World Amateur Handicap Championship Day 1: High scores abound at River's Edge

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – In a near delirious state, my playing partner, Bob Murphy muttered, “Hey, at least I’m having FUN!”

I’m thinking to myself, “Nothing ‘fun’ about putting five shots in the drink on one hole…”

Poor Bob went on to card a 14 on the par-5 9th, this coming at River’s Edge Golf Club on day one of the World Amateur Handicap Championship in Myrtle Beach. It’s not a horribly difficult course if you’ve played it before, but the kind of course where the first time is going to sneak up and bite you in a few places. And I know, I scored a pretty little sextuple bogey 10 on the par-4 16th, which featured O.B. on the left (which I visited once) and marsh on the right (which I visited twice). I wonder if blowup holes amongst a group are contagious. No one was immune in our group, with the two others both carding nines.

I’m not sure if it’s because of the course or because it’s the first round of a tournament and we don’t have our nerves together yet. One thing I was baffled at was all the careless putts my playing partners missed, playing hockey around the hole for some needless strokes. Now they’re thinking about my game, “Someone teach this guy how to hit a fairway with his driver!”

So it’s the morning of Day 2 and I’m trying to think how I can change things up today to score better than yesterday’s poor performance…Should I wear a different hat? Hit more/less range balls? Not eat at the Waffle House for breakfast - or just order something different at the Waffle House? Maybe I’ll booze during the round today instead of drinking water all day like a ninny. Or would a cigar do the trick? Bob told me he’d be posting up at the 19th Hole at the Convention Center for a good long while after the round and maybe playing hungover today would do the trick. Not a bad idea, really. It might slow down the swing a little.

Of course, I’m not doing anything to change my swing. That’d be hopeless.