Nick and I finished second out of 60 teams at the Fiddler’s Creek Invitational Member Guest last week. We lost on the third hole of the shoot out to a five net four par. We bogied.
Ironically, two important lessons from The Manifesto came into play on the deciding hole, a par four.
First, we tied the hole gross with bogies. However, we lost the hole, and the tournament, due to the all powerful and invincible DOT! (Chapter 3:The secret is … in the dots!)
Second, I in fact had a 20 footer to win the tournament outright. Instead of lagging, and avoiding the three jack, I took a shot and put the putt just far enough past the hole so that Nick was left with a puker.
And by now, you can guess the rest of the story. Because I did NOT lag, and violated Shababa Putting Rule No. 1 (“Forget the birdie putt, just don’t three-jack!), we lost the tournament.
Live and learn, and hopefully do better in next year’s shoot out!