Chapter 61: How to Psych Out an Opponent

I couldn’t help it. I was excited! This would be my second start on a professional golf tour. Albeit, it wasn’t the PGA. Still, the Korn Ferry Tour was the next best thing for a kid from Georgia that had dreamed of playing pro golf since my dad first took me to Augusta National when I was thirteen years old.

The Wichita Open is one of four original Korn Ferry tour stops remaining on the current schedule. It started in 1990, at the Reflection Ridge Golf Club. In 1997, it moved to Willowbend Golf Club for four years and then in 2001, it moved to Crestview Country Club’s North Course where it brings in more than 50,000 people to the event each June. This year, I was one of only two amateurs playing.

Our grouping had been posted during the party Tuesday night. My tee time for today’s first round would be at 12:30pm on hole number ten. My normal routine called for me to arrive at the course two hours before my tee time in order to warm up, so I had told Murph and Dad that we would need to leave the house about 10:20am this morning.

The Wichita Open used a tandem start to be able to accommodate the 144 golfers registered for the event. That means that we would go off in threesomes (three golfers in each grouping) at assigned tee times on both the first and tenth holes in order to get all the golfers around the course during daylight hours.

The players are all assigned to their threesome for the first two days (Thursday and Friday) and then assigned their tee times (and which hole they would tee off from). The tee times started at 7:45am and every fifteen minutes thereafter. The order for the groups teeing off would be reversed for Friday, meaning that whichever groups teed off first on Thursday, would tee off last on Friday. They also reversed the starting tees as well. So if a group teed off at 7:45am on Thursday on number One, then on Friday, they would tee off at 1:30pm on number Ten.

This was done for a variety of reasons, but mostly to promote a sense of fairness because it is generally acknowledged that the morning rounds produce lower scores. That is because the course is often wet in the mornings which makes it play slower. Then as the sun dries the greens and warms the fairways, and the winds pick up, the greens and fairways become harder and faster. Of course, this doesn’t account for variations in the weather, such as rain, high winds, and storms. But, in general, the playing conditions are better early, hence, flipping the tee times.

On Friday night, there would be a cut, where any golfer shooting a score that was outside the Tour’s parameters, would go home and the remaining golfers would be re-shuffled in order of their scores. The golfers that survived the cut were said to be ‘in the money’, with each receiving a percentage of the purse, based on their final scores on Sunday.

At my first tournament, The Bahama’s Invitational in Nassau, back in December, I had simply been overwhelmed by everything and also by the fact that the government was trying to arrest me and someone else was trying to kidnap or kill me. There was so much chaos surrounding me, I don’t know how I did as good as I did. I went into Sunday leading by a stroke, but ended up tied for sixth. I believe I could have done better, but I botched number fifteen and number sixteen because Isabella, who was my caddy that day, pointed out that it would be dangerous for me to win and have to stay for the interviews.

It was the best decision at the time, but still, it bothers me that I hadn’t been free to pursue the win. So that was another reason I was excited about today.

The other thing that had me concerned was the question my mom had asked me last night after dinner. She asked me if the lightning had unfairly enhanced my ability to play golf. I never got around to answering her, but I thought about it all night. I suspected that the lightning strike was probably NOT an actual lightning strike, but more like a vehicle that the pink planet used to deliver their gifts. However, it still seemed to have changed the electromagnetic field surrounding my body, which somehow caused my skin to better resist damage and injuries and my autoimmune system to repel sickness and diseases. It also created my ability to stay underwater without breathing, which I have found no logical reason for.

That’s all in addition to the healing, the ability to teleport, and the manipulation of electricity, which the pink planet has admitted to, but not really explained how or why.

But except for what I was calling an increase in my fine motor control, i.e. my dancing skills, my golfing skills, and even my lovemaking; I hadn’t detected or discovered any other hidden talents. I mean, the lightning strike didn’t teach me to play golf or how to dance. And it didn’t teach me how to sail. I had been golfing for nine years and I took dancing lessons some four years ago. The sailing had all been in the last year. And I had been very fortunate to have both the opportunity to sail and three very experienced teachers.

So my personal conclusion was that while the lightning strike may have given me certain gifts or unusual abilities, those gifts or abilities had not directly enabled me to dance, or play golf, or sail a large yacht, but had, in some way, increased my ability to concentrate and do better at things I already knew how to do.

Did that give me an unfair advantage?

I decided it didn’t. Not any more than any other talented golfer had over others that were less talented.

Dad and I showed up at the golf course early, and while he picked up my clubs, I completed the required paperwork, then went in search of my locker to change clothes while Dad had to attend a brief caddies orientation concerning situations specific to Creekview Country Club, such as the split start and the out of bounds on nine and eighteen. Then we headed for the practice tees and I began my routine.

