July 10, 2008

GALENA, OH — Rich Armstrong squandered a great start last Sunday, but managed to save his roller coaster round with two birdies. The round at Royal American Golf Links included two quadruple-bogeys.

The Ohioan parred the opening hole before his disasterous quadruple-bogey at the 2nd hole. "Welcome to my roller coaster," said Armstrong. "My inconsistency is killing me."

Armstrong followed up the quadruple-bogey with a triple-bogey at the 3rd hole. Then a double-bogey at the par-3 4th hole. "It was getting better with each hole, but the swing was a little sloppy."

He turned around his game immediately at the 5th hole where he sunk the first birdie putt of the afternoon. He made another putt at the 7th hole for birdie. The two birdies resulted in 18 points.

Rich posted a 9-over 45 on the front nine, but more importantly was worth 30 points. "The front was worth 42 points with half the course bonus points," said partner Jeff Miller. "That is pretty impressive for someone that hacked up the front nine."

The back nine included four pars and a quadruple-bogey at the 15th hole. He finished the back with a 10-over 46 and just 20 points.

"It is such a different mindset from when in an event like the Virtual Tournament," Armstrong said. "In a tournament like this, you know you have six more months to get it back. It is just a matter of remaining patient and staying focused on scoring points."

Rich Armstrong scored 74 points on Sunday. He moved up into a tie for 13th position with 62.7 points per round.

In other news, Bill Bateson played a couple of rounds last weekend and dropped into second position. Don Creighton takes over the lead in the 2008 Virtual Tournament.