DreamChasers Tour Championship: Legacy Golf Resort, Phoenix, AZ

• Posted on Grant
• in My Journey, Tournament Recap
• on April 21, 2015
• Comments Off on DreamChasers Tour Championship: Legacy Golf Resort, Phoenix, AZ

Overview: Legacy Golf Resort is a great course with really smooth greens and a fun layout. The weather was great with winds about 5 to 10 miles per hour all three days. The first two days, I had the pleasure of playing with one of my students, Matthew Kreider. He shot 71, 65, 72…way to go Matthew!!

I hadn’t played a tournament since Skyline CC in Tucson, March 27- 29th and I was a little tentative on the front 9 of my first round. However, I adjusted and started swinging and putting aggressively and finished the tournament in the money even after the bad start. My shoulder is doing so well; I was able to practice for a few hours after each round without any pain!

Round 1 Highlites:

#3: 3-wood, 9-iron from 135 yards to 10 feet and made the putt for birdie.

#11: 7-iron from 175 yards to 6 feet and made the putt for birdie.

#12: Driver, 6-iron from 185 yards to 30 feet. From there, I read the grain and break perfectly and rammed the ball in the center of the hole for birdie!

#18: Driver off the tee into the left rough. Then I layed up with a 5-iron to 80 yards. From there I hit my 60 degree lob wedge to 2 feet to finish with birdie and take momentum into the next round.

Round 2 Highlites:

#1: Driver, sand wedge from 110 yards to 10 feet and made the putt for birdie.

#2: Driver down the middle of the fairway and then 8-iron from 170 yards to 3 feet. I thought the ball was going in the hole while it was in the air! Then I made the putt for birdie.

#5: 3-wood into left rough and then pitching wedge from 115 yards to 30 feet. Then I made the putt up over a big hill for birdie. Probably the most memorable of all my putts this tournament!

#8: Great drive down the middle of the fairway, but then I pushed my 3-wood shot into the right desert. The ball came to rest in some really soft dirt 70 yards from the pin. I took my 9-iron and purposely hit it thin and ran the ball onto the green to 3 feet and made the putt for birdie.

#9: 3-wood off the tee into the right side of the fairway. I had 185 yards to the hole up hill and into the wind with a huge chunk of mud on the left side of my ball. I know that mud on the left side of the ball makes the ball go right, so I aimed way left of the green and swung. My ball sliced about 40 yards right and finished 5 feet from the hole! I made that putt for birdie.

Round 3 Highlites:

#2: Driver, 7-iron from 180 yards to 7 feet and made the putt for birdie.

#4: 6-iron from 185 yards to 20 feet and made the putt for birdie up over a huge slope.

#6: Driver, 3-wood on the fringe and chipped to 2 feet for an easy birdie.

#10: Driver, gap wedge from 115 yards to 25 feet and made the putt for birdie.

#14: Driver in the left faiway bunker and then my ball hit the lip of the bunker when I tried to hit it out. I hit a 9-iron, but should have used a sand wedge. However, my ball got out of the bunker and I hit a 3-wood from 290 yards to just in front of the green and got up and down for a clutch par.

Positives:

I am putting, and driving the ball really well. After the first 9, I could feel an old feeling of “just get the ball in the hole” come back to me while I putted. On every full shot, chip and putt after the front nine in the first round, I just thought about being free and letting the ball go while I swung.

Areas to Improve:

After 7 years of playing the same kind of grip, I switched to another brand that feels better to the touch. I need to get the amount of grip tape for these new grips on my irons and wedges figured out. It’s a new Ping grip that feels great to the touch, but the amount of wraps I had on them in the past made them too thick. So right before the tournament, I had them regripped and they came out too thin. I hit a lot of approach shots that didn’t fade the expected amount because my grips were too thin.