Green Gang: Early Punch From "Fighting Joe"
4/23/2012 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
By Steven Bartolotta, April 23, 2012, 6:49 p.m.
The 2012 SBC Golf Championship is being held in a pretty remote part of Northern Alabama. So remote, the course isn't even on the map. Or GPS for that matter.
But today the "Fighting Joe" course as it's known, fought back. Conditions from sunrise to sunset were cold and windy; and North Texas found out from the very first shot how much fight the course had in it.
Jason Roets was first to tee off. His ball ended up wedged between two trees, sitting down in about 3 feet of Alabama's finest weeds. Bogey.
Up next Curtis Donahoe. Pull hook to the left side and a search party of around 10 started looking for his ball. After the five minute time limit, Donahoe takes a drop. Bogey.
How about Rodolfo Cazaubon, surely he won't make it a hat trick.....Tee shot, dead left and the same search party that just stopped looking for Donahoe's ball, started back up looking for Rodo's. Five minutes later, no ball. Double bogey.
4-over par on the first hole, only three players in? Making matter worse, Coach Stracke lost his prized sunglasses in the Alabama thatch looking for those two balls. I better just walk the next few holes and let the steam get out of him before hitching a ride on the cart again.
This isn't how the script was supposed to go. North Texas came into this tournament surface of the sun hot, but now the cold winds off the Tennessee River gave Coach Stracke's team a hard slap to the face on the first hole.
With the winds howling all day, the Mean Green could have very well shot a 25-over, but instead, this mentally hardened group didn't let the first hole meltdown derail the entire tournament.
North Texas kept battling, but just past the turn, Middle Tennessee had opened up a nine-stroke lead at even-par and the Mean Green was stymied in the wind at 9-over par. The tide is gonna turn eventually right?
It did. The five Blue Raiders felt the wrath of the winds like everyone else and shot 20-over par on the final nine holes, only 10 of that counted though. The Mean Green shot a back-nine of 4-over par, with only one counting, and just like that it's a brand new ball-game after one round.
Afterwards Coach Stracke praised his team's toughness for hanging in and not letting the round slip away. The Mean Green's playing partners ULM and Denver wish they could say the same. Denver, the defending champ, blew up for a 33-over par. ULM is dead last at 39-over par.
Ty Spinella somehow managed to put up the only score in red figures on the day with a 71. He did it with toughness and a smart game plan. Play for pars, and if a birdie comes along, be grateful. For a guy looking for his first win of any tournament since 2007, it was a game plan perfectly executed.
Rodo had the most peculiar scorecard of all. On seven different holes, he posted a five. On seven other holes, he posted a three. The rest ranged from seven to four. But after an eagle on the 17th hole, he duct-taped together a 3-over par 75 and is tied for 7th place. Same goes for the rest. Carlos Ortiz, setup perfectly on the par-5 17th hole. In the fairway, just around 200 yards left over water for perhaps an eagle like his buddy Rodo. But he smokes one way left and once again into the weeds that just aren't surrendering golf balls today. Another drop.
But he kept fighting. His fourth shot, from basically the same spot in the fairway, lands one foot from the hole and doesn't move an inch. Par for Ortiz.
It was about the finish today for the Mean Green. They finished strong after taking the "Fighting Joe's" best punch. And Coach Stracke even found his beloved sunglasses before the day was over.
The round ended well, giving North Texas a fighters chance to capture the title.