Competing in his first tournament of 2017, J.R. arrived at the Lompoc City Championship at La Purisima GC optimistic and excited to get the ball rolling. He has been spending the first three and a half months of the year caddying on the Monterey Peninsula while finding time to work on his craft in between the loops. Through his practice sessions, he has been able to steadily improve his technique in all aspects of his game and he is very excited to see what he might be able to accomplish on the golf course this season.
J.R. has always had a fondness for La Purisima GC and has experienced great success around this track in the past. Claiming victory in the La Purisima Amateur, Santa Barbara County Amateur, 3-day California Players Tour event and medalist honors on two U.S. Open local qualifying occasions. Even though he was entering his first competitive rounds of 2017, he was confident that he would have a great chance of claiming victory on this golf course once again.
Over the weekend he executed fairly well overall but definitely experienced some tournament rust after four and a half months removed from competition. A few course management mistakes and a few too many putts are what kept him from hoisting the trophy on Sunday afternoon. Rounds of 74, 77 in what many would consider very difficult playing conditions, placed J.R. in 3rd place all alone at the end of proceedings.
The tournament committee set up the course to challenge even the best of golfers. With fast and fairly firm greens, tucked pins, sticky rough and winds of 20mph +, it was highly unlikely that anyone would finish the two-day event under par. Sure enough, the eventual champion carded a total score of 148 (+4), with most of the field struggling to break 80 each round. J.R. finished the event three shots behind the lead and learned a few valuable lessons along the way.
He learned that sticking to a game plan, especially when the conditions are far from favorable, holds great importance. He went away from his game plan on two occasions and in both instances he carded bogeys. He was also reminded that the putter is always the most important club in his bag and that it will always be the difference maker in the end. He felt that he had a below average putting performance and that if he could have willed in a few of the putts inside of ten feet that he missed, he would have won the tournament.
J.R.'s next event is the SCGA Mid Amateur Championship at Ironwood CC in Palm Desert, CA on May 1, 2. He will take his experiences from this past weekend into next week with confidence and optimism that he will be ready to fight for the title!
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