Wake Forest Athletics
Kyle Reifers Diary Entry No. 4
5/31/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
May 31, 2006
Senior Kyle Reifers is one of the most successful and consistent players in recent Wake Forest history. This week, Reifers and his teammates will compete for the NCAA Championship in Sunriver, Oregon. Reifers is keeping a blog for WakeForestSports.com
Today was a good day for the Deacons. It started very early. I woke up at 5:30 and got ready for the day. I walked over to grab a little breakfast with the team.
Our team has been very relaxed. We are a 16 seed and are trying to keep the "nothing to lose" attitude. We then loaded up the van and headed to the course. Once again Douglas (Manchester) and I got stretched out while the young guns hit the range.
I then headed over to the putting green and stroked a few with the putting arc (I strongly recommend one). Sean (Moore) was the first to hit the ball at the 2006 NCAA Tournament, which was pretty cool. Our first tee time was 7:30. It was about 55 degrees when we teed off, but it warmed up pretty quick to the low 60's.
Our goal last night in our team meeting was to get off to a good start. Generally, when we get off to a good start as a team we have a good tournament. We did just what we wanted. They had scoreboards throughout the course and every time I looked up we were adding more birdies.
I had a good day. I started off by birdying my first three holes, which was nice, and exactly how I envisioned my round starting. The next two holes my ball landed within a couple of feet from the hole, but released to 12 feet or so. I hit good putts on both of those, but they just slid by the hole. I had a putt wiggle offline on the seventh and that brought me back to two under.
I fired back with a birdie on nine and made the turn at three under. After a few solid pars in a row, I made a very nice birdie putt on 13, hit a nice shot in on 14 but just missed from 8 feet, then made a nice putt on 15 for birdie. I was on the 16th hole at five under.
The last three holes are good holes. I wanted to play the last three under par. Sixteen is a par five with a green that slopes severely from front to back. I hit two good three woods that just ended in the right rough. I hit probably my best shot of the day (flop shot) to about five feet and made it for birdie. Seventeen is a par three that was 249 to the pin. I hit a hard three iron just left of the green and pitched down to four feet and rolled that in to save par. At 18, I hit a nice three wood and a solid iron to about 18 feet and poured that in for an opening round of 65.
I was pleased with my play, but I was more pleased with our team score. We finished the round at 11 under and currently are in the lead. It was a good start for the team. It's a long tournament, but getting off to a good start is exactly what we wanted.
After a few interviews I headed off with the team to practice. We had a nice practice session and came back to our rooms. After a little down time we are off to our host's house for dinner. We don't play until 12:45 tomorrow so...it's always nice to have played well. We appreciate all the support!!
Prediction- Jay Haas will finish in the top 10 at The Memorial
Players Mentioned
