Teed Off Ch. 02

I mentioned to Neil that, "those guys from the other night are still keeping an eye on us."

"Oh, don't worry about them Timmy. There's nothing there."

To get the conversation going, and draw attention away from the avoided catfight, Edith told all of the girls they should come up to visit their place near Pitlochry. This was a good distraction, because it allowed the girls and Neil and his wife to talk about all things Scotland. This left Janet and myself alone to brood in our thoughts.

We went back to Neil's rather quietly, and I broke the silence. "Look, everyone. I know this is going to be awkward, and I'll try to handle it better going forward. If you think you could do something for me tomorrow, I believe it will really help. Can you come with us tomorrow to the practice round? I think if I'm playing and I see you guys behind the ropes, it will help me get my mind around all of your being here and wanting to support me. It's different from what I expected, because I was only expecting to see Neil's ugly mug standing there. So I need to 'practice' seeing my... seeing my Team Hump tomorrow. I think it will help me to prepare for Thursday. I would really appreciate it. OK?"

They said they would.

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We took two cars to St. Andrews, because we didn't know how the day would go. I took Neil with me to check in and found Liam. The girls went to look around while I went to hit some practice balls. The first swing I would take since Janet arriving. Could I do it? Could I convince myself that they were ALL here to support me? My family loved me and wanted us to do this big thing together.

Focus on the process. Just the swing. Don't think about all the other crap. Using my 6-iron, I took several slow full swings with my eyes closed. I tried to block everything else out except for that spot where the club would strike the ball. Only that mattered. Focus...

I tossed down a ball. Process. Process. Just like chopping wood. I took a swing. The sound of the clubbing hitting the ball went, Smnick! It was as pure as the fallen snow. Whew. OK. Let's see if we can do this again.

I tossed down another ball. Process. Process. Just like chopping wood. I took another swing. Smnick! It was good too. It landed two feet from the first one. We're going to be ok. It must have been a lot of muscle memory, because I was sure, that my head wasn't together the way it was earlier in the week.

When my practice round started, I was a little more focused than yesterday. Again, I didn't care about score. What I wanted to know was, could I incorporate the wind into my shots successfully? Team Hump in their glowing shirts, got a little attention from others, but were mostly ignored, as you would expect during a practice round. After we finished the front 9, I'm sure they were bored out of their minds, but they stuck with it. Things move slowly on the course if you are walking with those that are playing. I felt bad for them, but was proud of them, and thankful, for sticking with me.

What was good, though, was that Janet and I were able to have civil conversations. She would ask me about different things, like, why wasn't I trying to score well today. Why did it look like I wasn't trying to hit the green? I explained to her what was discussed yesterday about the impending weather that was coming. She asked some about the history of the course, and Neil and Edith were more than happy to give her every juicy detail of that.

I introduced Liam to the girls, and he flirted with my daughters, and they pretended not to notice. It was a good round, and I felt like I was ready for tomorrow. Maybe not in quite as good a place as I was yesterday mentally, but I was really hitting my shots and hitting the right spots very well. After the round, we went into the clubhouse, which looks more like a castle than a clubhouse, for some proper food, because we only had snacks on the course. All the talk was of the impending rain and wind. I asked Liam about their bad weather policies for delaying the tournament.

He said, "If it is bad enough, they will delay it, but it has to really be bad. After the delay at The Open in 2015, they made some changes to the drainage system on #1 and #18 so it would be harder for the water to pool. If it gets too windy then they might halt play, as well, but it has to be really strong. The only thing they don't mess around with is lightning, for obvious reasons. So, unless there is a hurricane going on, you should expect to play. Why? Are you worried about the bad weather?"

Knowing that I played well in poor weather, I said, "No Liam. Actually, I'm counting on it."

After we ate, we were sending the ladies home so we could do a little prep work for tomorrow morning. Before they left, I made a point of thanking Janet and the girls for being here with us today. I got a nice smile from them and they were off. Hey, I was trying.

Edith, wanting to avoid a confrontation, begged Neil to take us to any place besides the pub tonight, and so we went to a little Italian family place not too far from their house. I guess she was trying to avoid the drama from the pub last night. It was probably the smart thing to do, but I kind of missed imagining a Maggie vs. Janet wet T-shirt fight.

