Arrayanes Open

I'm playing the Arrayanes Open this week in Bogota, so I'll be able to post after each round.

I wasn't able to play a practice round on Tuesday, so today I had to go by memory and my caddie. This is another course that I haven't played in a long time, over 8 years I would say. It is a short course with some really fast greens.

I currently stand tied for 7th place. I've shot 71-69-73 (-3). Three good rounds, first round started with 2 bogeys and ended up under par, second round was pretty solid with 4 birdies and 1 bogey, hitting 17 greens in regulation, but today I started bogey, bogey, birdie, birdie and had a triple bogey 7 on the par 4 7th, that featured a nasty four-putt, but I was able to bring it back to +1 for the day with a good 34 (-2) on the back 9. I'm 6 strokes back with one round to go! Time to make that Sunday charge that I have stored from last week!

Final Round Report!
I started the final round tied for 7th place with -3 and I knew that I needed a few birdies just to keep up with the guys, because with greens that roll this good is easy to make lots of birdies if you get on a roll. I talk to one of the tournament officials and he said that the greens were rolling at 12.5 on the stimp in the morning and they would probably roll around 13 in the afternoon.
I just couldn't start on the first two holes... Two short par 4's, but they got the best of me! I pared the first and then made a bogey on #2, quickly recovering with a birdie on #3. After five solid pars, I got to #9, a reachable par 5. I missed my drive right and got lucky and it stayed out of the water hazard. I had to layup to 130, where I made a strategic mistake and ended up hitting the ball in the left bunker, short siding myself. I made a good bogey and ended up +1 (37)for the front.
While I was walking to #10 tee box I looked at the leaderboard and saw that I was being passed by a lot of players and I knew that I had some ground to make up. I missed a good birdie opportunity (7ft birdie putt) on the par 5 10th. On the par 3 11th, I had 206 to the pin, and I played a beautiful high fade with my 6 iron that landed 3 feet from the pin and just rolled off the green, leaving me with a about a 12 footer for birdie that I went on to make. I then got on a roll making a 35 footer on #12 and two putting for birdie on #13. I had some good par saves on 14, 15, 16 and 17. On 18, my approach landed 10 feet short of the cup and rolled just missing the cup, stopping about 10 feet past the pin (firm and fast greens). I took a peek at the leaderboard while walking to the green and I saw that I stood in 8th place and I needed to make that birdie. I rolled it perfectly capping off a perfect 32 (-4) on the back to finish strong. Some of the players that were playing behind me bogeyed some holes coming in and I finished T5th, 1 stroke off third and two strokes off 2nd.
It was a pretty good tournament over all; I only made 1 mistake (a triple bogey on the third round) and I'm pretty comfortable with my swing. I was able to finish strong, showing me that I can keep my focus coming down the strech. Thats something I was lacking this year, keeping me from finishing higher. I made a lot more birdies on the weekend, which was another stat that I was keeping track of. In Pereira and Pueblo Viejo, I only made like 3 birdies on the weekend and still managed to finish top 5, but without birdies is really hard to win tournaments. My putting was very solid and it is improving. I had 28 and 26 putts on the weekend, which will always keep your scores low (I putted like a friend of mine, right Mr. Blaske?).

I have 3 more tournaments coming up, 3 straight weeks again!

Here is the link for the Final Results: http://www.clublosarrayanes.com.co/www/resources/adg_profesionales.pdf

Barranca and Medellin

I was out of town for 2 weeks playing in two courses that were new to me. Well, Barranca was completely new to me, and I didn't remember much about Medellin's Llanogrande course. I played there 10 years ago, so I didn't remember many holes.

Barranca Golf Course was built in the 1940's by Oil Companies that worked in the region. Its only a 9 hole course that is not in the best shape, but it has a pretty interesting design. The greens were Japanese Bermuda, a really weird type of grass, that sometimes grabs and sometimes releases and they roll around 4 on the stimp! (REALLY SLOW) Unfortunately, it was a mud hole this year (see attached cell phone pic). It was hard to find dry land on the fairways and the ball plugged most of the time. I've never played in those conditions, but it was different and fun at the same time. First round (Saturday) I was -3 after 12 holes, when the round got called off due to darkness. I started early on Sunday, but my fortune was turning... On the 14th hole, I hit a drive down the middle and my ball plugged and we couldn't find it, so I had to take a double and things went downhill from there. I ended up with a 73 (+1) for the day. The afternoon was really hot and humid, turning the round into a torture... Needless to say, I didn't do my best to shoot 74 (+2). Monday was a completely different story, I was hanging in there my whole round and ended up with 2 birdies in my last 3 holes for a 71 (-1). My +2 total was good enough for 8th place. It was a new and interesting experience to me!


Medellin (UPDATED)...
The course in Medellin, called LlanoGrande, is a pretty nice design with some really good finishing holes. It played around 7,000 yards, and it was fairly long since it was pretty wet. The downside to the course is that it has 3 types of greens, bent, bermuda and mix, so is hard to get used to the speed. The first 2 days were pretty uneventful, filled with missed putts and a little of bad ball striking on Friday. I shot 75-78 with 34 and 32 putts. Saturday was a good day, I shot 70 (-2) and moved to 16th place, last on the money, so I figured that with a good Sunday round I could probably reach another Top 10. Sunday started off well with birdies on holes 2, 7, 10 and 13, but on hole 14 the rain started and it didn't stop! I was -4 after 14 holes and play got cancelled for the day!!! After talking with some of my fellow pros, I figured that I stood in 9th or 10th place the way my round was going, but the tournament got shortened to 54 holes, so I was last on the money. Not bad for a bad week! Too bad I couldn't finish my Sunday charge, but it left me a good feeling for the upcoming weeks