Seems a pity to interrupt this elevated discourse...
... but I fear I must report on our own bad joke of a round today. fm (fmagnets) and I ventured out to the parking-lot tees @ Merion today, and frankly, both had a bit of a nightmare. I played pretty badly, but had some bad luck too (3 lip-outs and a few nasty meter jumps): nonetheless, I seem to have hit a bad patch at the worst time. Poor fm was looking good early on, but 3-putts on both #5, and #6, lost him some momentum. He picked it back up with a masterful display of close approaches from 8-13 to get to -6, but then neither of us could find a birdie in the last 5, and both dropped a shot too.
I'd recovered a little in the middle, but missed short putts on #9, & #10, and then got a horrible meter stutter that put me in the creek on approach at #11. After that it was all over for me, a bizarre result tee shot shooting through the back of #13 just confirming that it wasn't to be... but it did allow me to play the shot of the day to escape 70% Light Brush and a terrifying up and sidehiller 7 yards behind the green (and hit with a 70 yard punch!). When the camera view switched to the blimp, we both waited in full expectation of hearing the ball drop, but needless to say, it stayed above ground, lol
We're pretty sure low 60s will be needed to reach the final, so best of luck to the rest of you battling it out. Having not felt I did myself justice, I'm hoping Shiner will let the rest of us try out the final round conditions as well... perhaps we should have a prize for anyone in the rest of the field bettering the finalists scores?
And the best of luck to all of you trying out the Merion Challenge as well!
Corwyn: 70 fmagnets: 65
Here is our card and stats:
