ROUND 2 – Friday, July23rd

ROUND 2 – Friday, July23rd
Have you heard of the saying “I brought a knife to a gun fight”? That is exactly the way I felt on Friday. I told Mark as we left the course on Thursday that I had run out of swing keys and had nothing that worked. In case you were wondering, yes that did leave me a bit uneasy about Friday’s round!
After play on Thursday, we returned to Park House (the B&B where the Wrenns and Hourigans were all staying – GREAT place!) and ordered pizza. No doubt it had been a long day, and I needed to think through things. I was embarrassed about shooting 78, but with 6 penalty shots and no good swing thought, it was as much as I could grind out. It appeared that the cut would be 6 or 7 over, so I thought, in spite of my poor play, if I could resurrect my game and put together a decent round I could possibly make the cut. But I DID need to find a decent key that I could hit some reasonable shots with. Unfortunately, this swing pattern has been working its way into my game since I effectively quit playing the Tour 14 years ago. Even in some of the video I have looked at from “back in my playing days” I see the “lift” in my backswing. With a number of years of very little practice and play, especially competitive play (this is something like my 12th or 13th tournament since ’96), that “lift” has become much more pronounced.
So I tried one last swing thought on Friday – trying to keep the left wrist feeling a little more “bowed” at the top instead of “bent”. In theory, I felt that it might keep the left arm rotating a bit more through the backswing and minimize the lift. It did seem to work a bit better on the practice tee, and I thought I might just have a band-aid I could play with. Unfortunately, this band-aid started to unravel around my second shot on #2 (well, at least I hit a couple of reasonable shots on #1 – but made bogey anyway!) and from then on I fought hitting the ball in both directions. I had no idea where to aim or what would be coming out of the barrel. I felt like a drowning man being thrown a cinder block.
By the end of the round, it added up to 85 – possibly (likely) my worst competitive round ever. I had 3 more penalty shots, and I made a 9 on #14 (Spectacles – one of the holes I birdied in round 1). The only real “highlights” (if you can call them that in a round that poor) were a birdie on #15 after I hit a 5-iron to 1’, and pars on 16 and 17, two of the toughest holes out there. I was (am) beyond embarrassed about my play, but I know that I tried on every shot and squeezed out of it what I could. I feel badly for those that have helped me in different ways to get prepared to come over here and play, and I really wanted to play well for my devoted gallery!
In hindsight, the event never really was about the competition – but don’t get me wrong, I REALLY wanted to play well and had put significant time into preparing. It was about the experience, a chance to meet up with old friends again, to jump back into their world, and to be the catalyst for my family, the Hourigan family and friends to enjoy a unique experience together.
As Mark told me as we were walking down the par 3,16th for the last time, “Look over there – that is what is important, and that is what you have over most of the guys in the tournament”. He was referring to “Wrenn’s Renegades” – our faithful band of followers that had never missed a step in the 2 days (except, of course, for a short break for some outstanding ice cream out at #9 – we are talking about 4 teen age boys in the group!). and they weren’t just walking around following us – they were into it.
He’s right – it doesn’t take long around a Tour event to see how dysfunctional many of the players are. The lifestyle does not lend itself to functionality – husband/dad gone for over half of the year, the pressure of playing and relying on that for income even when injured, peaks and valleys of income and exempt status, etc. As someone told me when I was a rookie in 1985, life outside the Tour is like a merry-go-round, and life ON the Tour is like a roller coaster. No truer words have been said.
The tough part of the journey is over – we will continue to travel some in Scotland (St. Andrews and Edinburgh) until Tuesday, and then fly to London for 2 days prior to coming home on Thursday. Part of me is very happy that the tournament portion is over – I played so poorly that it actually made it easier (emotionally) to miss the cut. Both of my boys have said some heartfelt words to me, for which I am very appreciative and realize they are starting to see things in a mature light. Jo told me prior to going to bed on Thursday night that “Dad, I am proud of you. I know you didn’t play the way you wanted to, but it takes a lot of guts to basically not play tournament golf for that long and then play in the Senior British Open on one of the toughest courses in the world”. I am still trying to determine if it was gutsy or just plain stupid! Though I know I will have to relive the tournament when I get home numerous times, at this point it is already water under the bridge. Now we can focus on sightseeing and enjoying downtime as a family – part 2 of the Great Experience.