Disappointment at a US Jr Amateur Qualifier

Not so good, but hopefully a great learning experience. Sean shot an 85...I think he was 10 or 11 over on his 1st nine holes. Most of the damage came as a reverberation from one swing on his 3rd hole of the day, a difficult par 3 where he carded an 8 before the smoke had cleared.

Presumably still reeling from the disappointment, he had double bogies on his next two holes. Nine over par in just 3 holes!!! Ouch.

I suppose there is something to learn from playing well, but I think this one gave Sean an almost invaluable lesson.

You see, he and I had gone up to the course several weeks ago to get in a practice round, but were thunderstormed off the course after the front nine. After returning home, I gave Sean the chance a couple of times to return to the course to finish the back nine practice round, but he insisted he was ready and didn't need it.

On the qualifier day, he started on the back nine and apparently things went pretty well until his third hole, which is a long (~200 yd) par three nestled onto a hill slope that falls from left to right into a lake. Sean said his playing partner had honors and had his tee shot, well struck with a hybrid, come up short into the bank just above the water.

Simply put, Sean was uncertain what to hit. After seeing his partner with that shot and having never played the hole before, he chose his hybrid worried that a 3 iron wouldn't be enough. But thinking it was too much club, he said he probably decelerated his swing and pulled it badly left, into the water. From there, according to his buddy who served as his caddy, things sort of spiraled out of control. Something about making a poor choice on his drop option, and a mistake that followed that.

Remarkably, that 8 was his first hole he scored worse than double bogey all summer long. In contrast, last summer he was averaging two holes worse than double bogey each round. Although, not surprisingly, the next two holes didn't fare well, he then pulled himself together and finished out the rest of the tournament holes at only 4 over par. I believe something right at par qualified for the event, and only a handful of kids made it.

The good to take away from something like this is to recognize that he is almost to that point where all that separates him from really, really solid scores is a swing or two, here and there. You can see his game tighten up almost on a weekly basis.

Besides, it is hard to see the downside of trying to qualify for a USGA event. My guess is that Sean will be eager to have another go at it next year, and probably will be focused to extract his measure of revenge from the event at that time.

It is all good at this stage. As long as he is playing a lot of golf at home and seeing some good competition in his events, it is all good.