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Most Heroic Shot


STUDque

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Don’t really take hero shots anymore but one that stood out was on a shortish par 5 and being 205 to pin stuck on some hard pain beyond the right rough with tree trouble all down the right. Hit 4i barely cleared the trees and finished front portion of green with about 20’ for eagle. Didn’t make the putt

Driver: PXG 0811 X+ Proto w/UST Helium 5F4

Wood: TaylorMade M5 5W w/Accra TZ5 +1/2”, TaylorMade Sim 3W w/Aldila rogue white

Hybrid: PXG Gen2 22* w/AD hybrid

Irons: PXG Gen3 0311T w/Nippon modus 120

Wedges: TaylorMade MG2 50*, Tiger grind 56/60

Putter: Scotty Caemeron Super Rat1

Ball: Titleist Prov1

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I hope a putt can count as a heroic shot, because in the situation I am about to describe, I'll take whatever I can get in this particular match.

Circa August 2005, and I am playing with my Dad in his club's member guest. You are flighted with five other two-man teams and you play five 9-hole matches, one against each team over the course of two days. For reference purposes, this was at the Country Club of Asheville. The matches are handicapped, so depending on your handicap, you could be giving someone strokes on holes over the nine-hole match. It's also best ball, so if your partner makes par and you are putting for bogey you just pick up.

I don't even remember when this match took place in the order of teams, but my Dad and me weren't playing partcularly well. We won a couple of matches, but ended up middle of the pack in our flight when all is said and done. This one match we played was against two guys who I can only describe as the biggest sandbaggers I've ever played against. My handicap at the time was about a 7, and my Dad I think was a 9 or something. The two guys we were playing against were like a 9 and a 10, so my Dad was even giving them a shot on one hole, and I had to give the higher guy 3 strokes or something like that. Let's just skip the technicalities of how this worked, score wise, but let's just say that with these two guys, we were being sandbagged big time. As an example, both of these guys outdrove me easily by 30 yards (I hit it about 250 at the time). Then they had no problem reaching both par 5s in two while neither me nor my Dad came close. They had birdie putts on every hole, both of them, and if I wasn't putting for birdie it didn't happen, as 5 matches over 2 days was way too much golf for my Dad at the time, and he was just worn out by the 2nd day.

Anyway, we reached the par 3, third hole, which is about a 165 yard par 3 that drops about 40-50 feet from the tee to the green. It's a fairly generous green that slopes from back to front. This is a classic Donald Ross layout, with the turtle back greens, so if you get above the hole you are basically screwed, as the ball will just roll 10+ feet past the hole if you miss it. Brutally fast too, because they prepped the course for the member guest by double cutting and double rolling the greens. Very hard to putt that day to say the least. The pin was front right this day, and I pulled my tee shot to the left and it ended up middle of the green. I was faced with about a 100 foot putt with a dramatic 90 degree break from left to right. I was about as far from the hole as you can be while still being on the green. My Dad landed short of the green and chipping on. The other two guys hit it pin high left, but both of them had about 15-20 footers for birdie.

So my mindset is that we are really getting hammered by these guys, so at this point I am demoralized and trying to figure out how I am giving them strokes when every putt they have is for birdie. Anyway, I get to my ball and everyone else is still walking up to the green. My Dad pulls the flag and I spend about half a second looking at this putt as there isn't a chance in hell this is going in. I just want to get it close enough to be able to have an easy tap in par. Yeah, good luck with this slope and break. So I let it rip, aiming straight ahead, while the pin is way down to my right on the front of the green. My ball starts tracking, and about 3/4 of the way to the hole I'm thinking, "hey, this looks really good." Next thing I know it's tracking right for the cup. And them boom, it hits dead center of the cup and drops in. I scream out loud enough for the all of Asheville to hear me, "YEAH!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!! YEAH!!!!!" If that ball hadn't been dead center of the cup it would have lipped out, or would have rolled all the way off of the front of the green.

I just remember that moment from that day, from that event, because that was the only hole we won against those sandbaggers. I think we lost that 9-hole match something like 4 and 3. It was absolutely brutal. And I'm 100% sure that that was the last member-guest my Dad played in, because he was so pissed that the club didn't say anything to the sandbagging member, or challenge his handicap.

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