Post-Standard Amateur Qualifying (Or Lack Thereof)

I played in one of the qualifiers for the Post-Standard Amateur on Tuesday and I'm afraid I did not meet with tremendous success. On a positive note, I was not DFL (Dead Fucking Last).

Synopsis: Super nervous on the first tee, I hooked my tee shot out of bounds, hobbled through the rest of the hole and carded a quadruple bogey right off the bat. All this in front of some rather serious-looking Central New York PGA officials. It was a par 5, which one of my playing competitors reached with two irons (more on that below). I went driver, five iron, wedge and still missed the green.

I calmed down after hole #1 and played mediocre golf the rest of the way. Mediocre golf plus a quad equals 90 for Dave, 12 strokes off the qualifying number. It was all between the ears of course. I shot 83 on the same track last week which wouldn't have gotten me in but would have been a bit more respectable.

My playing competitors, Shane and Matt, are the two best golfers I've ever seen outside of the PGA tour. One plays division I college golf for Lehigh University. The other guy was no slouch either and carded a 72, one shot behind the day's lowest score. I was mentally prepared to be out driven by forty yards all day, but these guys could literally out drive me by 100 yards. I'm usually not impressed with long hitters because so many of them actually suck at golf. Not so with these fellows. Impressive indeed.