Day Sixty-Eight - 6.26.10 - Dew Swept Out Of Contention

Day Three of the Tournament - The Final Day - Yesterday, Uncle Mike and I teed it up early in the morning and squared off against a seventy-something Elmira lifer named Tommy Hamilton and his partner, Buddy. Tommy is what you would call, "sneaky-good." He's old, he does not hit the ball very far, but he is deadly straight and he can putt with the best of them. Plus he has the benefit of probably nearly a thousand trips around the ECC course. This guy was a par machine. He made par after par after par... except for the birdie he made after Mike and I missed 2 short birdie putts on the par three seventh.

It all came down to the 18th hole, a nasty little, uphill, 115 yard par three known as The "Jewett" Hole. This tester has a tiny green that slopes severely from back to front and from right to left. Wedges hit to the front half of the green spin off the front with regularity. Shots to the back of the green and to the right side (AKA "jail") set up chips or putts that are 80% likely to roll right off of the green. The pin was cut in the most lethal of locations, the front-left. If you want to have an uphill put, there is about a 5 feet by 5 feet section of the green where that could happen. And can you guess where Tommy hit it? Mike and I missed the green and made 4s. Tommy 2 putted for par, and won the match.

After a couple of beers, one bought by Tommy and one bought by Buck (who beat us on Thursday), we made our way back to the hotel and passed Harris Hill, the soaring capitol of the world. Soaring is flight in a glider like plane, only the "sailplane" does not have a motor and uses natural updrafts in the atmosphere to maintain altitude. While this sounds fun, and maybe I'll put it on the "to do" list for my next visit, for now I'll remember my drives soaring into the Elmira pines, and my putts soaring past tough cup placements. You win this one Buck, Tommy, and ECC, but I hope to back to compete again...