Joplin, Missouri Home of World Famous.......... Loma Linda Resort???

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Hello to everyone. Sorry its been a while, but it has been a pretty long week. I guess the last time I checked in was over a week ago. Anyways after the nice windy day in Arkansas I shot a 73 the next day to miss the cut by 2. 148 or +6 for the two days is not going to make a whole lot of cuts out here on the Hooters Tour. The 73 was probably worse than the 75. Easier conditions and one of the worst ball striking days in recent memory make it hard to make the cut.
When you miss cuts out here time passes very slow. You are in a strange town, where you really don’t want to be with not a whole lot to do. Claxto had missed the cut too so at least he was bored too. We ate lunch, went to some Podunk golf shop and went and practiced for a while, and that’s about it.
Sunday it was time to move on to a new week and a new city. It was nice to only have to go 70 miles to Joplin, Missouri for the Loma Linda Resort Classic. Why you would ever come to Joplin, Missouri for a vacation is beyond me, but they do have some nice villas, which according to some of the guys that stayed there, come fully equipped with a Jacuzzi. Niiiiiiccccceeee.
A long story, but I had to Monday qualify for the tournament, an absolute pain in the you know what. My tee time was listed at 7:57 and I did not tee off until 3:27. Joplin received 7.5” of rain in one day. Yes 7.5”. I have never seen so much rain in my life. In reality we should not have even played, but the head pro said he was determined to make us play. So at 3:27 I finally teed off. Although before we went off the pro told us there was a spotter on number 11, which I found really odd. Number 11 is a dead straight par 4, nothing too it. When asked why he said, Well, we gota strong current of wata movin’ rit down the mid of that fairway, probably gon be strong enough to move yo ball bout’ foty of fity yards. Welcome to Joplin. Luckily I missed the “stream” on number 11 and birdied the last hole to shot a 70 to qualify by one shot.
After Monday qualifying, it was playing the waiting game until Thursday. Once again it rained for most of the day Tuesday, which was unreal to see even more rain that the 7.5” from the day before. So we were relegated to going to see “Ocean’s 13”, which I thoroughly enjoyed. We did manage to find a hometown driving range a few miles from the hotel, a Drury Inn this week, where it quickly turned into hitting low hooks to see who could hit the range picker the most.
Wednesday is the absolute worst as far as days on the Hooters Tour go. There are always 2 pro-ams and if you are not picked to be in one of those, you can’t play the golf course at all until around 6:30 pm or so. We did play the back nine again late Wednesday night to try and get a better feel for Loma Linda.
Thursday finally came and my tee time was 1:51, another lovely late afternoon tee time that the Hooters Tour so frequently gives me. Despite the late tee time, I hit the ball as well as I can remember. I hit 16 greens in regulation but really did not make any putts until the last 6 holes when I got some to drop. I played my last 6 holes three under to shoot a 4 under par 67. A very good start to a long week, I wish I could have had a great putting day because the way I hit it, 67 was the worst I could have shot.
On Friday, the ball striking magically disappeared. It was flat out terrible. I struggled all day and could not get anything together. I made 3 bogies and just 1 damn birdie a nice 73 to fall from 9th to 41st, as they say out here, go low or go home. The cut fell at 141, so I did clear it by one shot and was free to play the weekend.
Saturday and Sunday came really quickly. I had an 8:18 tee time Saturday and 8 on Sunday, needless to say it was early rising for me. For the first 27 holes of the weekend it was pretty ho-hum. I hit it to 20 feet and made more pars than anyone in the tournament. I shot 70 on Saturday with 15 pars, 2 birdies and just one bogey. Then the first nine on Sunday it was just one birdie and one bogey. Walking up the 18th fairway Sunday morning, my ninth hole, that I was so tired of hitting it to 20 feet and two putting. Little did I know what my next nine holes held in store for me. My last nine holes on Sunday were the strangest I can remember in a long time.
See if you can follow this:
1. Birdie
2. Par
3. Birdie
4. Double Bogey
5. Birdie
6. Double Bogey
7. Birdie
8. Birdie
9. Birdie
So 6 birdies, 2 double bogies and just one par. A nice 2 under par final nine, out of control. For the 4 rounds it was 67-73-70-69= 279 or five under par. That was good for 30th place and $1,505.48, a profit of about $200, thanks for playing.
So Missouri and Arkansas down, now it’s on to the “Sooner State”, Oklahoma and then finally back home for some much needed rest. The road sure does wear you down fast, but I thoroughly enjoy my time out here. You meet a lot of people and get to see some pretty cool things.
Thanks for checking in. Hope yall enjoy this.

Living the Dream,

Stu

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Comments

[g-man]

just dont make a double bogie, dumbass