Well here it is.... The moment you've all been waiting for.... an epic battle of the ages to cap off one of the most captivating community tournaments thus far!! Before I get in to the details, thank you to all of the participants for making this a thoroughly enjoyable event and especially to Coolswing for taking the time out of his busy life to put this on for us! Now on to the highlight package.... I will try to be as detailed as I can with all of my scribbled notes. hehe :) Sorry I couldn't get a recording of the match but it just wouldn't have done it any justice with my camcorder and my machine is not up to the task of doing a video capture. Anyways... the wife is getting bored already at my verbosity! *SMACK*
/switch to third person
1st hole started out with the two competitors leaping out of the gate with birdie putts each from under 5 feet, both make the putts and it's off to the next hole.
2nd hole sees Zant lay up into the rough but recover nicely to the best place on the green to leave a birdie putt while Lee hits a short LW 3 feet past the pin. Zant sinks his 16 foot straight uphill putt for bird and Lee drains the short bender to remained tied. At this point Lee realizes Zant is here to play!!
3rd hole, both players launch their drives off the downhill slope and leave themselves short wedges to the green. Zant leaves his approach 12 feet short and Lee knocks his approach to 4.5 feet. Queue the first turning point of the match, Zant barely misses the birdie attempt, leaving it 2 INCHES beside the cup! Lee makes his bird and takes a one shot lead.
4th hole, with a 7mph tailwind to 10 o'clock both players manage to find the fairway by laying off on their drives. Zant hits a safe approach to avoid the bunker and ends up short and left but on the green. Lee also plays safe and runs his approach pin high but left up the slope. Zants 35 foot birdie attempt was not converted but his par was. Lee's 23 foot birdie was also not converted, just lipping out on the cup. Lee still leads by one.
5th hole, both players balk at a 12mph tail wind at 2 o'clock and they both play for the par, with Zant landing in the usual back left section of the green and Lee mis-clicking to go short and right. Zant runs his 37 footer uphill 2 feet behind the pin for an easy par. Lee runs a 34 foot slippery bender to 3 inches short!! Lee still leads by one.
6th hole and another strong tailwind at 12 mph leads to short approach shots that both end up going too far, Lee straight behind the hole and Zant behind and left on top of that nasty shelf! But Zant reads the tricky 28 foot double breaker well to get close and make his par. Lee misreads the 10 foot bender and makes par... opportunity lost for Lee, but still leads by a stroke.
7th hole both players are able to stick their approaches to under 10 feet and make their birdies. Lee stilllll leads by one!
8th hole, Lee knocks his tee shot 7 feet past the pin and the pressure is on Zant who hits his shot to the back of the green. With a 22 footer looming Zant is unable to convert opening the door for Lee to take a two shot lead....... where he promptly misfires and misses the 7 footer! Lee stillllllll..... you get the point....
9th hole sees Zant land his approach just short of the green and is chipping from 7yrds and Lee hits his approach 5 yards past the pin for a 16 foot bender coming back. Both player fail to convert their birdie attempts and we go into the turn with Lee leading by a mere 2 INCHES!!!
Insert commercial break here........................................................................
Okay go get a beverage... take a break... smoke `em if you`ve got `em.... there is much more to come!
Now on to the 10th hole! Lee hits his approach just short into the rough and Zant runs his approach 25 feet past the pin. Lee pitches to under 2 feet for a par save and Zant is unable to find the perfect mark on a straight downhill putt for birdie. Lee still up by one.
11th hole. Zants approach falls short, skipping out of the bunker on the left and hops into the 40-50 rough. Lee hits his shot perfect but is left scratching his head when the shot starts against the wind and stays straight ending up 7 yards past the pin. Zant chips up to 5 feet short and scrambles to save the par while Lee is not able to make the 22 footer missing on the low side.
12th hole. Zant finds himself on the fringe at the back of the green after an approach from 176 yards and Lee leaves his 168 yard approach into a 9mph wind short for a 23 foot putt for bird... but first things first Zant is 21 feet away but on the fringe so he putts first................AND HE DRAINS IT TO TIE THE MATCH!!! The pressure is now on for Lee who needs to sink his 23 footer to re-take the lead, but it is not meant to be! Back to all square for the first time since the third hole!
13th hole. Lee misjudges the layup and ends up leaving it in the rough in front of the greenside bunker, and Zant lays up to 51 yards out. Lee is able to recover from the mishap and ends up 4 feet past the hole while Zants approach is short and right of the target just getting caught up in that strange fairway that acts like rough in front of the green only 4 yards short of the pin. He then makes the tough decision to try to putt the shot (I`ve been there and tried it, it works, but you`ve got to get a LOT on it) He does not play it hard enough and ends up a foot short. Lee re-gains his 1 stroke lead.
14th hole. After Lees approach to 11 feet short of the hole, Zant has a critical mis-click into the rough right of the green, although in the bunker would have been worse! A well placed chip, and Zant scrambles it out again! Lee on the other hand is very thankful that this is the last round with this putter after he misses yet another clutch birdie putt.... This time 5 INCHES short!!!! AAARRRRGGGHH
15th hole. With a generous tail wind both players are unable to pass up the opportunity to go for the birdie shot, however both end up coming up short, Zant by quite a bit and Lee by a few feet. Both players are able to scramble for par and queue the sighs of relief from both players.
16th hole. TURNING POINT!! With an 8mph headwind neither player is able to get on in two but Zant finds himself in the 40-50 rough short and right. Lee is in the fairway short of the green. Zant first to play and as Lee is checking his yardage (in other words.... madly scribbling down notes) and all he hears in `clink clunk`! Zant just drained his pitch from the rough to tie up the match again!! After watching the replay in disbelief Lee makes a fatal error and chips his 3rd shot 18 FEET PAST THE HOLE!!! Obviously shaken he needs to concentrate on saving par....... NOPE! Putter fails him yet again! A 2 stroke swing and Zant takes a 1 stroke lead with two holes left to play!!!!!
17th hole. With a 8mph tail wind and Zant with the honors, he hits his tee shot short of the green into the rough. Lee... still shaking off the turn of events decides to make sure that he is not short and plays a nice shot to 16 feet past the pin. After Zant flops to 6 feet, Lee needs to make his putt to get back into a tie......... YES it drops!! All tied up.... one to go!!
18th hole. With a 7mph sidewind both players find the fairway. Lee to play first, he hits a safe shot to the middle area of the green and ends up pin high 19 feet left of the pin. Zant up next, similar shot, but it travels a little further to the back of the green. Zant up first, a 24 foot slip `n slide putt is hit too stiff and rolls 6 feet past the cup....... Lee next with a chance to win it.... MIS-CLICKS LATE! and ends up 1 foot away for the PAR...... Playoff holes looming....... Zant steps up to his 6 foot uphill slight right to left putt to send it to sudden death....... he rolls it up and....... SHORT! OH NOOOOO! Short by 4 INCHES!!!! AvatarLee has won the match 32-34 to 33-34.
/end third person
Whew that was a lot of typing but WOW it was WELL WORTH IT!!! This match needed to be documented because it was probably one of the closest battles to date! Very well done Zant for putting the pressure on... I have to say I was definitely feeling it when you drained that shot on the 16th!! Very well done! Sorry that it had to end that way... I would have preferred it to go into sudden death than have that happen!
Anyways, thanks again to everyone involved!!!
I`m off to sleep now.... this took waaay too long to write!
Over and out....
AvatarLee