What a beautiful course, Sandpiper is placed right on the cliff side of the Santa Barbara Coast. This golf course provides challenging greens along with heavy winds.
I showed up the day before this Tournament for my practice round ready to learn the course and chart out my plan for the week. This normally entails learning where the highest and lowest point is on each hole, understanding the different landing zones from the tee shots and understanding the turf interaction between not only the ball but also the irons and wedges. After the practice round I headed to my hotel room to rest up and prepare for the tournament.
Round 1
Showed up at the golf course one hour before my tee time to find out that there was a four hour fog delay. My caddy and I decided to rest for an hour and then head to the range to slowly get warmed up and work on specific shots I normally would not have been able to work on the day of a tournament. When we teed off it was still extremely fogging but we were at least able to make out where the balls were landing. After the front nine I knew something was a little bit off with my equipment, all of my irons were flying 15 yards farther then the intended distance. This was a problem but I was able to keep the ball in play and manage my way into the clubhouse.
Round 2
Going into round two knowing that equipment was a little off I was extra aware of my club selection. This ended up allowing my to play 3 shots better than round one and finish inside the top 15. This week was a perfect example of all the little things that go into playing great golf and reminded me how important each yard is on the golf course. Golf is a great and frustrating game, you can do 99% perfectly but that 1% can change the score just like that.