86'ed in Edina Means No Golf Wednesday

Day one at the Minnesota State Mid Amateur golf tournament is over, and Adam Dooley leads with a freakish 67. Half the field played at the Edina Country Club, which played significantly more difficult as expected, especially with today's 20+ MPH winds.

Dooley shot his 67 at Edina CC. Good heavens. I shot 86 there. With a little course knowledge and a few better breaks, I could have possibly trimmed it to an 80. But that's pushing it.

Weather permitting, I'm hopeful round two at Braemar will be better tomorrow. Oh, and remember how I was ranked #225 (tied) going into it? I'm sitting at T-175th place after day one. So while I'll have to shoot the round of my life to make the cut for Wednesday's third round, I'm OK with where I'm at. It's a learning experience, and a lot of fun, too.

Some guys with lower handicaps than I didn't break 90 (see round 1 results here). Plus, for the second round in a row, I didn't lose a ball. That's always good. Except that my previous round was a 74, on a course with a 74.2 rating and 133 slope. That made for a stroke differential of -.2, my best ever for a round of 18. The slope differential for my round today will be about 9.4, thanks to a triple bogey which will be recorded as a double for handicap purposes. I would argue, however, that the Edina CC played much more difficult than its 73.3 rating and 140 slope with today's tournament set-up and weather conditions.

If you're not bored with all of this slope differential talk, read more at this site. In short, you'll see, in part, why a five handicapper does not usually shoot five over par.

I'll settle for five over each nine tomorrow, although I can probably do better, even if it's windy like today. Rain, however, is another story. Then again, if it rains and storms tomorrow, maybe I'll get to play Wednesday after all.