2012 Barnett Park Championships in Orlando. One of my local courses and that year was my first time playing MA1 in the tourney there. I play there often and play it well. I was playing decent at this tourney, sitting at -1 from long pads likely in the lead on my card with 5 holes left until on north course we came upon the infamous hole 18 island shot.
Now mind you, I am not intimidated by this hole. I play it often. I know what you have to do to make it across. For a lefty like myself, I would throw a hyzer out over the water to the left of the island and let it crash into the top of the trees on the island and it usually falls on the ground and sticks within decent range of the basket. Even if it rolls toward the water, chances are it will stick. The worst thing I expect to walk away with is a circle 4.. maybe.
So I throw the hyzer bomb and out of nowhere a gust of wind just picks up and lifts my disc way higher and way off to the right and into the lake. Ok.. Can't let it get to me.. It happened to half my card.. I'm still doing fine. I walk to the short pad for a much easier "drop zone" re-tee. This time the wind is relentless. It was as calm as can be for everyone else on my card but for some reason it was out to get me. From the short tee I throw my roc right at the island. It comes in a little short, hits the grass on the island and literally bounces backwards right into the drink within an inch from sticking out of the water. *sigh Must have hit a root or something as it should have skipped UP onto the grass, not backwards into the water. oh well.. time to walk to the shameful "kiddy drop zone" that is pin high.
Now I'm annoyed but have a ridiculously easy 60/70 foot shot to the basket and only about 40 feet of water carry. No problem.. Let me just layup my aviar under the basket and move on right?. Release the disc.. didn't get good rotation, it wobbled, wind gust came out of nowhere again and lifts it and carries it way over to the right and into the water behind the basket. DOH!
So now here I am, putting for 7, not even on the island yet. Pull out another putter and try again.. Damn it if I did'n't do the same thing AGAIN.. This time I hear the chuckles from the gallery of backed up cards on hole 1 and hole 18's tee. Now the wind is ridiculous.. the water fountain in the middle of the lake is misting me from a few hundred feet away and I'm pissed off. I take my most stable putter and toss it lazily toward the basket almost with no regard or aim.. it hits the basket, falls beneath it and stands up and begins to roll.. and it rolls.. wobbles.. almost falls.. catches a slight edge off a small bare spot in the grass and stands up rolling faster all the way down and into the drink again! The gallery (who are all like
opcorn: at this point) lets out a big embarrassing sigh.
I nearly threw my entire bag in the water at this point. I was boiling mad.. I had just thrown a decent driver, my most stable roc and 3 of the 4 putters I carried at the time into the drink. All my buddies were chuckling but trying not to make eye contact with me. I had never experience such a meltdown.. Played the hole hundreds of times over and over again for 5 years before the day of that tourney and NEVER had I thrown more than maybe 1 or 2 discs in the water on occasion and taken a 4 or 5. Nothing could have prepared me for the b!tch slap that hole gave me that day.
5 wet discs later and I finish the hole with a 5-circle 12. Only some rec lady beat me with a 13 for the worst score on that hole for the tourney. I went from -1 to +8 in a blink of an eye and ended up shooting a 823 rated round (I was like a 920 rated player at the time playing like 940).
The real kicker.. We walk to hole 1 teepad and wait for our card to be able to tee and the wind just stops dead. The entire MA1 card behind us makes it on the island with ease, half of them birdie the hole. We tee off on hole 1 and never a single gust a wind for the rest of the round. The wind was just there to help me card a 12, then it went away. Unbelievable.
The next day we play north course again.. Naturally, I park it under the basket, write my name on the CTP flag for the tap-in birdie and the CTP holds. :doh: