August 10, 2002

WARREN, PA — It was a cloudy day on top of a hill in Warren at the Blueberry Country Club.  Kyle Marti didn't know what was in store for him as he took work off early to go golfing with Brian Long.

As a recent registrant, Kyle had already played about 7 rounds of golf.  His average score hovered in the low 100's.  Despite the stats, he would have one hell of a day.

As Marti and Long prepared to tee off on the back nine, it started raining.  Luckily it stopped soon after and they were underway.  Marti managed to bogey the first two holes before he fell apart on the 510 yard par 5 #12 with a quadruple bogey 9.

Disappointed, Marti proclaimed, "I was doing so well, and now look!"

As the two headed to the 348 yard par 4 #13, a group let them pass and both had 200+ yard drives.  Long, as earlier, could not get his drive off the ground, rolling it just over 200 yards.  Both were on the far right of the fairway on a dog-leg left.

After Long hit his 6 iron 190 yards, he cockily said, "Ohhhh, look at that!  Green in regulation!".

Marti soon shut Long up with a 190 yard bouncer 15 feet past the pin.  Brian looked in astonishment as he realized Marti came less than a foot from hitting the pin for a possible eagle.  While laughing, Marti putt his ball into the cup on the heavily sloped green for his first birdie in Carl Spackler.

Later, on the 168 yard par 3 16th, Long hit his 7 iron slightly right into a tree.  Marti followed suit by hitting it onto the cart path.  With his free drop, he attempted to move the ball 30 feet from where the ball was, and away from the tree in between him and the pin.  Long promptly told him that he has to move the ball further from the pin, but not that far laterally.  Marti complied and hit his chip through the leaves of the tree.  It bounced a couple times, hit the pin, and dropped in the cup.

Kyle excitingly said, "I can't believe I had 2 birdies today.  That's 10 points!"

After 9 holes (the back nine), Marti scored an amazing 23 points, not including the course slope.  This was on a 43 back nine.  After the good fortune, Marti only wound up hitting a 57 on the front nine and scored 38 points on the day.

Marti fell apart on the front nine with an ugly 11 on the 535 yard par 5 5th.  Brian remarked that he had never seen one person hit so many trees, play on so many tee boxes, never hit OB, and yet never land in a single fairway on one hole.

"If I could only have played the front nine like I played the back nine", said Kyle Marti.