Originally Published on July 13, 2013 by ranchomurieta.com

Diaries written by: Don Thames

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DAY #3:

July 12, 2013: My final round and final thoughts

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Omaha, Nebraska – By now if you are following the Senior US Open live you know that we missed the cut.  In 2008 at the Broadmoor, I was somewhat devastated by missing until the next day when I was able to put all of this into perspective.  This year, armed with the experience of '08, I was disappointed, but not nearly as much as before.  The part that was most disappointing is that I had my 90-plus percentile swing (for me) coming in and during the tournament.  But as golfers like you know, there is not necessarily a correlation between scoring and ball striking.  Many other factors come into play such as putting, mental state, course management and the like.  Don’t leave out luck either.  I had my share in getting here but ran out once the bell rang. 

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Drove the ball well today and seemed to find most of the fairways.  I did have one case of missing the 14th fairway from the tee, missing it again from the rough and missing it again upon the approach.  That will always spell B-O-G-E-Y around here.  Ended up firing 78 with yet another double.  I am sure there were more doubles made this week but I was shooting for zero in the DB department.

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I definitely took the time to smell the roses as I climbed the sloping fairways of Omaha Country Club.  The atmosphere is so charged and thrilling that you can’t help being pumped to the highest octane.  The added adrenaline was a huge factor in staving off being tired.  My fitness coaches, Ryan Tomson and Kyle Yamashiro, would be glad to know that I was prepared physically.  Gotta have a few more words with my mental coach, I guess.  The topic would be “How to make the cut at the U.S. Senior Open."

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Ended up shooting 78 for a 36-hole score of 159.  At least we averaged under snowman for two rounds.  No sense hashing things out shot by shot because that is not only boring, but extremely so.  To summarize it, I would say that my iron game and putting were substandard.  For example, on the difficult uphill 419 fourth, I drove it right up the gut only to chunk a 9 iron for bogey.  Two holes later on the downhill 543-yard par five I crushed another drive down the middle staring at pin with side boards and backboards with a perfect angle of attack.  I was salivating at the prospect of making an eagle three as I had another nine iron in my hands.  Promptly came over the nine iron and launched it over the back into the rough with little chance for an up and in birdie.  Nice par, DT.

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The second round started with the prospect of good putting as I rolled three or four putts from varying lengths over the edge of the hole without making anything.  Now for the positive:  The third hole par three was played from the “up” tee straight down wind.  Flushed a seven iron right into the bunker and proceed to chunk the bunker shot out to 25 feet.  When the left to right downhiller rolled in the crowd erupted.  Finally I made a putt.  Better late than never, I suppose.  I have to admit that even though I was a few over par and above the cut line, the response by the crowd was exhilarating. 

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We came to the last two holes and I was trying to savor each and every minute because I knew that our playing in the tournament was nearly over.  The eighth hole played all the way back at 477 yards into the wind.  Crushed a drive and proceeded to launch a three wood straight away toward the flagstick.  The ball carried about 10 feet past the cup dead on line and ended up stopping about 20 feet from the hole.  Again, big crowd applause and some hat tipping.  I heard a loud whistle coming from the throng of people (perhaps a thousand or so) that I recognized as Carole’s.  Looked through and through the crowd and could not find her.  Had a testy downhill right to left with five feet of break that I left an inch on the low side.  To tell you the truth, I was happy to two putt.

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Hole number nine is a narrow heavily bunkered, straight uphill 399 yard par four. Crushed a tee shot into a left to right cross breeze and stood over a 112-yard approach to a back right pin.  Spent more time with my caddie trying to figure out how to stuff the caddie bib into my bag than we did analyzing the final approach shot.  Perhaps, for this reason, I yanked my approach shot to the safe side some 30 feet from the hole.  All that remained was a left to right breaking uphiller.  For one of the few times in the tournament I did not think of ramming one by.  As the putt rolled toward the hole, I knew it was going in.  When it dove into the cup the crowd roared similar to what you would see and hear on TV.  Dropped the putter, raised my hands and carried on a bit with a few vertical fist thrusts.  Followed that with a few high fives and just stood there with a big smile on my face peering into the crowd with a tremendous feeling of appreciation and exhilaration (have I over-used this word?).  At any rate, it was a great way to end the round and, in my case, playing in the 2013 U.S. Senior Open.

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Suffered a bit of sadness when I signed my card and turned it in knowing that I had missed the cut.  Hung out in the family dining room with Jerry, Josh (my so-called brother in law and nephew), Dan/Sue Cullen, Carole and Makayla.  We had some beer and lunch and luxuriated in the air conditioning.

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The rest of the tournament we will spend as spectators and leave Omaha on Monday morning early.  Carole is collecting a bunch of durable beer cups as souvenirs.  We seem to know no shame as we have done a bit of dumpster diving to find them.  I will take a picture and show off our collection.  

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This article will be the final writing in this blog.  We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the fantastic people of Rancho Murieta who have supported us with the fund raising effort and your kind emails, texts and phone calls.  We are overwhelmed by your kindness.  Thanks to all of you once more.

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