From the left: Kyle Reading, Jeremy Peters, Adam Baxter and Russell Marion on the 18th tee at Anchorage Golf Course
I like to make a point to count my blessings from time to time and one of the best blessings that comes from writing this golf blog is all the great people and great golfers I get to play golf with. Last Sunday, I had the honor of teeing up with both of our current State Am champs (match play and stroke play), as well as facing off in a blogger vs. vlogger challenge match with Kyle Reading.
I’ve been slow to update the results of that day, due mostly to the untimely passing of our friend Dunstan Wagner. By now, we all know he died in a terrible accident at Moose Run. Words can’t express our sorrows. I had the pleasure of playing golf a couple of times with Dunstan, and he was a great guy who loved golf as much as anyone could. The response to his death by our golfing community has been heartfelt and moving all week long. Hopefully, Dunstan can feel the warmth from his friends and loved ones.
As for the golf matches that Sunday, they were dramatic and adventurous, as Anchorage Golf Course was engulfed in winds violent enough to knock a few trees down. It also created some of the wildest shots anyone could imagine, such as Adam Baxter’s drive that nearly reached the 400-yard mark downwind at the ninth hole, or my boomerang approach at the 15th that looked like it was sailing over the left side of the green only to take a hard right turn and plant itself in the middle of the putting surface.
Wind can definitely make a golf score rise, but it also presents an opportunity to play shots you rarely get the chance to play. So, the stage for two challenge matches was volatile, thrilling and just plain fun.
The first match was between myself and Reading, the other between Baxter and Russell Marion. I was attempting to take the seventh spot in the AGB rankings from Reading and Marion was gunning for Baxter’s third spot.
The short version of the matches is: Reading beat me 3&2 and Baxter beat Marion 1 up. Keep reading if you want details.
My match with Reading was a back-and-forth battle from the beginning. Rarely did we halve a hole. I was one down with four to play and didn’t have the come-back vibe on my side. I missed a short par putt on the 15th to go two down, then flat out chunked my tee shot on the par-3 16th. If I’m being totally honest, I think the wind got in my head. I was aiming my tee shot so far right to try to reach a right pin in a right-to-left wind, I think the visual psyched me out and I couldn’t even connect with the ball. I lost the hole and the match right there.
Reading is a great player, even if he is left-handed. He hits long drives and rarely makes any major mistakes. He’s got a graceful game that is fun to watch. His top highlight from our match was his drive at the 11th. From the tips, he piped a rocket into the teeth of the wind and just reached the top of the hill on the dogleg right. That drive put pressure on my approach and I went for more than I should. I lost the hole and fell two down. That was the big turning point in the match.
The match between Baxter and Marion took a bizarre turn at the end, one that should teach us all to never give up on a match. Baxter was two down with three to play, but Marion had to tee off first on the par-3 16th. Marion lost his tee shot left in the strong wind blowing that direction and he lost the golf ball. Baxter hit next and sent his ball into a tree about 40 feet from the tee box, presumably trying to compensate for the wind and aiming too far to the right.
“I can honestly say I’ve never played from there before,” Baxter joked as his ball came to rest in a playable lie just barely down the hill in front of the tee box.
Baxter managed to save bogey and that was good enough to claw to one down. When Marion lost another ball in the trees on his second shot at the 17th, the match became all square and set up a fascinating finish.
All four players hit drives well left of the center of the 18th fairway, because the wind was pushing hard that direction. Baxter’s was the furthest left, with him being the first to test the wind with a shot. The window Baxter was left with to try to thread a golf shot through trees to the green was less than the width of a pro’s golf bag, but he got his golf ball through it. We all watched his ball start well right of the green and bend in the breeze until it finished on the fringe of the green.
From a decent lie, Marion took an 8-iron from 120 yards and started his approach on a similar line to Baxter’s. Somehow, the wind didn’t move the ball back to the green. Marion’s shot held it’s line, right into the greenside bunker, where it came to rest in a fried-egg lie. That led to a shot over the green and a bogey for Marion. Baxter two-putted for the win from the fringe.
Baxter and Marion also squared off in the state match-play final earlier this month, a match Baxter won.
Under normal circumstances, say a casual round in which you try to shoot your best score possible, a windy day like Sunday would have been miserable. With a challenge match on the line, however, it was extremely enjoyable to battle the elements alongside your opponent and see who handles it best. In the end, we could have all stayed home, I guess. The rankings didn’t change a bit.
