"Tom,
What accounted for the extra 20 shots the first day? I imagine for there to be that much of a stroke differential, it had to be that nothing was working that day. Did you play the first day in more difficult conditions?
I guess what I'm trying to get at, is there something about the architecture or set-up of Seminole itself (a course I've never seen) versus another course you may have played those two days that had something to do with the scoring differential?"
Wayne:
Here's what I think happened and why there was such a scoring differential between those two days.
First of all, you have to take my word for it---I was definitely not hitting the ball as well the second day as I did the first when I shot 90. Maybe close but still not better. On both days I missed a pretty good amount of greens not the least reason we were playing both days in some pretty good wind.
Add to that, that on the first day I felt like Seminole would play something like the way I'd always known it but that just wasn't the case. It didn't look that different to me but the setup had the course really firm and fast throughout and some really tough front pins and frankly I'd never played anything quite like that anywhere (that may've been the first time I ever saw what I years later came to call the "Ideal Maintenance Meld").
So on the first day I was trying stuff that seemed OK to me and I was pulling the shots off the way I thought I should but I was constantly getting screwed---ie what I thought were good recoveries rolling right off the fronts of greens or into bunkers or whatever. Even what I thought were good putts from above some pins weren't working. That kind of visualized execution that doesn't work with a setup is going to cost you a ton of shots and it did the first day.
The next day that caddie of mine (who wasn't all that talkative remarkably) just jumped right in there right on the first hole and he talked to me about what I should try to do before I visualized any shot.
At first I probably thought it was a bit counter-intuitive but it sure didn't take me long to see how right he was when it just worked hole after hole.
This kind of thing pretty much just falls into the realm of "course management" which I view as intelligence and psychological (how to pre-plan a shot before you hit it) and not really physical.
I think this is the single area that most all handicap golfers just don't understand at all much less appreciate well enough. In other words they're constantly TRYING TO DO the wrong things and when they actually pull off the shot they visualize and it doesn't work at all they wonder why.
And because of that I think most all handicap golfers have no real idea how different some really tough firm and fast setups can be. I don't think they realize that very well for the simple reason they actually play them so rarely.
I really don't think that huge 22 shot differential had anything much to do with some difference from the first day to the second with my physical shot making, it all had to do with a very different course management.
I know it sounds strange but I think that caddie essentially saved me around 22 shots almost on his own.
It sure taught me a lesson, and I think it served me really well in the future in tournaments and setups like the Crump Cup. Most don't understand how defensively you sometimes have to THINK on courses like those setup that way.
This is also the area that I think all tour pros and such understand so much better than most amateurs. Those elite players may not hit everything just like they want to but before they decide what shot to hit they understand what NOT to try to do so much better than most amateurs.