Originally Published on July 13, 2013 by ranchomurieta.com

Diaries written by: Don Thames

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DAY #2:

July  11, 2013: On the leader board ... very briefly

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Omaha, Nebraska – The opening round tee time was 12:45.  We were the first group out in the afternoon wave of split tee times.  It was breezy, roughly 90 degrees and a bit humid.  The starter announced, “Welcome to the 34th U.S. Senior Open, from Rancho Murieta, please welcome Don Thames.” 

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I was the third player to hit, so I had the disadvantage of having to balance the ball on the tee after the announcement.  The first guy could tee it up before all of the hoopla.  There is no doubt about it, I was nervous, but I managed to smooth one down the middle.  Knocked it on the green about 20 feet with a wedge and guided something resembling a stroke up to about three feet short.  Leaving putts short is a sure sign of nerves.  The nerves were still evident on the three-foot downhiller I had to lag in.  Blew a birdie opportunity on the par five second and then laced a five iron to 10 feet on the 230-yard downhill par-three third.  When the birdie putt found the bottom of the cup, the crowd behind the green erupted and I gave it a mini downward thrusting fist pump in my exhilaration. 

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Leader board it was really exciting, as the people of Omaha really embraced this event and were extremely enthusiastic in their support of the players.  Later in the day, Carole told me that my name was on top of the leader board.  LOL.  That didn’t last long.

By now, Jerry Ortner, Josh Twist, Ron Coy, Carole, Makayla, Dan/Sue Cullen and Toni Sherbourn were the RMCC contingency following our threesome.  Played with a guy from Maui named Kirk Nelson and Kym Olsen from Australia.  Great guys all.  We had a blast together and chatted throughout the first two rounds.  Kym gave us lessons in how to speak Australian.  “No one drinks Foster’s in Australia, we export that @#%# to the U.S. and drink the good beer ourselves.”  We were taught the proper and various ways to use the word “mate.”  I called Kym “mate” all day long both days.  He was a scrappy player and narrowly missed the cut by a shot or two. 

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I ended up shooting 81 for the first round, which put me into a perfect position to miss the cut.  In my younger days, I would be embarrassed by such a score, but not anymore.  Golf is such a humbling endeavor that after enough of such snowmen (80’s +) , a player finally gets desensitized to it.  On the positive side, a good score can also go a long way to wash away the agony.  Of course, that was my motivation for play in round two. 

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I believe that the only time any shame should fall on a player is when he rolls over and gives up.  I missed on my goal of going “double-less” for the tourney as I three-putted my way to a double bogey on the 216-yard par three 16th.  I was told by my caddie and gallery that the only luck I had in round one was bad luck.  This is probably true, but I was the one who missed some of the fairways by just enough to be buried in three inches of hay.  In the second cut, I could advance an 8 iron, but in the third cut I had to blast down on sand wedges.  Even though physically my nerves were in check, I think that mentally, I was far too timid on the greens.  Kept leaving everything short.  Didn’t miss any really short putts, but I didn’t make anything over five feet except for the early birdie on number three. 

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It was a day that my iron play was about a 9 for me, but I just missed too many fairways.  Never got it up and down when I missed the green.  Unfortunately, this is not a good combo for scoring.  The stats showed that I took 36 strokes on the greens.  Driving distance was good as the stats showed distance to be 275 to 280 yards.  Stats are available under the Champions Tour tab of pgatour.com.  You can click on a players name and see their stats for the tournament. 

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