2016-04-17_Sycamore Creek
A final warm up round leading up to the Donkey Cup and the inaugural Olympic round for Sweden. Steve, Rick, Mike, and Jon N. face off at Sycamore Creek. The rubber match between Germany and England in their final Olympic round-robin match. How will the long layoff impact Jon N.? Can Rick return to his early season success? Has Steve turned the corner and back to his old ways? Which Mike will show up in a season of ups and downs? We'll find out as a crutial tune-up round awaits!
Rick was on fire from the start, returning to early season form, shooting even through 6 with a birdie on the par 5 5th. An unfortunate double after a nice recovery and a 3 putt bogie on the par 3 8th only proved that he could've shot better than the 38 going out, an 8 shot lead over the field. Jon N. showed some rust from a long lay off but scrambled well despite a hooking ball flight. Mike stayed relatively consistant throughout the round but his putting and ball striking made it difficult to make pars. Steve's struggles on the par 5s continued but did not card antying worse than a double bogey for the entire round.
Rick began to show signs of faultering after a poor tee shot on the par 3 11th, scoring a triple, followed by a lost ball off the tee shot on #12. Still with a comfortable lead and rebounding a bit, the wheels came off on the very difficult par 4 16th. A perfect drive was ruined by a duff second into the stream and he failed to recover. A fortunate short tee shot on the par 3 17th stayed out of the stream and was able to scramble for bogey. He avoided the water on the final hole by laying up into the driving range. A timely scramble left him with a bogey on the last. Jon N. straightened his swing through the back 9 but was too strong at times, sending his ball OB a few times but still shot a respectable score all things considered. Mike perservered and continued his string of bogies on the back but his tee shot on 17 found the stream ultimately ending his bid for victory. Steve recovered on the back 9, closing the gap as Rick struggled and a fortunate kick out of an errant tee shot on 18 put him in position to pull even but missed the par putt by centimeters give the victory to Rick, his second of the season.
