Pin Fernando Trophy: A good Win

The sport that I spend the most time playing and the sport that I am the best in is golf. During the October break, there was a prestigious tournament called the Pin Fernando trophy where over 150 golfers compete for their name to be engraved on the trophy which has been planted every year since 1979. The tournament was held over 5 days with 1 qualifying round to create a seeded bracket. From the bracket, it was one on one games where you had to beat the other player in order to proceed. If you lost a match then you were out of the tournament. There was a round of 16, quarter-final, semi-final, and a final to decide the winner. 

This wasn’t a new experience as I had played this type of tournament recently for the Club championship where I lost in the quarter-finals on the 17th hole. I also represented Colombo in the annual Burdette trophy where the players from Colombo play against the players in Nuwara Eliya in a format similar to the Ryder Cup for the Burdette Trophy which has been played for over 100 years. The whole tournament worked on a net system where the players handicap would give them strokes in order to give the weaker golfers a chance at winning. Unfortunately, my relatively low handicap of 7 made it much more difficult for me as I had to give strokes or advantage on some of the holes in order to make the match fair. This was especially difficult in the qualifying round because I knew that qualifying was not enough, I needed to get a high seed in order to get to the end. Luckily I played a 5 over gross and 2 under net which gave me the 6th seed. 

Something that I learned from the other matches was that I needed to have the mentality that I can beat anyone on any day. I believe that this confident mindset played a key role in the success that I had in this tournament. 

The round of 16 was against an experienced player who had a handicap of 13 which meant that I had to give him 5 strokes. I started this match well going 3 up after 3 holes but a couple of unsteady holes got me back to 2 up through 5 holes. The 6th hole was halved, but I won the 7th, 8th, and 9th holes giving me a 5-up lead going to 10. After playing a sloppy second shot I halved the 10th hole and lost the 11th hole as I had to give him a stroke and he converted to make a good net birdie. I was 4 up going to 12 and at this point, I knew that if I finished this game off quickly I would send a message to the rest of the players in the bracket. With this mindset, I managed two wins on both the 12th and 13th holes giving me a 6 and 5 victory. The other players knew that I was the better player but no one expected me to finish him off by the 13th hole. 

The quarter-final was probably the hardest match I had. This player was almost evenly matched in terms of handicap as he played off an 8 handicap which meant that I had to give a stroke. After some bad luck, I lost the first hole but I came back with a good birdie on the second hole to bring the game back to even. The third hole was interesting, we both missed our first shot which meant that we made it to the green in 3. I was closer to the hole than him but he was able to make a 25-foot putt for par putting all the pressure on me. I missed my putt but wasn’t too mad because he had made a lucky putt and I didn’t mind going one down going to the fourth hole. Because he had won the third hole, he had the honour or he got to play the first shot on the fourth hole. He missed his shot to the left and I made my par to win the fourth hole. That win gave me the momentum I needed to win the next holes and I was able to finish the match by the fourteenth hole. 

After winning my quarter-final game, I knew that the games coming up would be much easier and that I could actually win the tournament. My opponent had the same handicap as me which meant that I didn’t have to give any strokes. I started off well by going 3 up after the first three holes. I was 4 up after ten holes and it started to rain so I wanted to finish the game off quickly. Unfortunately, I lost the next three holes and the rain had intensified but I was still leading by going up to the 14th hole. The 14th and 15th are two long par 5s which work well with my game because I hit a relatively long ball compared to my opponent. I took advantage of this and made a birdie on 14 and a par on 15 to go three up after the 15th. At this point, I just needed to tie one of the remaining three holes to win and I was able to do that on the 16th with a par to win the match 3 and 2. 

The final was against a player who was playing with a 12 handicap which meant that I had to give him 5 strokes. Something I learnt from the semi final was that I needed to get a quick lead and I was able to do that by going 2 up after the first 6 holes. This gave me some momentum and I won the next 3 holes to go 5 up after 9. The 10th was halved but like my previous matches I lost the 11th and 12th. I won the 13th hole which meant that I could finish the match by the next hole. At that point, it started to rain which hindered both mine and my opponent’s game. This resulted in a tie on the 14th. At this point though, all I needed to do was to half one of the four holes to win the match and I was able to win the 15th hole in order to win the match and the tournament 5 up with 3 holes to go.

This was a good win for me. It taught me a lot about being locked in and the positives of always being up or on top of things. It also showed me that my parents are the biggest asset that I have. They will always be there to manage, coach, listen, explain, and they are someone I can trust with anything. During my semi-final match when the rain started to intensify, the two towels I had brought if it had rained had gotten damp as I used them to dry the grips of my golf clubs. I was also feeling very cold and tired. But, right at that moment, I get a package from my mother, who had packed me a new fresh towel, a flask full of ginger tea and a change of clothes. When I received this care package I forgot about the weather conditions and the fact that I had lost the two previous holes. I drank my tea, took a second to reflect and make a plan to win.