Round 2 at Rio!
Hey, what a good day!
Seamus moved up the leaderboard with a fine 67 including a chip-in eagle on 16 in which I dropped the hammer with a fist pump. Disappointing that we bogeyed the shortest hole on the course (17) for the second day in a row and missed a little putt at the last that would of put us at -5 for the tournament, but we accomplished the goal our captain Paul McGinley had for us to be in the top-10 after two days – exactly where we fall. We really did get a crappy draw and played in cold and rain for the first nine and still managed 2 under. I was scrambling in the rain with a towel around my neck and a dry one under the rain cover on the bag and our umbrella was crap. We didn’t have our usual Ping umbrella because the Olympics is being strict on logos and our captain picked us up one at pro-am last week that says Old Skanecktaty Golf Club or some bs – hahaha. Well that didn’t fly and they carted us out some Olympic umbrellas on the the fourth hole – fortunately they were better.
The kid is hitting his long irons so well and starting to hole some putts. We find ourselves 4 shots out of bronze and 6 shots out of gold with only nine players in front of us with two days to go. Lots of math and things could happen, but we’re still in it – we still have a chance, but Saturday will be important. The rain is finally over and the unconventional west wind we had the first two days will lighten and blow more out of the southeast off the ocean which should play into our hands. There were more Irish fans out at the course today and Seamus’ brother surprised him and the rest of the family by flying in from London yesterday, so he was good luck as well.
Lots of the athletes and volunteers have been into trading pins from their country throughout the week and I was never really given any until tonight, so we plan to get in the game for the remainder. Also excited to trade some gear with Martin Kaymer’s caddie, Wee-man, since I’ve got German heritage and he’s Irish. Anyway, Paddy and his caddie Ronan figured out my name roughly translates to Sean O’ChalkFranCock, (sp!) a.k.a. House of the Rat. Ridiculous but that’s what they’re calling me now. One of the girls representing Ireland in the women’s golf arrived today with her twin sister on the bag and we all went to watch the men’s field hockey play a knockout game v Argentina. They didn’t win, but it was great camaraderie and the Irish chants are legendary. The lads played hard but just didn’t get the result. They were the only team in the field of 12 that didn’t play full-time so it was an accomplishment to make the Olympics. A tandem of brothers won the team’s first medal, a silver in rowing this morning as well. The track-and-field portion starts tomorrow and we’ll aim to add to the count over the weekend.
Thanks for the good vibes. Cheers from Rio.
We once again thank John for his continued contributions. Men’s golf runs through the weekend, while the women tee off Wednesday (8/17) morning. Every round of golf in these Olympic games is available to stream live at NBC.
You can find John’s first impressions of the Olympic Games here, and his account of the first round here.