Within ten minutes, I was surrounded by reporters, but I just ignored them and stuck to my warm up routine while they talked to my dad. I could feel myself getting into a rhythm with my shots and lost all awareness of what was going on around me. Sometime later, dad led me to the practice putting green. I was glad he was watching the time. Finally, I followed him to the tenth green where I met my playing partners.

This was Tim Culpepper’s third year on the Korn Ferry Tour and had just missed getting his tour card last year by the slimmest of margins. He was twenty-five years old and had played college golf at Florida State. He was also a new daddy to a six week old baby boy. His experience on the tour was obvious as he remained calm and focused. I actually enjoyed the brief time we had to talk before we teed off.

Matthew Warren the Third, was a SoCal (Southern California) trust fund baby, with the attitude to match. It didn’t take but a couple of holes to figure out I wanted nothing to do with either his mouth or his attitude. I guess, in reality, he did me a favor by helping me to be super focused and I quickly dropped into the zone.

At the turn, I had carded a two under par thirty-four. Tim Culpepper was also two under at the turn. The trust fund baby said he had a three under thirty-three.

“What’s with the gorilla?” the trust fund baby asked as we waited in line for the first tee. It’s one of the drawbacks to a tandem start. Inevitably, there tends to be a bottleneck at holes One and Ten.

I was going to ignore him as I had most of the morning, but my dad spoke up right about then, “Alex has had nine assassination attempts on him in the last seven months.”

“Wha ... what?” sputtered Matt’s caddy, a fraternity brother by the name of Chesterfield. I don’t think I ever heard his first name. Matt just called him Lunk.

“Yeah,” my father said casually. “He survived the snipers and the kidnappers, and the first two bombs from the Hornets. He even got away from the battleships, the two exploding fishing trawlers, the drone loaded with explosives, and the submarine they sent after him, but the last bomb, in March, really messed him up. Unfortunately, it killed his girlfriend, almost killed one of his best friends, and destroyed the four million dollar sailing yacht he was traveling on.”

“No shit!” Lunk said in amazement. Matt just had a look of disbelief on his face.

“Yeah. We don’t normally talk about it, but I kind of thought that the Tour might have warned you guys about who you were playing with today,” Dad told them. “We don’t think that there is a high risk of anything like that happening today, but you never know. That’s why Alex has Murph with us.”

My Dad may not have my talent at golf, but he had played a lot of golf and knew when and how to psych out an opponent. He just winked at me.

Then Tim, standing off to the side with his caddy, Jeremiah, said, “I’ve heard of you!”

“You’re that guy!” Jeremiah added. “The one who got struck by lightning!”

Of course, I was now dragged into the conversation as I recounted the tale for Tim, Jeremiah, and Murph, as well as the scorer, the standard bearer, a reporter and a cameraman who didn’t have his camera on yet. I didn’t realize Murph had not heard about it before. I was going to have to check into what the FBI actually had in their files on me someday.

Matt and Lunk were standing off to the side, talking rapidly to someone on Lunk’s smartphone. I couldn’t hear most of it, but I heard my name and the word “Serendipity” come up. That meant he was having my story checked out.

When the starter called us to the First hole, which was actually our Tenth hole of the round, Tim had the honors. Just as he teed off, Matt and Lunk hurriedly caught up with us. I noticed that they were careful to keep their distance from us as they discussed something very serious between them in a loud whisper.

It was interesting to watch as Matt’s game began to unravel. On Hole number 4, he hit it in the water for a bogie 5. On Hole number 5, a 194 yard Par 3, Tim got a hole in one. I settled for a birdie and Matt ended up with double bogie 5 when he again hit it in the water that wraps the entire left side of the hole. He ended up 5 over par for the front nine and a 2 over, 74 for the first round. Tim and I both carded rounds of 6 under 66’s.

While Tim and I waited to talk with the on-course reporter, the trust fund baby had disappeared. It turns out that Tim and I were tied for fourth place (along with three others) behind a 63, a 64, and a 65. It looked like I was going to have to focus a little harder.

Since we were one of the late groups and I knew that Tim was traveling without his wife and new son, Dad invited him to have dinner with us. Jeremiah already had plans.

“Is it safe?” Tim asked in a half-joking-half-serious manner.

“Assassins don’t usually work after five o’clock. Something about union rules,” I cracked.

Since Tim was staying down the road at a hotel and using Uber to get back and forth, we gave him a lift with us to the house. Murph had already called so that mom could add another T-bone to the bunch they were grilling for supper.

