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Brad Sill qualifies for PGA Tour Barbasol Championship

  • Caddy Daddy
  • Jul 28, 2017
  • 12 min read

Caddy Daddy=================

Although I love nothing more than to TALK about Brad's golf exploits I decided to WRITE a blog for anyone who might be interested In the storyline and some of the minutia.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you ask someone what time it is they end up telling you how to build a watch. When someone asks me how Brad played I have a tendency to tell them how to build a watch. The way I look at it, you could just read the score of the Super Bowl from last year if you need to know who won or you could watch the game and witness an incredible comeback story. To me the drama is in the storyline and not just the final result.

What time is it?

Regarding Brad Sill's first PGA tour event, for those who want to know what time it is:

Brad shot 74 in the Wednesday pre-qualifier to advance to the Monday qualifier where he shot 68 and then he won a five man playoff for the last spot . He fired consecutive rounds of 77 in the actual Barbasol classic and missed the cut.

How to build a watch:

Prequalify

The road to the PGA Tour Barbasol Championship for Brad began with a pre-qualifier. We drove to Prattville Alabama for a practice round at the Robert Trent Jones course the Legislator. There were actually two qualifying locations where 150 players were playing for about 36 Spots into the Monday qualifier. The legislator is an interesting golf course, but it has lots of blind Tee-shots and approach shots to the green where you could not see the bottom half of the flag. Brad has a history of going to course he has never seen and playing a practice round and shooting 65 or 66 the first time he sees the course and raising his expectations and then not playing as well in the actual event. From that he decided it may be better to skip the practice round at some tournaments in the past only to be burned a few times when there were holes that you really need to see before you play them and he began to regret skipping the practice round. This golf course definitely required a review practice round. The first nine was fairly open with regard to the trees but the tee shots were often blind so often you could not see your ball land in the fairway or on the green and the rough was very deep. The greens were large with interesting green complexes with different tier levels. The back nine started off with a transition that drops down into a really cool swampy area with water on both sides of some holes and then climbs back out with the last couple of holes up on a plateau with large mounds like a links course.

The pre-qualifier’s 18 holes starts off on the 10th hole with Brad hitting it close, but misses a short severely breaking putt and then pars the second hole before hitting a 3 wood into the hazard and making bogey on the third. He misses a chance for birdie on the reachable par 5 fourth and then three putts the fifth to go two over par. Not exactly the position he wants to be in for this qualifier. He bounces back for a birdie on his eighth hole. On his ninth hole he misses the green and hits a great chip shot and then misses a very short putt to go back to two over. He makes the turn and proceeds to to the front nine and pulls the second consecutive drive into the deep rough and has to gouge it out of the rough and still cannot reach the green on the par five. He hits his fourth shot on the green but has to settle for bogey on a hole he really needed to birdie and is now three over par. This is not going to plan at all. The next three holes he gives himself decent Birdie chances but can't convert on any.

He was trying to make some birdies coming down the stretch and hits a Three wood into a front bunker on a par five. The green is above his head. He wants to hole the bunker shot. Normally when he has a makable chip shot I remove the pin but he cannot see the hole because the bunker is so deep therefore I tend the flag. The playing partners and their caddies have incredulous looks on their face. The green has a severe side slope in the landing spot. I remind him that when the ball loses its speed it's going to go directly left. He blasts the ball out of the bunker and lands almost perfectly and trickles dead left creeping toward the hole for eagle and stops on the lip. So close !! Tending the flag did not seem so silly now. Ha.

Normally you would expect on the pre-qualifier that you need to shoot pretty close to par, but this golf course is proving to be pretty difficult so the expectation is that maybe one or two over would get in to the Monday Qualifier.

He hits good shots on the next three holes but barely misses all three birdie putts. Despite driving it well and hitting good approach shots he just can’t seem to get anything going.On his 18th hole (number 9-since he started on 10) he is in the center of the fairway with the pin on top of a shelf on the left side of the green with a severe deep bunker on the left. You must stay right of pin. The shot he hit in the practice round would be perfect. The one place you can't go is left and he pulls it left into the bunker. Now he has put himself in a very precarious situation. The green is over his head and slopes away from him and he has very little green to work with. He has to hit the shot straight up. Perfectly executed shot, but you just can’t stop this one and the ball rolls passed the hole 12 or 15feet. He knows he is very close to the "number " that it would take to qualify. The putt breaks 4 inches left and he drills it right in the center for 74. Not exactly what he was hoping for when the day started. Now it is a waiting game for the rest of the players to finish to see if he gets into the Monday Qualifier.

