Tully Tuesday’s V. 24

What’s up this week folks. This is going to be moderately inside baseball, but I’ve had some asks for a weekend recap, and I’m going to try my best to not make this some personal highlight puff piece.

I had a nice weekend at Andover CC trying to compete in the Club Championship, I was able to win my two matches and make it back to the Final Four. These matches are some of the most fun times of the year, gross no stroke, just golf. I had the pleasure of competing against two of my good friends back-to-back days and had a ton of fun in the heat of the matches.

It’s a weird dynamic where you go from buddies until the first tee is in the ground and you kind of go into a hyper competitive but still friendly mindset. My match Saturday was one where I got hot towards the end of the front nine and was able to ride the way to a win.

My best shot of the weekend was on the 10th hole, where I had a hybrid from 220 that I hit to about 5 feet for an eagle look. My opponent, who smashed his drive 40 yards past mine was pin high just off the green, he hit a chip long but made the putt of the day from 30 feet for a birdie. It shook things up a bit, but I was pretty pumped that I was able to keep my composure and deliver what proved to be the knockout blow by making my Eagle to negate his birdie.

I really enjoy how fast everything seems to go in golf tournaments. For me there’s a challenge of slowing that down and trying to enter some sort of flow state to calm down and perform.

I rode in the cart Saturday with my buddy Tom, a mentor and friend of mine, who is a very solid player despite what his mind might believe. He was neck and neck with one of the best players at our club for most of his match, and even held a lead on the back 9. We worked to keep each other focused and had a cool moment where he was able to take a step back and think about how much fun he was having, and how he felt like he belonged in the top group of players despite having a few struggles in the round. He had a couple tough breaks, and his opponent turned it on during the back stretch of the round, but I was proud of him for fighting through and putting up a hell of a fight.

I have a hell of a fight on my hands this weekend, facing off in the final four against our 2x Defending Club Champion, who hasn’t lost a match in this tournament in the last two years. He’s a hell of a competitor, and he’s one of the best guys at the Club, and the odds are certainly stacked against me there.

My challenge to myself is to play my game, keep my head, and see how the cards fall. I’ve been playing confident, smart, and picking my spots really well over the first 3 rounds, and really like where my games at. One thing Tiger Woods has said about Match Play is you can’t play defense in golf, and that’s a trap a lot of guys fall into, trying to protect themselves from making a mistake to force someone else into one. You can’t do that, it’s impossible to stop your opponent unless you have a beehive ready to unleash or you literally kick his ball off on the green, which would probably disqualify him anyways.

I’m going to go out and do my thing, and if that’s not good enough then I’ll do what I did last year and figure out what I need to improve on going forward to be sharper and stronger, that’s life, and that’s the beautiful thing about Golf.

But until then I’m going to watch this game until my eyes bleed.

85 yards through the heart of the South. Play Carmen, go beat Oregon.

A couple quick takes for the road.

1. I saw Noah Kahan at Fenway a couple weeks ago and he absolutely killed it. I came into the show knowing 10 or so songs and he went out and played them all but by the end I felt like I knew every word to every song. That’s a really cool experience and you could tell that playing at Fenway meant a lot to him. It’s driven me down a rabbit hole of his music and I can’t stop listening. Also this video of him golfing with the Good Good guys was awesome

2. I think Bumper Stickers ruined American politics. I don’t know why people feel the need to have Bumper stickers on their cars. I will state I’ve had a Buckeye Leaf or Helmet on my cars, but I do that more for the occasionally OH on the highway and so I can spot my car in a parking lot from far away. The Let’s Go Brandon, or F Trump or whatever wild Bumper Sticker regardless of the side of the aisle always seems so stupid to me. It had led to the massive flags and car wraps and it seems like more of a “look at me I’m Edgy!” than anything else.

3. I found a new Pizza Place, Garcon Super Slice in Salem is legit.

4. I finally replaced my Jeep and I’m very pleased to be driving a real car that works and I can fit my stuff in without feeling the walls caving in on me.

5. I have no idea what’s going on with the Stock Market.

6. My brother is releasing his App, Venu, next week and I’ve seen the back end and what they have prepared. It is going to be massive. Heard it here first.

7. I’m so ready for football.

Til next week.

TT