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Thursday morning was the first day of the tournament. We all got up and ate breakfast together. Everyone was really excited, except for me. I was a little nervous. My tee time was just before noon; the last of what was considered the morning tee times. We had plenty of time to get to the tournament. 144 of us were to tee off that day. They would "cut" the field in half after Friday. Only the top 72 plus ties would be around on Saturday morning.

Everyone had their rain suits ready. That's what Edith was buying the other day. Suits for my girls...and Janet. I think I may have found a way to handle thinking about Janet, and that wasn't to dwell on the past, but to keep sort of an acerbic wit about it. It was working for now, and I was better mentally than I was yesterday.

Neil was as giddy as the girls. "Eh, laddie. I want to see you killing it today. I know you'll be moving up the leaderboard. You are better prepared than the rest of them, and besides...you got your wish?"

"What's that?"

"It's raining."

Not letting on that I agreed with him, "I did tell you the story about how I hated playing in the rain with my grandfather. Right?"

"Ah. You're not fooling me Timmy. I know you. You've been hoping it would rain all week. We'll here we go. Game on."

He was right. Game on.

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The girls were to come in their car to arrive a couple of hours or so before the tee time. Neil and I would get there a little over three hours early to give me time to practice a little, and well, just because.

The place was a zoo. If we hadn't had our special parking area for the players, it would have taken us forever to get in. When The Open is here, it must be a madhouse, because simply for us old geezers it was packed. I'm glad the girls had Edith, who had been here before during an Open. We were escorted everywhere we needed to go, and Neil couldn't follow me into the players' locker room.

"No worries, mate. I'll see you on the first tee."

Well this was it. I found Liam in the locker room, and we chatted a bit. With the excellent yardage book the tournament gave to us, we went over the pin placements and expected wind direction and laid out our game plan for each hole. The practice range was really amazing. Many of the golfing legends I had watched for the last 30+ years were out there practicing. This couldn't be happening to me.

Colin Montgomerie and Vijay Singh even came up to me and introduced themselves. It was later that I learned that Vijay was just trying to be nice, but Colin was hoping to psych me out. Nice. Miguel Angel Jimenez was getting in one last cigar before he headed to the course. I wouldn't mind having a cigar to distract me a little right now.

When I went to hit my first shot, it did not go well at all. Liam reminded me. "Process, Tim. Process."

Good, good. Let me try that. I was nervous and needed to calm down. Process. Process. Feet. Grip. Just like chopping wood. Just like chopping wood. I paused and imagined hitting the log, then I took my swing. Smnick! Whew. Back on track.

The putting green was interesting. They were half the speed as yesterday, which I guess is why they pins were placed in such precarious locations; next to bunkers or close to the edges. I'm sure they were soft too, but nobody would be trying to fly the ball high and drop them into the greens today. Not unless you had God's knowledge of the wind.

The good news is that the winds appeared to be fairly consistent, at least they did on the practice range. The bad news was that they were pretty strong. They were forecasted to be 15-20mph all day with gusts of 25-30mph. It seemed like they under estimated. Interestingly it wasn't a torrent of rain, but the drops were big. So combined with that wind, if one caught you just right on the face, it could sting a bit. If simply hitting your rain gear, you could hear it. It was dark too, like there were a lot of clouds blocking out the sunlight. I was wondering if it was going to be like the 2000 US Open at Pebble or would it be like Liam said, 2015 here at St. Andrews. Either way, it would prove quite the challenge to all of us.

When it got closer to my tee time, I met my playing partners for the day. It was two other amateurs. The winner of the US Senior Amateur, Ted Srixon, and the winner of the British Senior Amateur, Ben Dudley. We could see the leaderboard from the tee and only 3 of the 69 that were on the course were under par, so the conditions must be difficult.

I saw my crew by the ropes of the first tee waiting for us. I went over and shook Neil's hand and gave all the girls pecks on the cheek, even Janet and Maggie, who had also come like she said. I think Edith was going to have her hands full that day keeping the two of them apart. All five of them had on their neon Team Hump t-shirt over their rain suits. In the gloomy grey of the day, they stood out like spotlights. My playing partners saw them and grinned at me. Hey, what can you do?

