[BigSoonerFan]

Personal Brag 1 :-)

I grew up in Oklahoma and played a lot of junior high golf there. My junior year I moved to Indiana and played my last two years. The guys on the team told me that the conference championship was the biggest tournament of the year, but it obviously didn't mean much to me. The first tee was a bit intimidating though, as I played with the three best players in the conference (I was playing #3, but our #1 and #2 players didn't like the pressure, so the coach played me at #1). All three guys were "preppy" golfers, dressed finely, nice bags, clubs and shoes. Back then I couldn't hit the ball out of my shadow. I scraped it around the course (bending my left arm more than those women from the early 1900s and slapping at the ball), barely hitting my drives 210 (no kidding) and depending on my short game to save me. I started slow and was spinning my wheels. Things got better on the eighth hole as I amazingly drained a sixty-footer for bogey that put me at three over. After a birdie at nine and somehow making par through the back nine, I finished with 74, hitting about four or five GIRs and beat everyone by two shots (or more). I still remember one of teammates of my opponents asking what he shot. After he said 76, his teammates said "That's low score on the board. You might win this.". As my opponent pointed toward me and said "No, I think he got me.", his teammate stared at me and I walked up the hill to the clubhouse, dressed in blue jeans and old beat up tennis shoes...

Personal Brag #2
In college I played in our club championship and everyone was talking about the defending champion and how he was going to run over the field. He was a stockbroker with a +1 handicap, spending some weekends flying down to get lessons from Leadbetter, improving on his Nick Faldo-like swing. I didn't play with him the first day, which was probably good, since he shot 69 just like the previous year. I managed a 72 to stay within striking distance. The next day we played together. I scraped another even par front night and he shot three over to pull us even. The back nine was as much fun as I've had playing (with the obvious ending). A bunch of people (30-50) for the small course ended up following us around as we traded the lead for awhile. My opponent wasn't generally well-liked and most of them just wanted to see him lose I think. I don't remember a lot, except I birdied the 13th to tie, he birdie 14 to go ahead and I birdied 15 to tie again. I remember the 20 footer for par on 16 to give me the lead when he bogeyed. On 17 I played too conservative and dumped my tee shot in the bunker behind the green and I was stunned when he did the same. He got a bad lie and ended up hitting it in the creek on the other side and I coasted to an exciting win for me.

Family Story
My dad was a horrible golfer, absolutely horrible. I'm glad he introduced me to the game and I tried to help him, but it didn't do any good. He had the biggest loop slice swing I'ver ever seen. Sometimes his divots would be 45 degrees left of his target line and he'd still hit it in the right rough. He managed a 23 handicap when we played in my junior high years (he quite out of frustration years later). One year he played in the city championship. He was in the last flight (seventh) obviously. (I may have told this story?) There are four courses in the city, one round at each, and after three rounds he had a 15 shot lead in his flight, managing to break 90 three times (having only done it a few times in his entire life). Everyone obviously thought he was a sandbagger, despite me telling them how much he really sucked. :-) The last day he almost gagged it all up, shooting a 105 or so and winning by 1 or 2. Of course, then everyone thought he was throwing off. Good times.

Personal Beat #1
I was playing in my first club championship as a kid and playing a career round (-1 after 11). Then came my first case of the shanks. I finished with a 78 and broke about six or seven clubs coming in. I had to borrow a few clubs to play the second day...

Personal Beat #2
Last day of a junior high tournament. I had a ten footer for par for my first finish in a tourney (third place). As the ball lipped out, I yelled "God" and looked away, and then yelled "Damn" as I saw the ball roll off the green and 30 yards down the hill. I after I chipped on and two putted for triple, my coach came by and told me how pleased he was to have heard my yell fromt he parking lot.

Hopefully these weren't too boring...