It is a sigh of relief every time another score is posted higher than his. Finally all the scores are in and he advances to the Monday qualifier at the Robert Trent Jones University club in Auburn. It turns out that he had to make that putt on his last hole to qualify. Coming through in the clutch!!

His love for competition pushes him as he drives back to South Carolina through the night to connect with a buddy and drives to Myrtle Beach for a practice round Thursday and two day tournament Friday and Saturday. At the conclusion of that tournament he drives back to Spartanburg and picks me up before driving to Auburn for a Sunday practice round at the Robert Trent Jones Auburn University club.

Barbasol championship Monday qualifier

I just had a very good feeling about this day. After having close calls and near misses at the Greenbrier PGA Monday qualifier and the Rex Hospital web.com Monday qualifier I just had a sneaky suspicion that it was his time. He drove the ball so beautifully at the Greenbrier pre-qualifier and the Monday qualifier. Driving the ball in play has stood in his way of playing at the highest level and it looks like his game is rounding into shape.

As in the pre-qualifier, he starts on the back nine. It's a perfect drive on number 10 and barely misses Birdie after a good approach. Two good shots on the 11th hole and he follows that with a birdie putt to go one under par.

He pars the next two holes and then has a difficult par three with the pin tucked to the right and water to the right. He hit the ball dangerously close to the water hazard in the practice round and you hope that his memory is short. The target is 20 feet left of the flag and executed perfectly to the center of the green leaving him about 32 feet. I reminded him to let the ball trickle into the hole. He does just that for the longest putt that he has made in recent memory. Two under. The goal is to be three under on each nine holes.

He makes a par on the next par four and hits a perfect mammoth drive on the par five to set up a chance to hit an iron to the green in two shots. A perfect iron shot to the green leaves him with a 6 to 8 foot eagle putt. He misses the putt but settles for Birdie and is now on target at three under for this nine.

The next hole is a par three and the shot is on track right for the PIn but comes up short of the green. He does not get up and down and loses a shot with a bogey. I guess he just couldn’t stand prosperity.

He makes a par on 18 and makes the turn it two under which is one shot off of his target.

Hey elects to hit a utility wood off the tee on number one for safety and proceeds to pull it into the woods and actually into the hazard. Two new gray hairs for the Caddy.

He didn't lose his cool or seem overly upset, but certainly anxious to find the ball. He finds the ball in the hazard with half of the ball in the water, but has a path between two trees back to the fairway. I take the opportunity to remind him that this could be a spectacular par. He chips out to the middle of the fairway then drills it inside 10 feet of the hole makes it for the par. CLUTCH. Steady pars on the next two holes and then a mammoth drive and Three wood to reach the par five in two where he two putts for Birdie. Three under par again!

Two more steady pars and now another par five. We know we have to make our money on the par fives. This is a pretty tough par five however. Water on the left and bunkers on the right and then the hole turned slightly to the left with a smallish green guarded with bunkers on the right and a steep slope down to a hazard on the left and rear. He was not able to get the ball on the green in the practice round and it was very questionable whether it was prudent to even try to reach the green in two shots because of the danger surrounding the green.

Standing on the tee of this par five was the moment of truth. All of the hard work to get to this point was riding on this drive. A good drive would set up a Birdie opportunity to keep us on track for a chance to qualify. Now the choice between the safe cut shot into the fairway or do you take the big bomber drive to increase chance to reach the green in 2? He decides to try to hit the big draw and pulls it to the left and we watch in horror as the ball misses the edge of the fairway and hits on the slope and bounces toward the lake. Five new gray hairs for the Caddy.