It was finally our turn to tee off, and I was getting nervous again. Liam kept telling me not to worry. "Take it easy Tim. Just focus on your swing. Let your process work for you and you'll be fine."

I was the last to tee off in my group. When they announced me, my team screamed for me. That's my Yanks. I loved it. I placed the tee in the ground with the ball on it and prepared to address the ball. Nerves. OK. I can do this. Focus. I closed my eyes. Process. Feet. Grip. Just like chopping wood. Just like chopping wood. Again, I imagined impacting the log with the maul and splitting it. I opened my eyes and saw Maggie and Janet. Then with the pouring down rain I imagined them out in front of the tee box tearing those shirts off each other, bringing a chuckle to myself, which I'm sure looked odd to those watching me. I took the swing, and... I killed it.

It was a low drawing 3-wood just along the edge of the fairway, curving with the wind back towards the center. I was well positioned for my second shot. Liam and I had planned for this. I would hit a low 7-iron trying to fade it just a little left to right into the wind. Think. Process. Hit. We misjudged the wind a little, but the ball was still on the green. I two putted from there for par. A good score. Birdies were to be rare that day, so I needed to make some when I had the opportunity, and I made a few. Three actually. But I also had three bogies. We played a conservative game today, and it paid off. I finished the day at par, 72. At the time that I finished, only 10 other players were under par. By the end of the day I was tied for 18th position. It was a good day.

I shook Liam and my partners' hands and thanked them for a good game today. After what happened to that guy after qualifying, Liam and I very carefully checked my scorecard before I signed it and turned it in. I wished them a good night and went to see my crew. I gave every one of them a big hug when I saw them, even Neil. They could tell I was pumped.

Maggie invited us back to her pub, and I immediately accepted. They were going to have to get used to this. It was only the first day, but it felt like we were celebrating. In a way I guess we were. It was a huge weight off my shoulders. I could play with these guys. I could really play. Neil not exactly bashful, was loud and letting people know that I was going to win.

"Neil, I'm in 18th. I'm 5 strokes back. You can't even smell a win from here."

"Ahhh. You've got it all wrong buddy. You are ahead of 124 other golfers. I'd say you are on your way. Play tomorrow like you played today, and you'll be in an even better spot."

As he was boasting about my prowess on the day, I could see that sullen group in the pub watching us again. Great.

We sat in the same booth as the other night and Maggie joined us for a minute. Once again, I was sitting on the end and Maggie sat next to me. Rather than looking defiant this time, Janet looked more irritated. I found this amusing and just went with it. The other girls were happy for me, so I guess they had come to some kind of peace with the situation.

We called it a night and returned to Neil and Edith's. We were all still a little pumped, so it took us a while to go to sleep. We had washed all the rain suits and had fresh t-shirts for tomorrow. I had a late afternoon tee time on Friday, so we would be fine.

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The next day after a late, big breakfast, Neil and I prepared to drive to the course. Before leaving I told the ladies how much their being there meant to me, and it did. It was easy to spot them on most holes, and it was comforting to see them. I gave them all kisses on the cheek and we headed for the course again. We arrived early relative to our tee time and decided to just hang out in the club house and watch the play and the weather.

The scores were very similar to yesterday's. Not many below par. At the practice range, I noticed a slight change in the weather. The winds were the same strength but the direction had shifted slightly so that instead of coming from the south, they were coming from the south west. Liam and I used the yardage book and the new wind direction to create our game plan for the day. Then we went to the practice tee. The rain was a heavy mist, so not as pelting as yesterday.

I was feeling fairly confident today, since I had played well yesterday. Same thing. Process. Feet. Grip. I imagined hitting the log, then I took my swing. Smnick! Good. The putting green was much like yesterday, slow. The course was set a lot like yesterday with only slightly different wind direction.

A local reporter saw my last name on the caddie placard on Liam's back, and so she stopped me to ask me a couple of questions. Even though it was new and kind of cool, I really didn't want the distraction. I was polite and answered a few, but then apologized for needing to head back into the clubhouse before my tee time.

Liam asked me why I got away, and I told him, "I'm not interested. If I were trying to really make a name for myself, then sure, I would have chatted with her, but after this tournament, I'm going home. No matter what." Liam was a little surprised by that but didn't question me further.

