Norman Lau Tour Memorial Day Golf Tournament Report

Although many of us were tired from a late night of poker, we made our way out to Concord to play our Memorial Day tournament at Diablo Creek. I had just played there a few days ago to get a feel for the course and I absolutely sucked it up. I was hoping the practice round would get all the bad shots out of my system.

Highlights from the round:

Hole 3: I hit a skyball off the tee and barely made it across the water hazard directly in front of us. There was a second water hazard on the hole, and from where my tee shot ended up, there was about a 50-50 chance I could hit a shot over the water. I had just survived one near water ball and didn't want to risk another. I hit a little chip out to the side in an attempt to get as far away from the lake as possible. The golf gods punished me for my chicken play by squibbing my next shot into the water hazard.

Hole 9: Norm fouled off a ball at an impossible angle into the thick brush directly to our right. Instead of getting another ball to tee up, he climbs down into the ravine and plays the role of a Spanish explorer and hacks his way through the jungle to search for the ball. It was hilarious. Also, on this hole, I hit a drive that travelled 2.4 yards (not a typo).

Hole 10: This was my nemesis hole at Diablo Creek. Every course has a hole that just owns me. There is a fence marking an out of bounds area to the left, a lake in play on the far right, and a ravine that eats golf balls in front of the green. During my practice round, I scored an 'X' on this hole. Today, due to an awesome 4-iron from 180 yards out, I think I made a 5, which I will gladly accept.

Hole 11: I lost a ball in Fangorn Forest.

Holes 14 and 15: I turn on the John Daly power and start launching rocket shots. Unfortunately, I am unable to make any pars because I also turned on the Paul Stankowski putting power.

Holes 17 and 18: Pat and Wayne had a steak dinner bet on their round. Wayne was leading by 1 after the front nine, and despite disasterous putting by both of them, Wayne had a 3 stroke lead with 2 holes to go. Pat makes a tough putt on the par 3 17th to par the hole while Wayne puts up a 5. Pat trails by 1 going into the last hole. He hits his best drive of the day while Wayne hits a dribbler into the left rough. Wayne's second shot barely reaches where Pat's drive landed. Norm and I think Pat is going to pull off the come from behind victory. Wayne finally gets to the green in 5 shots, while it took Pat 3. Wayne is about 45 feet away and his first putt takes him about 10 feet past the hole. Pat's first putt leaves him about 4 feet away. Somehow, Wayne makes the clutch 10 footer, forcing Pat to make his putt to win. Pat's 4 footer lips out and they have to settle for a tie.

I ended up in second place by shooting a 111. It's pretty ugly, but that's about my average.

In other sporting news, the Cal softball team lost to UCLA in the championship game due to a highly controversal call at home plate which awarded runs to UCLA. Cal's team could probably use some work on the Quickswing during the offseason.