When we reach the lake and search for the ball we see that the ball is inside the hazard line but not in the water. He takes off his shoes because he will have to stand in the water to play the ball back toward the fairway. He steps into the water only to discover that it falls off quickly and he nearly falls into the water. We both laugh as he nearly falls in and that probably release some tension for this upcoming shot. He is able to punch the ball out of the water up to the fairway which is over his head at the time. He now has about 250 yards to the green that we were previously uncertain about approaching from that distance. After sacrificing the sideway shot he has no choice but to try to reach the green. We have to make four. Unfortunately this is a severe side sloping stance and it is nearly a baseball swing that is going to make this difficult shot even more difficult. He has the aim about 30 yards to the right of the green. He makes a mighty swing and sends the ball into the air to the right of the green but it does not seem to be turning at first. It's almost like the ball is in slow motion. Finally it begins to turn and it appears that it may catch the corner of the green and it keeps on turning and now it looks like it's going to reach the middle of the green and it's tracking for the flagstick and lands on the green and rolls toward the hole and actually catches the corner of the hole and lips out and stopped about 6 feet. Nearly an eagle 3 from 250 yards!!! Through a stroke of luck, a playing partner leaves his ball on the same line and has to putt first which confirms the break in the putt. Brad steps up and drills it in for the most unlikely Birdie. 4 under par

Now he is four under with a very difficult part three coming up that is 100% carry over the water. The water also guards the left side of the green. The smart play has to be to the right of the hole and he executed perfectly from about 200 yards to the smart side of the hole and has about 30 feet downhill for birdie. We played the practice round at dusk the night before and were able to identify the pin placements for the tournament, so he putted several putts on the green to that hole including from this same angle. Fortunately in the practice round he putted this putt and was fooled so badly that he putted over 10 or 15 times. The same playing partner coincidentally puts his ball just a couple feet outside of Brad's line and putts first confirming what Brad remembered about that putt the day before. I had a premonition that this was going in. (the stars may be starting to align.) Now he stands over a 30 footer and calmly rolls it into the hole on the very last roll. He has not made a putt over 30 feet all summer. Caddy says boom. Five under.

He stands on the 18th 5 under par. 5 Under is leading on the scoreboard and there are some three and 4 unders already posted. Hazard on the left and trees on the right. A long tough par four to finish 460 yards and partly uphill. He decides on the “go to” cut shot that he used at the Greenbrier and drills it perfectly into the middle of the fairway. The flag is cut very close to the front left corner of the green so you need to keep it to the right. The approach shot it to the right of the pin but comes up just a couple steps short of the green on the slope and rolls backwards. This is a makable chip in. A chip in for 66 would probably guarantee a chance into the PGA Tournament.. The chip comes up and it runs right across the edge of the hole and slides by about 4 feet. Unfortunately he is now above the hole putting down with a little tricky putt. He stands over and rolls it gently down the hill, but it enters the hole on the right side and goes completely around the hole and horseshoes back out up the hill. It is very difficult to have a 360° lip out when putting down hill. It is impossible to come any closer to making a putt without making it than this putt. Chipping for 66 and putting for 67 and now tapping in for 68. It was like a punch in the gut. 4under par

Very disappointing coming off the green and turns in the scorecard to see three 67's on the board and some 68’s. He is berating himself for not getting up and down on the final hole. Now with about 25 players still on the course it's a waiting game and the drama and hope of not seeing another 67 posted on the scoreboard.

It was a wait of more than an hour to see the scores come in. When the remaining players were down to about 10 on the course we head to the practice putting green to prepare in case of a playoff. Finally the last players come in and 5 players who had 68 will have a playoff for one spot. Still alive.

Now we get to play hole number one where Brad pulled his drive into the water hazard and he punched out and saved par. Will he remember the shot in the hazard or the miraculous par. He drills it down the middle but is disappointed by his approach shot that leaves him 60 feet away. One player hits it slightly over the green and two players are roughly 20 feet and another inside 10 feet but above the hole. Brad thinks his chances are looking slim. Four other guys with a chance for birdie and they have all played 4 under and are obviously accomplished players. Little does he know that one of the players is the number one ranked amateur player in the world who just played at the Greenbriar tournament and shot 64 the last day to tie Davis Love. The first three all came up short and the last player barely misses downhill. Now Brad has left himself about 4 or 5 feet. He certainly is wishing that he had about 2 feet. Now the pressure is mounting and he makes it to stay in the playoff. Clutch! Caddy starts breathing again.

Number 2 is a good par three and playing about 210 yards. The other four players hit it to about 30 feet (which is about the tour average from that yardage) Brad hits a laser to about 8 or 10 feet just below the hole putting uphill. They all miss as expected from that distance and Brad steps in and rolls it toward the hole and pumps his fist with a couple inches to go as it goes in dead center. He wheels around and bear hugs me and lifts me off the ground and restarts my heart with a death squeeze.

I flash to a quote that hangs on my wall in my office that my father gave me when I was closer to Brad’s age:

“I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.”

Vince Lombardi


 
 
 

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