As my tee time approached, I saw my Team Hump and went to visit. Neil said a couple of people asked him and Edith about their business. That was great. Once again in the dreary day, their t-shirts stuck out. It was hilariously awesome.

On the first tee, the wind was blowing a little more from the tee towards the green; kind of four o'clock to ten o'clock. I stepped up to the tee and performed yesterday's ritual. OK. I can do this. Focus. I closed my eyes. Process. Feet. Grip. Just like chopping wood. Again, I imagined impacting the log with the maul and splitting it. I opened my eyes and once again, saw Maggie and Janet and again imagined them out in front of the tee box tearing those shirts off. Smiling more broadly today, I took the swing, and again... I killed it.

With the wind helping, I was even closer to the green than yesterday. The pin was tucked front left, but there is a small stream directly in front of the green. My conservative play served me well yesterday and we planned to stick with that again today. Liam and I were watching the weeds and bushes for any sign of an odd wind. When we didn't notice any coming, I hit my iron a little higher than yesterday and let the right to left wind ease it towards the flag. The soft green received the ball and I had a nice 13-foot birdie putt to start the day.

After making the putt, I looked at my 'team' who were cheering and pumped my fist. I was off to a great start. The day was similar to yesterday in that any score at or under par was a good score. I shot one under, for a two-day total of 143 and moved from 18th to 8th, 4 strokes back of the leaders. Not only had I made the cut, I was in the top 10! Me and my team were all going crazy. No, we hadn't won anything yet, and the weekend would likely be even harder with more pressure, but we were psyched. Liam met me by Neil and the girls to review the scorecard, when an odd thing happened. Maggie was talking to Neil and saw my reviewing the card with Liam. She looked at him funny for a minute then a look of recognition came over her, and she eased away from the rope behind Neil.

With the review complete, I signed the card and went to turn it in. I shook Liam's hand and told him great work, and that I would see him tomorrow. Finishing in 8th place meant I wouldn't have a tee time until around 2pm. I had a few more interviews, which I quickly disengaged myself from and we went into the clubhouse. After we all changed into some dry clothes, it was late, so we asked Maggie to join us for dinner at the clubhouse. She begged off saying she needed to swing by the pub on her way home. We were dead getting back to Neil and Edith's but managed to start our rain gear in the laundry and crawled to bed.

As my girls went up the stairs to bed, I gave each, including Janet, a hug and kiss thanking them for sticking with me. We were all soaked to the bone out on the course. Janet smiled back at me and returned the kiss. It was very sweet, and she went to bed.

I skyped Gerry and then Steve. They both congratulated me and were both really excited for me. I thought to myself that this should be good for their business too. Gerry told me that I was getting some very brief coverage locally, but on the golf channel they were starting to talk about me. They even called Gerry to set up an interview for later today, Eastern time. I thought that was great but asked him not to reveal anything about where I lived or the log splitting. I don't like people digging too deep into my personal life.

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Saturday. In golf parlance, Saturday equals moving day. Meaning people are usually moving up or down the scoreboard. If you want to win, it's time to move on up. However, we had an unexpected guest for breakfast. Maggie showed up, by knocking on their BACK door. She looked concerned when she came in. Since it was still raining, we ushered her in and helped her get settled with a coffee to warm her up.

"There's something I need to tell you. I hate to get you worried, but you need to know.

"After the round yesterday when we were all waiting for you to sign your scorecard, I finally got a good look at who your caddie is. I know him. His name is Liam, and he's involved with a lot of bad people. Let me tell you a short story.

"Matthew used to caddie at some of the local courses to make a few extra quid. He was good enough at it that people would occasionally request him by name. Well, he wasn't working all the time as a caddie, and a few years ago Matthew got into a bad crowd and started doing some dodgy things for some of the thugs in the area to make some money. When the people at the top of that group learned a little more about him, they found out that I owned the pub. A little more digging and they found out that I still owed around 100.000 quid on the pub. Apparently, they are friendly with the local bank that had my loan, because one morning, a couple of weeks later, they come into me pub and tell Matthew they want him to carry some clubs in a local tournament.