Ryder Cup @ GC Semlin

Last sunday we played the rematch of our Ryder Cup against the Siemens company golf team. The first one was one in playoff by Siemens, so it was time for our revenge.

The format we played was two foursomes and six singles, I played the last single against Lutz, a 36 handicapper, so he went out with a couple of shots in advance.

We played the B-C combination in Semlin, I played A-B before so I was looking forward to see the new part of the course (aka the C-section).

double green of the 22nd and 25th hole (picture courtesy of golfdesign)

Things started out ok with me winning the first two holes. But it was a struggle like on saturday, with the occasional socket kickin’ in and making me nervous about my game. I lost the third due to an errant tee shot, we halved the fourth, five brought me up two again, but then my game started deteriorating and Lutz played solid golf that brought the score back to all square after the ninth. It was interesting to see how many times I wanted to grab my PW, but I had to settle for 9iron or SW as I destroyed the PW yesterday. SW did it most of the time, also on the tenth where I hammered it from 80m onto the green and two-putted for bogey and moved one up again.

From then on my game was almost completely different. I played the shots like I was able to make them or even better and slowly expanded my lead over Lutz:

I played a score of five four times in a row – good on the two par4′s, excellent on the par5, not so good on the par3 – and I made the best two shots in a row on the 403m par4 23rd: 203 meters off the tee with a 5iron, followed by a 180m 6iron just short of the green. Lobwedge onto the green, a little bit to short, then the putt for par: the line was just about perfect, but I put a little too much speed on the uphill putt and the ball jumped out of the cup at the other end. I ended up with a 6. But the confidence was there.

Just what I needed on the 177m par3 25th. Beautifully built into the woods (see picture above), the fairway was only some 15 meters wide. No margin of error there. I trusted my 5iron, easy swing, solid contact and off the ball went, straight, long, came down just a fraction short of the green but gently rolled onto it and stopped exactly pin high, just two meters right of the cup. The birdie putt almost went in, the par ended the matchplay with 4&2 for me.

Coming down the last fairway towards the clubhouse, the other team members from Siemens and our team came down from the clubhouse terrace to cheer for us, it was a really nice gesture and great atmosphere. Lutz and I didn’t know about the scores of the other matches, so we weren’t sure if our result would matter or not. It turned put that it did matter. Before we came in, the score was 4:3 for us, had I lost my match we would have ended tied and in need for a playoff, just like the last time. But so it was 5:3 for us on a beautiful and sunny September sunday. And to reward myself, I bought a new PW from Susann at the pro shop, a Cleveland Tour Action 900, the same series as my lobwedge. I’ll take the first swings with it tomorrow, let’s see if it stays my favorite club (besides my new putter, of course).