Paul Smith’s 345-yard drive on the 16th hole at the Moose Run Creek Course put him in position to keep momentum rolling toward a black-tee course record Sunday, but Smith had to settle for a victory in the Mid-July Mash as a consolation prize.
The course record since 2016 is 78 from the black tees. Smith bogeyed his last two holes to shoot 81. It was good enough for a five-shot win over Mike Farrell, who came in to the event a day removed from a course-record 68 at Settlers Bay.
“Mike’s a good player,” said Smith. “I knew I would have to keep my game up.”
Smith fell behind early, trailing Farrell by two after a three-shot swing on the seventh hole, where Farrell birdied and Smith double-bogeyed. Trouble waited for Farrell at the par-5 ninth, however, where he made a quadruple-bogey nine and Smith made a birdie. That’s a five-shot swing and it put Smith up by four at the turn.
“I felt like I was still in it,” Farrell said. “I needed some better momentum. Somewhere around 13, 14, I was thinking, ‘Ya, I’m not in this anymore.'”
Smith was cruising along on the back nine and made a stellar birdie at the par-3 15th, after sticking his 183-yard approach to about five feet. He followed that with one of the biggest drives man has ever witnessed. His drive at 16, a 445-yard par-4, finished in the center of the fairway even with the 100-yard post. That’s how the unofficial 345 yards was measured.
“I knew I hit it solid,” Smith said. “I didn’t know I’d hit it that far. I felt like I hit better drives during the day that felt more solid.”
If Smith could have gotten up and down from 100 and made birdie at 16, then played the last two holes one-under par, he could have notched the course record. Smith made par at 16 and when he missed his par putt on the par-3 17th, he said he knew his chance to equal the record was gone.
The round was Smith’s first from the black tees at the Creek, which play to a yardage of more than 7,200 yards. Smith said he will be highly likely to give the blacks a go again.
“It’s an animal from the back tees,” he said. “I had to use my range-finder a couple of times, just to find targets and how far certain things are from the tee, but ya, it’s an animal; it was fun.”
