2 Tournament Review

Well, I've been slacking with my writing, but I'll try to write more often... Since the Colombian Open, I've played 3 tournaments (Rodeo Open, Militar Open and Pueblo Viejo Open). On this post I will only review 2 of them, I'll make another post for the Pueblo Viejo Open, my home course.

The first was Rodeo Open, in Medellin. I've never played that course before and besides the greens, it was pretty playable, with some tough tee shots and some blind shots. I was surprised to find a hilly course right next to the airport. Now, the greens.. mmmm what can I say... Stupid is the first thing that comes to mind, but I think that might be a little too much, but they were hilly and fast!!! How about the pin placements? I have the right word... STUPID!! They were close to unplayable!! Some pin placements were only 4 feet away from the edge and some were almost impossible to two-putt!! I shot 76-74-80-83... I had 38 putts on saturday and I consider myself a good putter!! Gustavo Mendoza shot a flawless 65 on saturday to win the tournament by 9 or 10 strokes. It's one of the most impressive rounds of golf I've ever heard of. The areas on the greens where you had to place (place, not land) your ball was usually 12 feet wide by 12 feet long, otherwise, you couldn't two-putt, or you had to make a 20 footer to par the hole. Needless to say, I didn't enjoy that setup too much... I made the cut by 6 strokes and then finished last of the guys that made the cut, in 19th place.

The second tournament was the Militar Open. I've played this Open about 10 or 12 times. It is a must every year and I played it every summer while I was in College. Is a fairly short course with fast and hilly greens and they have the same pin placements every year. The back 9 has Out-of-Bounds left on every hole, so if hook is your shot, this place is a nightmare!! I shot 69-73-73-76 to finished tied for 15th. I played pretty good, but unfortunately, the third day I hit one of those nightmare hook shots on hole 14 for a double-bogey 7 on a par 5 to top a little bogey-double-double run that killed my momentum. I was -5 at the moment, only 3 strokes back and by the end of the day I was at -1, 7 strokes back. I should have been only 2 strokes back at -6. The last day I tried too hard and luckily finished with an Eagle on the last hole to get in the money (t-15th). But I learned from that and moved on to Pueblo Viejo Open.