Of course, the girls all wanted to hear about his new baby and he proudly showed them the dozens of pictures he had on his smartphone. Around eight o’clock, Murph ran Tim to his motel after he reminded me that we were teeing off in the morning at 8:45am on the First Hole.

I begged off playing Scrabble with the Lopez’s and my family and headed for the shower. It had been a long, hot sweaty day and I hadn’t slept that much last night. As I came out of the bathroom, I noticed a lump in my bed.

“I thought you were going to play games with your family,” I told Rachel.

“She is,” my twin sister told me. “I just wanted to spend some time with my little brother.”

Needless to say, I didn’t get to sleep as early as I intended that night.

It was just past six-thirty Friday morning when Murph, Dad, and I arrived at the clubhouse. I picked up my clubs and shoes from the locker room, surprised that dad had cleaned them before putting them away last night. Then headed for the practice tees. Even though the sun was barely up, the practice tees were brimming with people.

While we walked down the grass behind the practice tees, I nodded to several players I had met this week as well as several of the reporters and vloggers I had interviewed with. When we got to where Tim was warming up, we stopped to say good morning to Tim and Jeremiah.

“Did you see where your buddy WD’ed?” he asked. I knew he was referring to the trust fund baby.

“You’re kidding!” I said in surprise. “He really withdrew? I wonder why?”

“It didn’t say. Usually, if there’s an injury, they’d post that,” Tim supplied.

I just shrugged my shoulders and went about my warm up as usual. After almost two hours, Dad led me to the first hole. Tim, and his caddy, Jeremiah were already there along with a familiar face. Off to the side, sitting in a cart was Sam Peterson.

“Just ignore me today. I’m gonna ride along with your group to help keep an eye on your pace of play, since your partner withdrew unexpectedly,” he told us. I later learned this was not an un-common practice that the tour used to help pace-of-play.

It was a beautiful Kansas morning. The sky was clear and the winds practically non-existent. I found myself dropping into the zone and don’t remember a single shot that Tim took.

Tim must have been in a zone too. When we got to the turn, we both had 4 under 32’s. We still had the bottleneck wait to get on the tee box at Ten, so while we stood in the shade, Dad talked with Jeremiah. Sam had disappeared into the clubhouse.

Right as we were called for Ten, Sam returned with a reporter and cameraman who both climbed on his cart and followed us. Once more, I put them out of my mind and focused on my game. The course was quickly drying out and the winds had picked up which was normal in the summertime in Kansas. By the time we reached the Seventeenth hole, I was finding myself glad that we had played early. I ended up my round with a 35 on the back nine, for a second round total of 67 to go with the 66 from yesterday. That put me at 11 under for the tournament. Tim was just behind me with a 10 under for the tournament.

I waited on him at the scorer’s tent. The scorers would not say if we had made the cut. So, we walked over to the interview area together. I was surprised to find Paige McKenzie from the Golf Channel talking to Sam Peterson.

“So they were both hitting the ball well?” she asked him.

“Masters was hitting his tee shots out of this world and his accuracy was down-right uncanny. And Culpepper was not that far behind him. But I think that Tim’s experience around the green gave him a slight advantage, though,” Sam told her.

“Well, it’s early yet with only about a dozen scores posted so far. But Masters is currently atop the leaderboard with his 11 under, and Culpepper is sitting right behind him at 10 under. Do you think that these two young players can keep up that pace through the final two rounds?” she asked.

“Paige, I have followed Tim for a couple of years now, but I have never seen him hit it that long before. And I’ve played a couple of practice rounds with Alex. I knew he could boom ‘em. But today, it was almost like he was trying to prove he deserves to play on the PGA Tour and he was dragging Tim right along in his wake!”

“So you’re saying that they are ready for the PGA Tour” Paige followed up.

“Paige, you know that I always hesitate to offer my opinion on something like that. There are so many other factors that go into playing on the big tour besides hitting the ball long. There’s the travel, and the pressure, and the competition, and just the overall stress of grinding it out week after week.”

“But you think they have the talent?” Paige persisted. “You think they’re ready?”

“Hell, I haven’t seen either one of them play in the rain. Or in high winds, or even in the fog. I haven’t seen them play the links style course or any of the other types of courses they’ll face on the (PGA) tour. So I guess I’m saying that just like most of the golfers out here today, they just need a little more experience. I mean this is only Alex’s second tournament! And he playing as an amateur!”

Tim was up next with Paige and I was somewhat surprised when she just assumed that we had made the cut. I was even more surprised when Tim said that it was the best he had ever played on the Tour and gave me some of the credit for his better play.

When Paige got to me, the first thing she asked was how I was feeling and if there had been any residual effects from being struck by lightning. I immediately went on the defensive while at the same time admiring how cleverly she had disguised her question.