- I give him credit he was grinding like mad. I lip out my putt and he does the same... was really crazy.
After walking back to 18 again we're told to use 1 instead. I hit driver as usual down the middle and Harry hits an iron. He hits the 2nd to the middle of the green about 25 feet away and I try and go for the kill with a 60 degree wedge. Unfortunately I leave mine in the long rough short sided with little green to work with. Harry's away and hits his putt 3-4 feet past the hole. My chip lands perfectly, rolls perfectly and I prepare my tiger fist pump but alas no, it lips out. We're laughing about that as it would have been a sick way to win and Harry lines up his uphill put -- and pushes it. I obviously take advantage and make my 2 footer to win my 2nd Langley Cup.
That's sort of a messed up way to win it -- would have been way nicer to drain the chip or my putt on 18 #2, but still it was a great and final-worthy round. This Langley Cup was undoubtedly the toughest field I've had to play through and I'm pretty happy to eek out the win.
Nice job Harry, hell of a tournament. You surprised a lot of people this season.
I do love the match play tourneys, they fit me better than stroke tourneys it seems. I'm not a "naturally good" golfer -- particularly this year, ugh -- but my mental game is pretty good and I think that's where I make up a lot of the holes in match play.
That said, Harry and I decided to play an epic Langley Cup final on the course in its top condition. Without getting into the *snooze* level of detail that some others might, the match went like this:
Front 9: 1 Up, 1 Up, All Square, 1 Down, All Square, 1 Up, 2 Up, 1 Up, All Square
Back 9: 1 Up, All Square, 1 Up, 1 Up, All Square, All Square, 1 Down
So here I am on 17 one down. I miss my par putt after my chip from deep rough, Harry makes his bogey and I have a 3 footer to keep the match going. Fortunately that goes in.
18 I hit a drive right down the bunkerline right and end up with a tough lie, Harry punches from trees up right of the green and I hack it out to 5 yards short of the green. I chip to 8 feet, he chips to 12ish and just misses his putt to win. I make my 8 footer and we're Square thru 18.
So we decide to walk back to 18 and play it again. I hit my drive left over the trees onto #1 and ends up in the rough. Harry's in perfect position. I hit a sick shot out of the rough, over trees, over the bunker and it finishes like 8 feet away. Truly a magic shot. Harry then hits his right beside mine -- I give him credit he was grinding like mad. I lip out my putt and he does the same... was really crazy.
After walking back to 18 again we're told to use 1 instead. I hit driver as usual down the middle and Harry hits an iron. He hits the 2nd to the middle of the green about 25 feet away and I try and go for the kill with a 60 degree wedge. Unfortunately I leave mine in the long rough short sided with little green to work with. Harry's away and hits his putt 3-4 feet past the hole. My chip lands perfectly, rolls perfectly and I prepare my tiger fist pump but alas no, it lips out. We're laughing about that as it would have been a sick way to win and Harry lines up his uphill put -- and pushes it. I obviously take advantage and make my 2 footer to win my 2nd Langley Cup.
That's sort of a messed up way to win it -- would have been way nicer to drain the chip or my putt on 18 #2, but still it was a great and final-worthy round. This Langley Cup was undoubtedly the toughest field I've had to play through and I'm pretty happy to eek out the win.
Nice job Harry, hell of a tournament. You surprised a lot of people this season.
Comments
Fun to watch.