2022 New Hampshire Open | Recap
Two steps forward, one step back ...
The New Hampshire Open wrapped up yesterday with Ben Reichert (not Colin Andrade), a pro from Buffalo (not Sandwich) taking home the trophy and the $10k purse. Sadly, I was not around for the final round after my second round 74 led to me missing the cut by two shots. I ended up in a tie for 46th out of 156 guys … and tied for fourth in the low amateur competition.
Despite an opening round 70 (recap of that round here) where I made seven birdies and left the golf course believing I was primed to make a huge run at this event, I finish the week feeling a tinge of disappointment. To go from giving myself pretty good looks at birdie on the majority of holes in one round to fighting for my life on every shot in the next is the kind of inconsistency I am trying (nay … NEED) to eradicate from my game. It took me twelve holes to get to a point where I felt even remotely close to feeling comfortable with my golf swing in the second round .. and that didn’t come until after I went bogey-double bogey on my tenth and eleventh holes to basically take me out of the running to make the cut.
On the positive side, I fought back over the last six holes, making two birdies and giving myself opportunities to make a last second comeback … but ultimately came up short after I went firing at the pin on my final hole of the day and had it cost me a bogey that officially took me out of the running.
I’m going to skip the shot by shot on this one … all you really need to know is that I couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with pretty much any club and needed my hot putter to save me from a much bigger number. If the first round was a great example of me shooting the highest possible number I could have given the way I played (I really should have shot 66 at worst), then today was the exact opposite where I probably couldn’t have shot a number much lower than 74 if we are being honest with ourselves.
Instead, I’ll do another round of “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” and see if we can find some silver linings in a week that started off great and ended “meh”.
The Good
The flat stick was en fuego this week. Of the seven birdies I made on Thursday, five of them were from at least 10 feet and a couple were over 20 feet. On Friday, removing one putt on the eighteenth hole (which was hit exactly how I wanted it), the SHORTEST putt I missed was about 14 feet. I made absolutely everything that was realistic for me to make and it was the difference between shooting 74 and having a chance to make the cut and shooting 80 and crying myself to sleep on Friday.
I have spent some time reflecting back on what I did well with the putter and more than anything, I think it’s just a growing level of confidence in everything I’ve been working on. Up to this point, I have been great inside five feet all year, but struggled to make anything in the 10 to 20 foot range. That has started to change a bit over the last few rounds and my confidence in those longer putts has grown. And with that confidence has come a willingness to be more aggressive, meaning I am getting more putts to the hole at speeds that are more likely to result in the ball going into the hole. Compare that to a defensive approach I have taken historically where I would leave putts short out of fear of leaving myself 4 or 5 footers coming back and its a night and day difference. I’m just not scared of a 5 footer anymore. Sure, I don’t WANT those for par, but I know I’m going to make them if I have them so why not give the birdie putt a chance?
I also did a much better job at reading the greens this week on the longer putts than I have in the past. I was really diligent about picking good targets and making sure I was playing enough break. When I did miss this week, I missed on the high side nearly every time which means I at least gave myself a chance to make it.
Also in the good category was the fight I showed to make birdies when things were slipping away. I was three over through three holes on the first day and fought my way back to two under par by the thirteenth hole (5 birdies in that stretch). Similarly, I was five over through twelve holes on the second day and got back to three over by the seventeenth hole which at least got the nerves going again about making the cut.
That fight (or as the kids would say, “that dog in me”) is something that I don’t think would have been there a year ago. Part of it is confidence in my skills (I know I can make birdies) but I also think it’s a practiced mental determination that I’m improving along with my golf game. Golf is a mental game more than anything and I’m showing improvements there as well so excited about that.
The Bad
Too many sloppy bogeys. Too many bogeys, period. On the first day alone, I made a bogey from the middle of a fairway with a lob wedge in my hand, I made a double after hitting a tree 50 yards off the tee box, I made another double with a pitching wedge in hand. I won’t even begin to force nightmares upon you by describing some of the bad bogeys I made on day 2, but you get the picture. Eradicate the stupid sh*t and I’ll be closer to where I want to go.
The next bad thing on the list was the inconsistency from day one to day two with my ball striking. I generally hit the ball well on day one, hitting thirteen greens in regulation and giving myself all sorts of chances at birdies. On day two, I only hit nine greens in regulation and many of those left me pretty long putts. What changed between the first and second round? After some more reflection on this and a good practice session on Saturday, I think the tempo and rhythm of my golf swing sped up quite a bit in the second round. Maybe it was nerves or anxiety or even adrenaline, but something happened to mess up the sequencing of my swing. I started missing everything out to the right again and I couldn’t figure it out fast enough to save my round. In fact, I tried a number of things to fix it on course but nothing in the technical foundation of my swing really needed fixing, I just needed to slow down … so by trying to make fixes I was making things worse (isn’t golf fun!).
That realization and reflection may be the single most important thing that could have happened to me this week actually … and for that I actually feel pretty fortunate. The reason that matters so much is that if I’m correct and it really was just tempo and rhythm, the next time that happens to me I don’t need to go find any kind of complicated fix to the problem … I just need to slow the f*ck down. That simplifies things dramatically both in my mind and in the physical swing and should create far more consistency. Would I like to have still made the cut AND learned that lesson, yup … but that’s the way it goes.
The Ugly
There wasn’t anything truly abhorrent in my game this week, I guess. The main thing? It is NOT okay was making three double bogeys. Make the doubles just regular bogeys and I make the cut easily. With that said, I don’t make a lot of big numbers so I’m not going to worry about them too much. Each of those doubles were caused by a single bad shot on each hole and it’s not like I compounded mistakes anywhere.
This second one doesn’t involve me, but I watched some pretty ugly behavior from another person in my group after the guy doubled his first hole of the second round. He unfortunately hit the wrong ball and had to take a two stroke penalty which just sent him over the edge. Throwing things, hitting tee markers, yelling, etc … you name something golf etiquette tells you shouldn’t do and he did it. This is a guy who has made over twenty starts on the PGA Tour so even harder to believe someone with that kind of success would act the way he did, but I guess this game drives you to madness sometimes. In fairness to him, he did apologize after the round so there was at least some self-awareness.
So what’s next? July is a big month for me with the US Amateur qualifier, Providence Open, Mass Amateur, and New England Amateur all taking place. I have about 10 days before the US Am qualifier so I’ll have a chance to write a couple of pieces that are not tournament previews and recaps. I’d like to review my progress towards the goals I set for myself up to this point in one of these posts … and I’ve got a couple of other evergreen articles in the hopper that I think will be interesting to y’all so keep an eye out.
Thanks again to everyone who has sent me messages of support these last few weeks and months. That stuff means a lot. Please continue to share these with folks in your life who may be interested in my journey!