Wow, so much has happened since the last edition, Fuck me its been whirlwind, events have been entered, played and withdrawn from. Injuries have been prevalent and attitudes have been on a sliding scale from good to dog shit.
It has happened in the past that The Shooter has had bad patches, it’s almost a given that prime athletes can’t continue to perform at such a high level continually, you know what they say though, form is temporary, class is permanent. We all know, The Shooter is class, recently though it’s been closer to economy class not so much business.
Not much golf has been played and we decide to go to Fiji and play the Starwood Tournament and the Legends event after, those 7 rounds will be more than I have played in the last 2 months. Disco and Rosé come along for the team event and a well earned holiday including a milestone birthday.
The tour started well enough, we arrive at Brisbane airport at 5:35am, yes in the fucking morning, the security line had snaked all the way to the end of the terminal, all the way back and out the door. Fuck off, was the audible response when I was advised by airline staff that the Premium Security line and Premium Boarding was not operating. They obviously don’t know who The Shooter is.
After what seemed like hours in the line, we finally get through and get on the plane, off to Sydney for the connection. Well, wasn’t that a cluster fuck of epic proportions, flight is in 2 hours, security line has stretched from the entry back 500 meters, 2 foodcourts back. Thats only to get behind the wall then it’s another cattle race to the passport area where they have 40 machines but there is only 8 open, fucks sake.
Finally, our departure time has come and gone, we have walked 4klm in lines and a representative from the airline finds us still in the line, 100 meters from the customs guy. The plane has been held for 45 minutes, the other passengers aren’t that happy. We finally get on and a couple of dickheads (Benedict) clap.
Surprisingly, The Shooter grabs a little form and plays much better than expected. The Starwood ends and Shooter grabs some cash in the Tournament proper and last money in the Legends section, a good result.
After the first event and the nightly beers and dinner, The Shooter was getting a bit worn out and wondered if this temporary form could be maintained, as it turned out, on the second day the frustration took its toll and the 9 iron was a victim. Not sure how the tree jumped out in front of it as it was hurtling at 80mph back toward the bag spurred on by a healthy ”fuck you”. It was a clean snap and the head ricocheted off the tree and went down the road, the grip went the other way and found itself wedged under the fence. Terrible outcome. I thought I saw Disco laugh.
Fuck me if I didn’t need that 9 iron a lot of times after that. I got reasonably good at hitting knock down 8’s
With the frustration out it was a much better next day and a half, for me at least and the finish was half decent for the event.
On the night of Rosé’s birthday, Disco also got down on the knee and pledged to give 60% of everything he owned away, what a selfless act, all that so he can continue to go to the BMW golf day. She did say yes by the way. Well played Disco.
Since then there have been a few tournaments, tennis elbow and some withdrawals. There have been 2 events in the last week where some form was apparent for a 15th finish and a 14th to bank some petrol money.
The last event The Shooter had 2 to play and got fucked on the second shot into the green on 17, made bogey and stood on the last trying to make birdie to win the event, yes, Shooter was pumped up. The ball in the soup and the resulting double bogey put paid to winning but fuck me I was feeling it. Very good signs going forward.
Off to Hawaii now for a holiday and another event. Some travel fuck ups stalled the start again, more about that next time.
Reinvented Shooter out.