So on #18 yesterday (Sunday, day 6) I DIDN'T hit it over towards the alligator woods on the left!!! Instead I was in the trees on the right, BUT I hit a clutch knock down 8-iron off of the pine straw to about 7 feet and made the putt for par! Good things happen when you avoid the gator on #18!!! By the way, the big gator on #18 has a name - Junior. The starter told it to me as I was teeing off on the first tee. Now that I knew he had a name my feelings changed a bit about hitting it left on #18, instead of feeling frightened I almost kinda wanted to hit it left just to go over a chill with Junior (actually, not really, Junior is still after all a pretty huge gator - apparently he almost caught a deer on Saturday, and I did indeed see a deer right at the same spot I saw Junior on Saturday...)
Sorry to get this blog post off so late by the way, last night I pretty much crashed pretty early (I say pretty much because I didn't end up in a bed, I took a nap sitting upright at the table, and then passed out on the couch watching the final two innings of the Japan vs. USA game - Japan won 9-4 for those of you who weren't paying attention).
Sunday's round was on the most part pretty rough; the winds didn't die down, play got backed up for the first time all week, I think people on the most part were pretty tired after a full schedule of golf over four straight days, and in the end most of us ended up shoting our highest round of the tournament. Here are the scores: Nick 78, Ben 81, Colonel 84, Matt Butler 91, Dan 94, and for the women, Jordan 83, Ellen 100.
I'd like to thank my fans (aka my family) who have been in touch about the blog, for your benefit I'll give a few more details about my personal round (I was pretty happy with an 84 when all was said and done). I guess you've already heard of my exploits on #18, that was pretty rad. On #9 I got my first (and only) birdie of the tournament; I pounded my drive down the left side of the fairway, shaped my 5-wood left to right around the bunker in front of the green and ending it up 10 feet from the hole, and then my Aussie putter hit a perfect birdie putt dead center! The rest of the day was a struggle, Aussie came through in the clutch a lot (I had five one-putts for bogey, ended up with only one double-bogey on the day, and only four double-bogeys for the tournament). Today I played with a nichi, "
日", on my ball, for nihon, "
日本", which is Japanese for "Japan", in honor of the whole Japanese team. I also didn't lose that one, so I didn't lose a ball all tournament long! Maybe I should mark all my balls with Japanese characters for good luck (along with the Southern Cross, of course - I've been using that since freshman year).
I think the men's team either came third form last or second from last, but pretty much our only goal was to use this as a training trip, and we got five intense days of golf in (today we're getting golf lessons from Manuel, Martha's coach and a PGA Hall of Fame instructor, so that brings the total to six days of golf). Jordan was hoping to boost her chances of making it to Nationals at the end of the spring, I don't know how that went.
So a quick post-round summary for Sunday. We came back at around 3:30 a chilled for the afternoon (Ellen and I rented bikes and did a little tour of the island - we went to a fishing pier on the northern tip of the island and then came back south about halfway to the golf course before turning around). Nick and Dan grilled hamburgers for dinner (and maybe others, sorry if someone lost out on getting credit), and after dinner we did an encore of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." Then of course Japan beat the US, but I think everyone was asleep by then (including me).
So yeah, today everyone is getting a 45 minute lesson from Manuel (Angie had a half-hour lesson to lead things off, as I type she probably finished it 10 minutes ago). We're doing it in waves, Ben and Nick are the first wave, followed by Dan and Matt Butler, and Ellen, Jordan and I are taking the afternoon session.
We'll leave Jekyll Island at 3 pm for a 5 somethingish flight out of Jacksonville direct to MInneapolis/St. Paul. I will definitely do a final post when we get back to Mac, hopefully at least by the end of Tuesday so keep checking for it, it'll come.
I'm off to enjoy my last 6 and a bit hours on the island. Peace.
- Colonel
Our final day at Jekyll Island included individual lessons for everyone with legendary Hall of Fame teacher Manuel de la Torre. 
Manuel, though 87 years old gave lessons to each player, which included everything from swing mechanics, short game tips, putting help, and a talk about scoring and managing oneself on the golf course.
A hallmark of a lesson with Manuel is him asking the student many questions and it is always a great feeling when the answer is met with a response from Manuel of "yes, that's exactly correct!" Sometimes it feels like the questions he asks are trick questions as he is looking for a very specific response. For instance, one player was asked the question "What do you hit the golf ball with?" They responded "the clubface", "the proper spot on the clubface", "the front of the clubhead". With each response Manuel gently said "No, what do you hit the golf ball with?" until the response he was looking for was given..."the club". In Manuel's teaching the words he uses are specific and precise in their meaning and usage and in his concept of the golf swing, the whole club is always the emphasis, not the clubhead!
After 8 lessons and lunch Manuel told me this is the most talented group of Macalester golfers he's seen in the 9 years he's worked with Mac golfers. So now it's up to everyone to get back to work to figure out how to take those talents and translate them into top performances. Now the fun begins!
