May 1, 2007

COLUMBUS, OH — Spackler's No. 19 Chris Philipsen nearly conceded the season after posting his first two rounds of the season, which have approached triple digits. Now he is back on track with a long season right in front of him.

"I didn't play well out of the gate," said Philipsen, a.k.a. Moneymaker, of his opening rounds. "If there were a cut, I would have missed it by a mile."

Rock bottom came on the 545-yard 4th hole at Glen Ross, where Chris carded his first 10 in 4 years. The Philipsen history includes 58 career rounds and just one hole with 9 strokes. Philipsen last posted 9 strokes during the Mountain Valley practice round.

When asked, Philipsen took the reporters through his big 10 strokes with what appeared to be a surprising positive attitude. "After making fun of a member of the foursome who was hooking very badly for the first 3 holes, I promptly took to the tee box and pulled my ball out of bounds left.

I dropped a ball out of my pocket and hit a power fade to the middle of the fairway. My fourth shot was another fade, compliments of my 3 wood to the right rough, which was thankfully across the creek.

My fifth shot was a 5 iron straight down the middle, but 20 yards short of the green. My horrible chip to the right of the green was one of my patented yips-type shot. Then a bump and run chip, which was too hard and eventually rolled over the green. Then my 8th stroke, another bump and run chip, which managed to arrive just 5 feet from the hole.

The downhill left to right putt was missed, but left just a 5-inch putt for my big 10."

Philipsen did follow up the big 10 with a double bogey before getting things back on track at the 6th hole.

"If you would have asked me earlier in the season if I was going to play terrible, I would have laughed at you," Philipsen said. "I was really looking forward to playing well out of the gate. I felt emotionally and physically ready. The 26-over 96 is something that I would like to put behind me."

Philipsen opened with disappointing 48-46 points over his first two rounds. He switched over to a wide open Darby Creek Golf Club with better luck this past weekend. Chris turned things around scoring 57 points including 5 pars and 9 bogeys.

"The true Moneymaker came out this weekend," said Philipsen after his round. "If nothing else, the round sure stopped the bleeding."

The round at Darby Creek was enough to keep Philipsen out of last place with 18th position in the 2007 Virtual Tournament.