I think yesterday, especially, I was happy with my game – I shot an even-par front nine, which could have been even better because my game was really solid, and I didn’t make that many putts. Hopefully I’ll be able to put it all together tomorrow, and have fun doing so!

I thought they were pretty cool at first, but now they’re just annoying. I’m not so sure it’s the advertisements themselves that are annoying, it’s just that they’re on all the time. I thought I might vent a little.

But they are the coolest techno-related ads around (since I am a techno-geek )

Check ‘em out for yourself @ [demoslam.com]

Here’s one that was pretty hilarious..

It was definitely fun to play, tricky, and challenging. I started off very well, going bogey – birdie – birdie in my first three holes. After that, I got some pars until I three-putted the 8th hole (ugh). I parred the 9th to make the turn at even par.

I bogeyed the 10th and 11th holes, both because of poor tee shots, but came back with a great birdie on the 12th hole. On the 12th, I nailed a sand wedge from 80 yards to around five feet.

From then on, I sort of lost focus on my game; it was hard while my group was basically running between holes to catch up with the group ahead and some of the people in my group were playing badly, which was pretty distracting.

I bogeyed the 13th, 14th, and 17th holes en-route to a back-nine 40. Luckily my little digression from steady golf didn’t hurt me too badly, I finished with a 76 (+4).

Anyways, I ended up winning the tournament by a stroke. It was a fun day of golf, and the win was just icing on the cake.

As of right now, I’m feeling pretty confident because on Thursday I played a practice round and shot 1 under thru 16 holes.

Also, today I played 9 holes with my dad and sis… I shot 37 for 9 holes. My iron were better and I feel better about hitting shots close from the fairway.

I know the layout pretty well and I should be able to get a good score as long as I hit my irons well and keep my drives in play. Come to think of it, this is the first time I’m using my new driver in a tournament. It should be interesting

Okay, let’s start from Pinehurst:

Pinehurst is the junior golf world championship event that U.S. Kids Golf hosts. It’s played by a lot of junior golfers worldwide in Pinehurst, North Carolina. So, basically, my family and I flew over to the steaming hot south-east. The weather is soo weird there, it’s baking in the day, then there’s thunderstorms in the afternoons and nights. Ahh, gotta love humidity.

Now, on to the playing. On a torrid first day, I shot a 77. I came back from a pretty rough front nine (I shot a 40), by shooting a 37 on the back. I felt confident, yet I wasn’t feeling great with my tee shots. They were pretty inaccurate and I was missing fairways left and right (literally).

In the second round, a long story made short, I messed up. I was mentally and physically drained from playing in the last tee time in the first round, and a very early one in the second round. It was also hard to double bogey the ninth hole after hitting a ball out-of-bounds. I also never mentally recovered from putting a ball into the water twice in one hole and triple-bogeying it. I ended up shooting an 83 after a very good first 8 holes.

My third round was slightly better than the second – I shot a 79. I shot a 41 on the front and went 3 over on the next 2 holes, but I came back with a 1-under next 7 holes. Gotta love birdieing the last hole of the championship! At least it was a great ending to a really fun tournament.

In the week after, I enjoyed caddying for my sister as she played awesome! She finished 5th in the whole tournament.

The final U.S. Kids Golf Local Tournament of the summer was hosted at Ruby Hill – a very tough, challenging course. I was pretty exhausted, and didn’t expect to do that well there. I shot an 85, but it didn’t matter that much – I won the Local Tour! I won a nice trophy from my accumulated points in the summer.

Hmm, this post seems a bit long… I’ll start a new post about my GTUG adventure…

Cinnabar Hills was a brutal course, especially the front nine, the Canyon course. The greens were huge and extremely difficult to putt on. You really had to had a practice round there, to know where to place the ball (which I didn’t). Basically, my fault was that I couldn’t place the ball in any of the right places around the greens, leaving me with tough chip shots. At least that’s a lesson I’ve learned for the future. I shot an 82, giving me 2nd place.

Boundary Oak was a flatter, easier golf course than Cinnabar HIlls, but the greens were by no means easy. They were very difficult to putt on – it took a lot of touch to lag it close most of the time. I played well, I think I just concerned myself too much with winning (because my only competitor was in my group at the time) and I was too protective with my score. For example, if he got a bogey and I was beating him, I thought, “it’s okay to miss this 5-foot par putt.” Of course, this is bad thinking; I should just play my own game and take it. I guess it’s another lesson learned for the next tournament. I shot an 82, giving me first place. (I actually made a 7-footer on the last hole to win).

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Since this was my first Junior Worlds, I wanted to experience the opening ceremony two days before the tournament. I got to have lotsa fun exchanging pins with my friends and other international players.

I played two practice rounds that helped me get to know my course, The Country Club of Rancho Bernardo. It’s a tricky golf course, and you definitely have to keep the ball in play to do well.

My first round was by far my best. I hit 12 greens and I only missed around 4 fairways. I had no 3-putts and I had 3 birdies. I shot my best round of a 1-over 74 that day, tying me for 15th place.

My second round was by far my worst day. I shot a horrible 12-over 85 that basically knocked me out of contention for an ideal finish in the tournament. Although, it could’ve been a lot worse. Mainly, that’s because I only started the first 8 holes at 1-over par. My ninth hole was a nightmare. First I knocked my drive out-of-bounds. Then, I knocked my approach on the par 5 into some deep rough on the left side. For my sixth shot, I had to hack my ball out of deep rough over a bunker to a tucked pin with water about 10 yards looming behind. I didn’t have enough clubhead speed, and my ball chucked out of the rough way short into a deep bunker. From there, I bunkered out and two-putted for a 9. Everything went downhill from there, as I couldn’t shake off that bad hole (something I will definitely try to work on). I shot 5-over, then 7-over to get 12-over.

My goal, then, for the third and final round was to have fun because I knew I had already put myself out of the competition. I played with two really funny guys that were great players and I had a great time with them. I struggled in the front nine, posting a 6-over par 41, then came back in the back nine with a 1-over par 39. A non-exciting 80 for the final round.

74 – 85 – 80 = 239 (20 over par) and T-71th place out of about 115 competitors.

Well there it is; my first Junior World tournament. Although I didn’t play my best, I was glad to enjoy the experience of competing with players from all around the world. I made quite a few friends along the way, and I’m not about to let one bad round take that away from me.

My third win this summer took place at Poppy Ridge Golf Course, in Livermore. Poppy’s a really nice course, with great facilities; another great course chosen by the U.S. Tour.

Anyways, I felt like I played pretty well shooting a 78 from the medium-back tees at the Zinfindel and Chardonnay courses (I think). What made the day sweet was getting a birdie on the 18th hole by putting in a 30-footer. Little did I know, that putt would win me the tournament. Shrish got 2nd place by shooting a 79 o.O. I felt good I finally had a good finish after numerous bogies and double-bogies in the final holes of tournaments.

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