Mill Creek Golf Club

I played in my fourth and final Golf Channel Amateur Tour event last weekend at the Mill Creek Golf Club outside of Rochester. This was a combined event for the Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse tours. Forty-five players entered, which is a great improvement over the previous events I played in this year.

The results are posted here. I am happy to say that once again I finished at the top of my flight (so what if there were only three people in it)! Even better, my 83 would have tied me for first in the next flight up (the Sarazen flight) and would have put me in solo second in the Hogan flight.

My overall experience with the Golf Channel's tour was definitely positive, but I'm not sure if I would do it again. The best part was that I got to play in bona fide tournaments, which I had never done before and hope to do more of. This was a great place to get my feet wet since there was a wide variety of skill levels and everyone was serious about golf but not ultra competitive.

Going in, I wasn't sure how I'd do in an actual tournament where everyone follows all the rules and there are strangers watching you play. It was a bit daunting, and indeed some players folded under the pressure (I have lots of theories on this, perhaps another post is in order). It turns out that I do pretty well and have fun doing it. The way I see it, I follow all the rules and put pressure on myself whenever I play, so this really wasn't any different.

The downside of the Golf Channel's tour is that it's too expensive. Even after winning three events, I was still out about $350. That's a lot for four round of golf, particularly in upstate New York. Next year I might enter some different local amateur events, like the Post Standard Amateur. Heck, if I knock another four strokes off my handicap, I'll be eligible for the US Amateur Public Links.

Photo credits: Mill Creek Golf Club web site