Delaney Shah
The start of my three week stretch started in Abilene, Texas. I drove 13 hours from Louisville to Fort Worth, Texas on Saturday and woke up early Sunday and drove 2.5 more hours to Abilene. This tournament had the biggest field in a WAPT event, as well as the biggest purse. This tournament is known for the abundance of support that comes from the members at Abilene CC, and the amount of fun events they have to coincide with the tournament.
This course was very different from most courses I have played, it was pretty open off the tee but its main defense was how firm the course was, how fast the greens rolled, and the high winds they had. The first three days the wind was blowing between 20-35 mph consistently all day. After having played in winds in Louisiana and realizing I needed to work on my lower flighted shots, I felt more prepared coming into this week.
The first day I started on the back nine with two bogeys and a birdie, before making the turn and carding 3 more bogeys and a birdie. This round of +3 had me sitting at a T20/114 players. Overall I felt really happy with how I played, and felt confident in my game and how I executed my lower flighted shots in a tournament round.
For the second round (which was also my birthday!), the greens were rolling even faster and the course got even firmer. The front nine started off a little rough, with a bad swing going OB causing a double on the third hole, a missed short putt on the fourth, and some miscalculated approach and short game shots resulting in three more bogeys. Turning to the back nine after shooting +6 on the front, I felt like I still had a chance to make the cut because I knew the course was playing hard and the scores were pretty high. I strung together 8 pars in a row on the back nine before finally ending my round with a birdie, shooting -1 on the back and +5 total. Having that solid back nine gave me a lot of confidence going into the next few days, and I ended up making the cut by 4 shots. I ended the day with a nice birthday dinner with friends and of course some ice cream after :)
The third day conditions were brutal! The wind picked up even more, the greens were rolling even faster (around a 13-14 on the stimp), and it was a lot cooler. I started off the round with two pars, but quickly started to falter. On the fourth hole I hit a bad shot into a par 3 that went into the water. After I took my drop, I hit a chip shot on the green, but a huge gust of wind came and blew my ball all the way back into the water. After that bad break I had to drop again, this time hitting it 4 feet from the hole, but then missed the putt. Frustrated with the tough break I got, I went to the next hole and had another tough break on my approach shot resulting in a double bogey. I finished the front nine with all pars and one more bogey, shooting my worst 9 hole score of +8. Trying to maintain a level head I made the turn where on hole 10 I got another bad break off the tee where I hit the fairway but since the ground was so firm it shot it 90 degrees left behind a tree where I had no swing. Taking a double on the 10th and another one on the 12th due to another ball hitting the fairway and shooting into the lip of the bunker, I started to feel helpless in my round. With a birdie on 14, I started to think I could salvage the round, but followed up with 2 three putts to shoot a round of +14. After reflecting on my round, I felt like I was executing the shots I wanted to for the most part, just could not get good breaks and started to get frustrated and feel helpless. This poor round had me in T48th place, with a lot of work left ahead of me.
The one good thing about having a bad round was that I went off really early in the morning, which meant less wind and chillier conditions, which was my ideal round. I took advantage of those conditions and started off my round with 3 birdies in the first 6 holes. I was feeling super confident and after making two bogeys on the front, I made the turn at -1. After a poor three putt on the 11th, and about 6 putts that burned the edge and lipped out, I ended my round with a birdie to shoot -1 total…15 strokes better than the previous day! This round was really big for me and my confidence. It showed to chalk up the day before as just a fluke and my game was right where I thought it would be. This round also helped me jump up the leaderboard to finish in T32.
After this week I had a lot to reflect on, and overall I felt really happy with where my game and my swing was. Another cut made and another check cashed! Minus the one day which I am chalking up as a fluke and just a bad day, I felt really happy with how I hit the ball and how I putted especially under 6 feet on these fast sloped greens in the wind. I also saw tremendous improvement from Louisiana of my low flighted shots in the wind. With one week done in this stretch, my body is feeling good and ready for the upcoming events. Next I go to Wichita Falls, Texas and then Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. As always thank you for following along!