Shadow Ridge Club Championship: You Gotta Read!

this past weekend was the annual club championship at the shadow ridge golf club in hattiesburg. i have recently moved my membership back there from timberton and signed up in time to be a part of this great tournament. it was a two day championship that had 4 flights. my handicap was low enough that it enabled me to be a part of the championship flight. on saturday, i shot a low round of 76 which gave me a two shot lead going into sunday. the second best score was a 78 shot by robert "fluffy" penson. i get up sunday morning feeling nervous as all get out. i go and lead worship for both morning services at PHBC and get to shadow ridge sunday afternoon in time for my 1:02 tee time. it was hard to transition back into that frame of mind, but nonetheless i had to do it. after my long and excruciating round, i felt as though i had not done well enough to win and put my clubs in my vehicle. robert had not finished his round so i stayed at the club house, at the request of the pro, until he completed 18. about 30 minutes later i was told that i was in a sudden-death playoff with fluff. i was cold, clubs were in my truck, and in no shape mentally to do this but it was now or never. i got my clubs out of my truck and went to tee #1 (a par 5). a sudden-death playoff is when competitors go to a particular hole and matchplay until someone wins. it can end on the first hole or several holes later. nevertheless, we drew to see who would tee off first and fluff got the honors. he hits the ball right down the middle. at that point i was scared and i teed off pulling my drive well left so far beyond the hazard on the left that it took 5 minutes for us to find it. after we found it my lie was dreadful. i took out my hybrid and topped it into the hazzard ditch in front of me. this was terrible. fluff proceeded to hit his ball right down the middle up to about the 100 yard marker. i was dropping 3 from the hazard and hitting 4. i took out my hybrid again and hit it short of 100 just behind fluff's ball. i was laying 4 and he was laying 2. in good spirit fluff tells me, "Hit it in the hole." i got my range finder and shot the distance at 106 yards. the golf pro, judd brewer, and troy norton go to the top of the hill to watch where the shots would land. the green was up hill and the pin was tucked back left. in my head i told myself that i needed to get up and down for a bogey in order to have a shot at possibly going on to another hole. however, fluff was in position to birdie and par at worst so my chances were slim to none. so here it goes. i take out my 60 degree wedge and struck it perfectly. it was a blind shot so i couldn't see where it ended up. the pro and troy had the perfect angle and began to shout, "It went in the hole!!!!!". i had holed out for par in the club championship playoff. troy said it hit 5 ft beyond the hole and spun back right into the cup. it was the greatest shot of my life. at that point, fluff had to hit his ball on the green and 2 putt to tie with a par or 1 putt for the birdie and the win. he hit his ball to the front of the green and left himself a hard put up hill and then down. he goes up to the green hits his putt and leaves about a 10 footer to tie. i couldn't bare to watch so i just watched the ground as he putted anticipating that i would hear it go in. there was no sound. he missed it. i was the club champion! greatest golf moment of my life!