Last Sunday was our teams second matchplay of the season, we played the Stand Eby Course in Bad Saarow again. After narrowly losing the first matchplay, we were all pumped up and ready to destroy our opponent. I was playing the second single match against Axel, a 17 handicapper, so he had to give me 8 shots.
After some bad practice sessions on the range and not having played my new clubs on a round yet, I was somewhat unsure what to expect from the round. So I started with a shaky five iron off the tee, that still found the fairway and left me 150 meters uphill into the green. Overshot the green with my six iron, bunkershot, chip, two-putt, double-bogey. Axel made bogey and I was one down. Great start.
Things changed quickly on the par five second hole, my shot into the green was deadly accurate (thanks to my new Titleist Vokey SW), my par against his bogey and we are A/S again.
On the following holes it would continue like that, either we squared the holes or any one point lead would only last one hole. The match was so close, advantages turned around with every shot. By the seventh hole, I had build up a two points lead, but then ran into a four hole blackout, where Axel made all the points. So I was two down teeing off on the 12th hole. I was able to hold it all together despite a bad tee shot and parred the hole and took the point.
The 13th hole I will remember for a long time for two reasons:
- The hole is an uphill par five with 443 meters in length. After a five iron off the tee and a seven iron, my ball was only 20 meters short of the green. Never ever was I so close to making the green in two. Four iron and six iron probably would have done the job. I was totally enthused.
- Then, I totally fucked up my third shot into the green, made a bad putt and still had 30 cm to the hole for bogey. Axel made his par putt, so I picked my ball up, thinking I had lost the hole. Seconds later I saw on the scorecard, that I had a one shot advantage over Axel on the hole and with bogey I still had halved the hole. I could have whacked myself with a seven iron for that. Instead of keeping Axel one up, he was now two up with five holes to go.
We halved fourteen, I won fifteen, he won sixteen, so he was still two up with two holes to go, the match was dormie. I was able to keep up the par-tradition on 17 and won the hole and the the thrill continued with one up and one to play.
To be able to play par on the 18th hole of the Stan Eby course, you need a precise second shot, as the green is undulated and protected by water and bunkers. To put you into a comfortable distance, your tee shot has to be 200 meters plus. Mine wasn’t and I left myself 160 meters to the green into the wind. I gave it a long thought, five iron and go for the green or PW to lay up. I needed the point, so I chose the safe version and placed my ball safely in front of the water for a lobwedge into the green. Axel did likewise, so it all came down to the short game. Axel left his shot 1 meter short and it bounced back into the greenside bunker whilst my LW found the back of the green, facing a four meter downhill put. Axel got the ball out of the bunker onto the fringe of the green and two-putted for double-bogey. As Axel had to give me on shot on the final hole, I had three putts left to win the hole and halve the match. This time, my putter didn’t give up on me and two putts secured the hole for me. Our team won 3,5 : 1,5, the victory we had been waiting for.
Never had I enjoyed such an interesting matchplay round with such a great opponent. We both played at our best level and par or bogey was the winning score on almost every hole. I won an enormous trust in my game again and it was the baptism of fire for my new clubs. So bring on the next tourney, I am ready.
Frieren muß niemand – es sei denn, es fehlt ein Zuhause und wärmende Kleidung.
Liebe Freunde des Royal Benzinger,
