Competition Day 1

Today was the first day of competition at the par 73, 6800 yard Hacoaj Campo de Golf, and overall I was pleased with how things went. I slept for a little less than three hours and on the bus ride to the course. My entire body was hurting until I drank an espresso which did the trick and woke me up.

I played with Josh from team USA and Michael Barnett, the Jewish national champion from South Africa, an excellent player. I started on the 11th hole and was quickly four over par after double bogeying the 11th and bogeying two of the next three holes. I began to get it together though as I focused on thinking my way around the course, hitting solid shots, and on chipping and putting.

I only pulled the driver out three times, and didnt touch the butterknife (1 iron). I did three putt either two or three times during the day unfortunately, but sunk two fifteen footers for birdie, one on the last hole in front of both jefes. The greens are turbo slow and have very little break despite some moderate undulation. On the greens at this course it's about hitting the putts hard enough to reach the hole- more difficult than it seems. Once you get the speed right, most putts are drainable. I ended up with a +4 77, keeping it even for my last 14 holes. I only know half of the scores from the open U.S. golfers since the rest of the team started in the afternoon. It's mildly frustrating having been placed on the clearly weaker of the two U.S. teams, but I remind myself I didn't come to Argentina for the hardware.

Tomorrow I start at 12:13 off of hole 1 and I'm hoping to play the same game as I did today with conservative fairway woods off of the tee and solid iron play. The key to scoring as always will be the chipping and putting as it could be the difference between a 70 and an 80. Tonight, I'm going out to the pier with some team members to enjoy another Argentine steak while I'm still here.

I'm attaching two videos- first, as promised, the horse sledding experience at the estancia, and second, the torch lighting from the opening ceremony last night. As always, thanks for reading.