Saturday morning came early. Your Hack had a very late, but very successful, night of blackjack and didn’t get back to the room until about 3AM. Fortunately, Bru had scheduled tee times around 11AM daily knowing some of our players tended toward the “degenerate” scale when gambling.
After a breakfast with the boys at 8:30AM, I hung for about an hour at the tables with the Voice and the Senator. After that, we packed up and headed out to McDowell Mountain for our 3rd round. Bru was still in the overall lead, but the battle for 2nd, 3rd and 4th had tightened with Pip and I backing up after our round at Troon and the Senator and Sir-Yes-Sir surging forward. Your Hack was 8 points back in 4th place, but only 1 point behind 3rd and 5 behind 2nd.
McDowell Mountain is the old Sanctuary Club which was renamed and redesigned in 2011 with consulting help from none other than Phil Mickelson. Here’s a flyover from last Fall before the over-seeding which gave us the lush fairways we played last week.
Your Hack played with the Voice once again and we were paired with Weavo and the Mechanic in another $50 two-down match. Weavo and I played the Black/Gold hybrids at 6700 yards (Scorecard) and our partners played the Gold tees. It was my 3rd day in a row with the Voice, but we make a formidable best ball team - mostly because we can take each other’s trash talk without getting upset. Mostly!
The greens had been rolling well in Arizona, but we definitely noticed on the practice green that the speeds were a little spicier here. I know most readers will find this hard to believe, but I three putted the 1st hole for bogey for the 3rd day in a row. We were one down. Par, birdie, par, par on the next 4 holes put us 3 up and 1 up on the auto press as Weavo and the Mechanic struggled and my back was getting sore carrying the Voice’s ass through the first 5 holes.
Luckily, he felt my pain and made par on #6 and then a birdie on #9 to win the front 4 up and 2 up. I say luckily because once again I limped into the turn with a double and another bogey to finish the front 3 over, shooting 39.
The pace was tough all day and we pulled up to the 10th tee and had two groups stacked up in front of us. You all know by now that your Hack has issues with slow play.
Meanwhile we caught up with the boys behind us. Bru continued his good play, shooting even par on the front with 2 birdies offsetting 2 bogeys. Sir-Yes-Sir was sitting at two over even though he’d made two doubles in the first three holes. His eagle on #9 was sweet (and a skin). The Senator made the strongest move on the front shooting 39.
Weavo and the Mechanic pressed the back nine and quickly took a 1 up lead with Weavo’s birdie on #10. I continued with my brilliant play on the greens by 3 putting #10 from 15 feet for bogey. Here's how frustrating my game is currently. I hit the first 8 greens on the back nine and was 3 over going into the last hole. That’s right, another three 3-putts on the back nine. After failing to get up and down on #18, we finished the round with another 79 that included 38 putts.
Weavo played better on the back, with 2 bogeys and a birdie to close in 37 and shoot 77 for the day. Our opponents were able to win the back nine. All in, it was a good match, but the highlight of the day was on #17 a 200 yard par 3. Weavo hit it to about 20 feet and the Voice decided it was time to gamble. He offered 5-1 odds that he could get it inside of Weavo’s ball. The settled on 7-1 and the Voice put up $100. As you might expect, he missed the green and wiped out his winnings for the day.
Bru blitzed the back nine, shooting 34 with 3 more birdies and posting a 2 under 70 for the day. The Senator cooled down a little on the back shooting 81 overall but only missing his quota by 1 point. Sir-Yes-Sir limped in with a 45 on the back to shoot 83. Pip played better on the back, but added another double on #16 to post an 84 - 8 short of his quota.
Stableford Update after Round 3:
Bru -6, Weavo -16, Sir-Yes-Sir -19, Hack -20, Senator -25, Pip -34, Voice -38, Mechanic - 40
After dinner back at Talking Stick (Southwestern burritos, tacos, etc.), your Hack headed back to the blackjack tables and got punished for the first time during the trip. I lost back 50% of my winnings to date. The karma wasn’t right and I decided to walk away and finally get to bed before midnight for the first time. Our final round awaited at We-Ko-Pa Golf Club and I had a chance to make a big move sitting 4 points out of 2nd place in the Stableford tournament.
A few of the guys on our trip are headed to Casa de Campo next month so I though it would be good to remind everyone that the Latin American Amateur is being played - starting today - at the Teeth of the Dog. There is a 2 hour streaming show today on ESPN and at https://laacgolf.com/
If you haven’t played Teeth, enjoy this course overview: