Nelson Bay Pro Am Round 2
After the 2nd round of the Nelson Bay Pro Am I have shot a score of 73 (+1) to finish 1 over overall placing T9th be having hit 13 greens 30 putts.
The day was a treat. Could not have asked for a nicer last round conditions and good scoring was out there.
Bit of a long round summary but the day was full of surprises.
Having hit off the 3rd hole to start with I missed the fairway on a par 5 by 3m resulting in a stymie. Chipping it out sideways I got 3iron to the back of the green just off the edge of the green making an easy bogey. I felt at this point I have given 2 shots back to the field. Now the hard section for the nine was upon me flushing green in reg pars till the 7th another par 5 where again I got into tree trouble after my 2nd making another bogey on a par 5. Again another 2 drop shots to the field. It really was frustrating golf to be quite frank but yet that is golf sometimes. Play well on the tough holes and bad on the easy.
I took a couple of deep breaths and trusted in my game and strengths. Hitting another 2 greens in a row making solid pars. At this point my 2 putt ratio was high and I just needed some sort of shot to go my way to change my bad momentum. I teed my ball up on 10 with an open mind and nope it was not on this shot, left into the trees. Here we go again. For my 2nd I had an opening. Well only if you believe trees are 90% air. It was all I had with how dense the bush was. Crack! The ball spat out onto the other Nelson Bay 9 holes left again missing the green from there making a good up and down for bogey. A solid try for birdie from 9m at 11 went close.
12 the momentum changed (you really need to play Nelson Bay to see this hole as well as the next a narrow, double dogleg left up the hill and a tight downhill sharp dogleg par 4 right) not by the birdie putt but by my 2nd shot on the par 5 by getting lucky hitting a 3iron block fade instead of a low draw into a wall of trees spitting the ball back out onto the 100m marker where from there I consolidated the luck and sunk a 3m birdie.
Another bad tee shot off 12 left me with nothing. I tried to chip it out to the fairway and couldn’t. In fact I walked away with a solid double bogey. 14 a tricky par 3 over water back left pin, tough hole to go at. I holed a 15m putt for birdie to bounce back. Chances from 5, 13, 8 and 8m for birdie on the next 4 all missed but my patience paid off birding the 1st and 2nd my last 2 holes of the day to creep inside the top ten and to walk away with a pleasing 2 days of golf.
A massive thanks to the Pro Shop team at Nelson Bay Mauire and Warren for putting me up in “Luxury Apartments” at the Oaks Pacific Blue Resort. They have the largest infinity pool I have seen. The event was just amazing from the Cocktail Calcutta Night to the kind members and their facilities of the new club house. Thanks to Peter Power the Club President and the organiser Will Semmens for putting on such a terrific event. What a wonderful challenging layout you have. Looking forward to next years event.
Next event is another 2 day Pro Am at Belmont Golf Club (Lake Macquarie) on the 24th and 25th of September.
