EDC Finals Are Underway
2008 Exceptional Driver Championship Finals Are Underway. Pinnacle is the official golf ball of the EDC, the amateur competition that tests nerves, power and accuracy. 140 EDC competitors are battling against the grid and each other for the $100,000 prize. Click the link below to check out the live scoring, competition photos and story updates, courtesy of Long Drivers of America, as we learn who will be crowned “The Best Driver of the Golf Ball in North America”:
http://www.longdrivers.com/edc_cw_proam.php
Titleist Sales Representative Bobby Andrews has advanced to the Friday rounds. Bobby will be checking in to give us a competitor’s-eye view of the Finals, so be sure to check back soon!
Bobby’s Notebook:
Friday, June 13th, 11 A.M. – Well, I cleared another hurdle. I entered this morning’s elimination rounds as one of 50 remaining contestants and posted 48 points for the two rounds of 5 balls, good enough for first place in the group. Two of us now advance to the afternoon rounds, where the field will be cut the the final 8. The televised 8!
So far I feel pretty confident. My swing is holding up and I’m hitting the grid with regularity. I know that anything can happen out there, though. One of my fellow competitors had a pretty impressive 39 points in his first round, but he couldn’t hit the grid once in the second round. Zero points, and it prevented him from moving on. It’s tough, so I know I’ll have to be sharp this afternoon.
Friday, June 13th, 11 P.M. – You always hear that it’s a game of inches. Not that you need it, but I’m walking proof. I made it this afternoon’s rounds as one of twenty competitors. If I could score well enough to get in the top eight I’d move on to the final televised matches tomorrow. After two rounds I finished tied for the eighth spot. Playoff.
I was pleased with how I was hitting it and pleased with how I was handling the pressure. In the playoff I had a great rhythm going — bang, bang , bang in the grid. I just knew that I had put all five balls in the grid so I reached for that all-important sixth bonus ball. An official held me up, listening to the crew out on the grid. My third ball had roll a yard outside the grid on the right side. And that was the difference between the final 8 and going home. Missed it by that much!
What a great experience, though. I had a lot of fun and learned a little bit about myslef in the process. LDA and Pinnacle - all the sponsors staged a first-class event. I hope to compete again. 36 inches away is just irritatingly close enough that I need another shot. Thanks for the support out there!
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Wednesday, June 11th — A quick preface on the format for the Exceptional Driver Championship: In the EDC the 140-man field is broken into two groups of 70. From each group of 70, 7 sub-groups of 10 players are formed. So I started the day hitting with nine other guys. The competition begins with two rounds of hitting 5 balls (plus 1 bonus ball if you hit all 5 balls in the grid). The combined points from Rounds 1 and 2 are added up and the top three drivers from each sub-group of 10 advance to the next stage of competition on Friday. The remaining 7 players go into the “losers bracket” and have to compete in two more rounds (Rounds 3 and 4) to try to advance to Friday.
What an intense day! I knew from local qualifying for the Exceptional Driver Championship that the pressure can really build in this format, but here at the finals you really feel like every ball is crucial. You have to put points up with every shot possible and you can’t do that if you miss the grid. As you advance and the competition gets stronger and stronger the bonus ball becomes the key to winning and losing. I qualified for Mesquite by relying on my bread and butter, a little cut shot. I can hit it farther with a straight ball or slight draw, but the cut is very dependable for me. And it was working perfectly in the Round 1 – I hit 5 out of 5 balls in the grid. I missed the grid with the 6th bonus ball, unfortunately, but I was still sitting pretty.
For some reason, I started to press a bit in Round 2. I strayed from my cut shot in an effort to get a little more distance and paid the price, missing the grid several times to the left. I got only 2 out of 5 in the grid. When the combined points were added up I sat in fourth place. Had I stuck with that cut shot I probably would have made it in the top 3, coasted into Friday qualifying and had a nice relaxing afternoon for myself. As it turned out, though, I had to wait it out a few long hours for the next round.
I went back to basics in Round 3 and drove four out five balls in the grid. The cut was working fine and I got back into a good groove again. More of the same in Round 4 and I made it. I was one of two in our losers bracket group of 7 to advance to Friday’s Rounds. Now that I can breathe again, I think going into the losers bracket may have been a positive for me. I think the extra rounds of competition have gotten me used to the pressure and helped me feel comfortable with the competition surroundings.
I hit a lot of balls today, warming up, trying to build a comfortable rhythm and routine, testing how hard I could go at without sacrficing accuracy. Add to that the mental toll that the pressure takes and you have a pretty draining day. I’m going to head back the hotel, have a good meal and get a solid night of sleep. It was great to advance through the first day, though. I’m looking forward to getting back out there on Friday morning. Wish me luck! Hopefully I’ll have some more good news when I check back in.
–Bobby Andrews
3 comments|June 12th, 2008