Richmond Virginia
Well, I guess that I will start from the beginning. The week started off with a fun experience for Dan and I. We got to play a game on the golf channel called "Who's your caddie?". Jerry Foltz from the golf channel asked Dan ten questions about me and then asked me the same questions on camera to see how many Dan got right. Unfortunately, Dan only got two of them correct. But of course afterwards Dan thought that I was the person who was wrong! HAHA! I had to remind him that the questions were asked about me and I was the one with the ANSWERS! Dan is a great guy but I guess he doesn't know as much about me as he thought he did. No big deal because we had a great week without the caddie knowing everything about his player. HAHA
To give Dan some credit, on Tuesday he noticed that my club face wasn't aimed where it was supposed to be. As we started to check it out, I was aiming about 10 to 15 yards right of my target. I had been reading too much into the fact that I had been hitting a fade for the past week. I kept thinking that I was doing something wrong in my swing, but come to find out, I needed to go back to the basics. As soon as I got the club face squared up, I started hitting the ball just where I wanted to.
In the first two rounds, I hit the ball very well and didn't get all that much out of it. I understand that I was 8 under par, but one of the guys that I played with told me that he thought I should have been 15 under par.
Saturday, everything really started coming together. I played great and got the job done under the pressure of "moving day".
Now onto the final round. This was the most fun that I have ever had in a golf tournament. Being in the final group on Sunday is the position that I want to be in every week. I felt a little nervous at first but fell into a comfortable state quickly. I kept telling myself that this is where I belong, this is where I belong. Making a couple of birdies early on set a really good tone for me. After I made double on number 8, I had to dig deep and tell myself that I could come back from it. I have been in situations similar to that before and I was able to draw from those situations to help me move forward. On the back nine, after I made birdie on number 12, I hit a lot of quality shots and a bunch of great putts that I felt should have gone in. As I walked off of the 17th green, the leaderboard wasn't working, so I didn't know where I stood in the tournament. But on the way to 18, a camera man told me that Greg Chalmers had missed a biride putt on 18 and we were tied. As soon as I heard that, I felt surge of adrenaline rush through my body and I was ready to go and win the tournament. I hit the best tee shot of the day on 18. When we got down there to the ball, I walked off the yardage and we had 198 to the front of the green and 21 more to the pin. 219 yards into a little bit of a breeze from the left and the only club that entered my mind was the 3 iron. Dan felt exactly the same and we were both completely comitted to the club. When the ball left my club I didn't have a doubt in my mind that I had enough to cover the water. So to see the ball hit the wood short of the green was as big of a shock for me as it was for everyone else.
If I was put in that same position again, I wouldn't change the club I hit because I did everything in my power. I hit the shot flush and just got a gust of wind that turned into a little bad luck. I have so many good things to take from this week and I am ready to move on and get it done!
Thank you so much to everyone that was watching and rooting me on. I really appreciate all of the support and wouldn't be able to do this without it. See you all in a week!
MattHansen on 04.28.08 @ 04:18 PM PST [link]