My jaw just hit the ground!!

[IrishGolfer]

A friend called round at the w/e with his kids. We were shooting the breeze, talking about golf etc, when he pulled out a scorecard and asked me to take a look at it.

Now first to put things in context this guy is a solid 2-3 h/c. He has gone through a lot in the last few years, separation, custody battle etc. and he only really plays at weekends (although he admitted he has been playing "a bit" more recently. I have known him for ~30 years, having first seen him at junior competitions and then we shared a flat for a few years. He is a (GP) doctor and a really down to earth sort of guy. He is a good golfer and one rarely to blow his trumpet at his successes.

Anyway he is a member of Royal Portrush and he was playing there on Friday, with his brother and another friend. They were playing a sweep, nothing too unusual, until he showed me his card.

34 (-2) on the way out
29 (-7) on the back nine, birdying the last 7 holes!!!
63 (-9) round one of the toughest courses in Ireland.

Nine birdies and nine pars!

So a few qualifiers:

• It was off the white tees (6,500 yards)
• It was a warm calm day and the ball was running on the hard fairways.
• He hit all 18 greens in regulation! He holed two long putts, everything else was within 15 feet
• He finished out every putt

So I looked at him with a “WTF?” look and he shrugged his shoulders in a kind of embarrassed way.

He thought after nine holes that it was a “good round in the making” but he missed birdie chances at the two par 5s, 9th and 10th, both reachable in two. But he dropped a putt on the 12th top go to -3 and thought “hmm interesting”.

He canned a putt at 13 to move to -4 and started getting a bit “worried”. At Calamity he knocked a 5 wood onto the green and stroked in a 12ft putt; he is now -5. At this point he was thinking Disneyland!

At 16 he played safe off the tee and hit a 5 wood. He pulled it left and thought he had knocked it out of bounds, (accepting that this was the end of his magical journey). He played a provisional and came down to his initial tee shot only to find it in bounds by about 3 yards! He proceeded to hit a 4 iron to 4 feet and holed the putt. The dream sequence continued.

He spoke afterwards of his good fortune during the round. He cites the 18th as a perfect example. He hit a driver off the tee. There are two cross bunkers in play and he was sure he had caught the left one, but when he came down to his ball he realised that there was some "dead ground" and he found it about 3 yards short of the sand. He knocked on a wedge to 12 feet and reckoned he could have holed the putt with his eyes closed.

What an amazing round! He’s never even come close to that sort of thing before and to do it on a course like Royal Portrush in the company of your brother and friend was only amazing.

He wasn’t playing in a formal competition so really it doesn’t count towards anything. But that is one card I sure would love to hang on my wall and look at when I’m "old and grey"!

[acarty]

IG, that's an amazing round. Well done to your mate. I really love it when people shoot low and don't go running their mouth... See my post in a couple of minutes :-D

[MIKE1218]

That's some fantastic golf. I wish I could witness a 63. The lowest I've seen someone go was 66, and it was the same kind of thing, he hit almost every green and was just draining the putts.

When I go low, nobody really believes me. Playing with my buddy last week, I shot a 33 on the front. We were only going to play nine, but I decided with a front like that, I need to finish the round. I went in to tell the clubhouse I'm going back out, and somebody asked what I shot. I said 33, and somebody behind the bar rolled his eyes. :( Ended up with 40 on the back as the last three holes were in darkness.

[DaGris]

Tell him to fly his butt to Georgia and I'll play him for $1000 a hole!......just joking of coarse!:laugh:


63! nice round!!!!!

[clemsonhacker]

nice round but..... are you not already old and gray... j/k

[VtDivot]

Was Bill Murray his Caddy?

[IrishGolfer]

He was a Cinderella Boy "about to become the Masters Champion".