One of my goals for this year was to play in the Ventura Golf Championship and just get some practice for another life goal; to win the Ventura Golf Championship. Now when I talk about the tournament I’m referring to the flights, flights are constructed for people with handicaps, I’m currently an 8 handicap so I played with people that play at the same level as myself. I tried my best this year to play in the A flight but my 7.5 handicap just placed me in the B flight.
Day One:
The flights started at Robles Golf Course in Thousand Oaks, just across the street from the TO mall. I hadn’t played there in about 4 years so the GPS Sky Caddie Bergman let me borrow helped out a lot with yardages. 
It was a beautiful day but if you were outside Saturday it was hot. 110 degrees at 10am isn’t good.
Through the first 9 holes I played even par with a birdie on the first, almost an eagle and a bogey on the second. Knowing the back nine was going to be rough I scrapped by with 5 bogies and 1 more birdie.
Overall, I wasn’t pleased with my play. Scoring wise was better then I expected but the way I played wasn’t shown with how many putts I had, a total of 33. Not good at all, especially since I average 29-30 a round. 3 strokes is a lot in a tournament to loose.
Total was a 65 Net and one back of the lead.
Day Two:
Sunday was played at Olivas Links. Olivas just opened and is completely different in comparison to the old course. 
I extended my good swings through the front side but my putter was completely off. I three putted the first hole and did the same on the third, I missed every chance at birdie and then came the back nine after a front nine of 4 over. Total putts for the day ended up being 36.
Wanting to just stay around 4 over I tried my best to play it “safe”, it didn’t work I was already 6 over through 13. I ended up birding 14, a very tough 600+ yard par 5 and then backing it up with a birdie on 15. I was looking good at that point until I tried to play it safe 16 were I tripled the hole after pulling a inexperienced 3 wood into the water where I didn’t know was reachable.
7 over on 18 I thought a par was perfect. I ended up doubling it after a couple duffs and a penalty from hitting it in the water.
Total score was a net 72.
I had thought I was middle of the pack after that crazy day but it ended up being okay. I was tied to 3rd, hoping to be in the final group I was placed in the second group just in front of the leaders.
Day Three:
The morning at Buena just felt comfortable. No range in the morning, I figured the 3 days of previous golf should have me “dialed” in.
Turns out I was, except my putter failed me again. I missed at least 4 short birdie putts and about 10 15 footers, that should be 70%.
In the beginning I was hitting the ball very well, I just couldn’t convert and going into the 10th with a good swing and a bad putter wasn’t going to end up well. The last six holes was horrible. All I wanted was to shoot a few over par, giving me something like a 65 which would give me a great chance of second place.
I forgot to mention, the reason I didn’t want to play int eh B flight was because of “sand bagger”, people that play better then their handicap. At this point the leader was 10 shots ahead and wasn’t possible to catch.
Back to 13, I started a bogey streak all the way through to the end. On 18 knowing I had to do something to contend in 2-4th place I tried too hard and hit the ball OB. I ended up with a double and my final score was a net 70.
Overall I was 5 under, thanks to the Robles play of day one. When I went into the clubhouse I was the leader, no way. After the last group came in the other players “choked” worse then I did and I ended up tied for second.
Awesome, I actually placed second while not playing to the level I’m accustomed to playing. So I have to be happy, I wanted to just place for prize money* before I Saturday and now that I know I can play better it will just help me next year.
*The prize money will be going to my own Sky Caddie.
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