March IDE-ness

Farfel Miller III
Provo, UT

There is a reason that the motto of the IDES golf tournament is "The
Ides: Beware!" The field this year was greeted by ferocious wind and
tenacious competition. Pretty much every major competitor on the AGA
tour showed up, with the lone notable exception being the absence of
Edward Archibald, who is still serving his mission for the LDS church
in Mexico. It already seems that he has missed 2 years worth of major
tournaments, but he still has much time left before his return.

The play started out tepidly, with the golfers feeling out the course
and each other. The marquee threesome of Jim, Thom, and Chris
Archibald all recorded pars at the par 5 first hole, although these
pars had different significance to the different golfers. Thom and
Jim each two-putted for par, while Chris completed a masterful up and
down from short of the green. He had to come up and over a grass
bunker, and delicately landed his lobbed chip shot so that it stopped
as close to the hole as could be expected. This still left him a 10
foot putt, which he drained to serve notice of his arrival to the 2011
IDES. His scrambling on this first hole was an omen of things to come
for him, as he spent much of his round scrambling off of greens and
fairways, and sinking lengthy putts to save his skin.

The awesome glory of the IDES was revealed on the fifth hole, while
Chris was addressing his approach shot. The wind, which had been not
noticeable until then, picked up to a howling gale, which I estimated
to be around 35-40 mph. The wind would remain for the rest of the
round, punishing errant shots and wreaking havoc on the mental
stability of the players. Chris faltered with a pulled 3-wood on
number 8 which promptly hooked into the water left of the green, while
Thom picked up a severe case of wind-induced yips, which reduced his
normal sturdy putting motion to a shell of itself. Only Jim was able
to conquer the wind and remain steady in his play.

At the turn, the scores of the golfers read like a child's counting
game, Jim at 2 over, Thom at 4, and Chris at 6 over. This was a
familiar position for Chris, who has been criticized in the press
recently for his lack of good early play. But in his defense, he
makes the most of every back nine, and is known for his late round
charges at the leaders.

"I had the lead, but I knew that Thom and Chris were lurking, " Jim
said about the turn, "with that much wind, anything could happen."
Chris began his expected charge on number 10, with a drive that found
the fairway, an approach shot which used the wind to curl into the
middle of the green, and a 25 foot birdie putt which he buried right
in the heart. It was on.

But the wind wasn't done with its damage, and Jim was the only one to
remain relatively unscathed. His lone error came on the par-5 13th,
where he started a drive down the left-hand side of the fairway with
just a little too much fade on it, and the wind whipped it across the
fairway and all the way into the middle of the water on the right side
of the fairway.

Chris made a pressure 15 foot putt on number 15 to keep within
striking distance at 3 back of Jim, but then on 16, Jim won the
tournament with one of the most memorable shots in years. He reached
the greenside bunker in 2 shots, and proceeded to hole out of the
bunker for eagle, giving himself a 5 shot lead with 2 holes to play.
He then parred the remaining two holes, no small feet in the whipping
winds, and stood alone as the 2011 IDES champion. His final score was
2 over, a masterful display of shot-making and confidence in the face
of the wind.

"Jim played great, but the wind just got in my head and I forgot how
to putt." sighed a remorseful Thom, who missed about 7 putts inside
of 5 feet over the hole played in the wind. Chris was equally humbled
by the mighty breeze, "It caused me to doubt everything I thought I
knew about my golf swing. The way Jim played just really blew me
away." Chris's silly puns aside, the day truly was one in which Jim
conquered the wind, and the wind conquered the rest of the field. "I
just felt comfortable out there," mused the victor. "Even with the
wind, I knew if I made my swing, I could come out on top. This really
showed me that my mental game is right where I want it to be coming
into the start of the AGA season."

Let this be a warning to future competitors: Beware the IDES of
March. But most of all, beware the Jim of Archibald.