ASAHI RYOKUKEN CHAMPIONSHIP

MOUNT VINTAGE PLANTATION GOLF CLUB

NORTH AUGUSTA SC

My player this week is Yu Ping Lin

Monday: Just walked the course and was reminded why many players take this week off. This is the hilliest venue we play and the absolute worse spectator course as far as keeping up with any group. We will be getting numerous cart rides between holes but the poor fans will have to hoof it.

The course is in excellent condition with treacherous greens. Being fast and in perfect shape, they present a definite challenge. Expected precipitation might slow them a bit.

Tuesday: It was still dark when I arrived at the course. Yu Ping likes to play early. The gate to our parking lot was still closed so I had to sneak in and park by the driving range.

It poured overnight and all the bunkers were washed out. The grounds crew has much work ahead. All the rain makes the course play much longer and everyone was quite tired when we finished.

One good thing about playing early is we were done by noon. I'm out a here!

It's around 4:30 and I just heard that golf ball sized hail, heavy rain and severe winds were reported at the course but they pulled everyone off  in time. Grounds crews from other courses might have to be called in to get it in shape. They never came close to fixing all the bunkers. This storm probably washed out the ones they did fix.

Wednesday: Easy day. We were the first alternate for the Pro-Am from 12:45 to 2:29. Wendy Doolan, who was scheduled to play at 12:40 dropped out, but because the tee times were running 15 minutes late we were to take her place. Yu Ping decided to take her one allotted exemption and decided not to play. If you take a Pro-Am exemption you cannot practice. Our day was done. 

When leaving the course I passed another caddy, Portland John, who's car was off the road in a ditch. He was OK and a tow truck was on the way. Chip had some car trouble also. He couldn't brake in time and rear ended a small trailer. Last year Hound Dog got his rear bumper crushed as soon as he arrived. Not a lucky town for caddy cars.

We play at 8:40 tomorrow with Helen Alfredsson and Emilee Klein. Should be interesting.

Thursday: Kudos to the course superintendent and his crew for getting the course in shape. We never received the heavy rain forecast for last night so they managed to redo all the bunkers. Unfortunately, they required a lot of fresh sand and if you ever hit into a trap under those conditions a buried lie awaits you. This cost us a bogey on one and a double on eighteen.

The afore mentioned two holes plus a few other errors left us with a 5 over par round. Need to bring it back tomorrow to see the weekend.

We played lift, clean and place due to the soggy conditions. As long as you hit the fairways a perfect lie is the result. This lets the shorter hitters compete right up with the big girls.

I believe Emilee Klein could have gotten it up and down out of a trash can today if she had to. Her short game was phenomenal. Short putts are to Helen Alfredsson as garlic is to Dracula, scary!

Whom ever set the pin on the 9th hole must have been wearing a blindfold. Nine green has two tiers, set into a hill and slopes severely from back to front. The pin was at the beginning of the second tier. Anything short rolls back to the front and long, even a few feet, is treacherous. All three of us had short birdie putts above the hole. Emilee and Yu Ping barley tapped theirs and wound up on the front of the green resulting in three putts. Helen left hers a foot and a half below but still missed coming back. It looked as if she was gun-shy after watching ours.

Ever have one of those days when you have your head up your butt and an enema is nowhere in sight? That was me today. Everything was out of sync. Maybe a better day tomorrow.

Friday: One over today puts us down the road. Helen and Emilee will play this weekend. We were the first group off of ten this afternoon but the morning was playing slowly and we teed off 15 minutes late. Dotti, Betsy and C. J. were that last group, not exactly speed demons, and were eventually timed. I don't think any penalties were assessed though.

The course was surprisingly dry today but we still played "ball in hand". I would not be astonished to find them playing it down for the final 2 days.

C. J., many caddies just use initials these days, works for Emilee and Crrrraig, you must roll the R he's Scottish, were my caddy partners the past two days. It's good to have two other guys that know what their doing. Makes everything run smoother.