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of the ball contacting the putter. It was a sense of peace and awareness that had not been felt
before…nor since. Newport could look
Baird’s hole location in at the path of the ball and speed of the
black. Newport’s hole ball when it was just a few feet from the
location in orange. tee mat… and knew it was perfect.
Through hole 13 he was easing along
with very little of his attention being
given to the score, but more emphasis on
winning the tournament – to go as low as
possible…defend. Then hole 14. It was
Hole 14
not as if hole 14 was a difficult or a
complex hole, but the hole represented
more. Newport had been in this position many times before, and hole 14 foiled a few potentially low
rounds. The memories started to chip away the hyper-focus and bring the possibility of missing - back
into the mind. The design of hole 14 had changed from when Baird shot his perfect 18. This was also
the hole of which Baird thought he had missed the hole due to an off-speed putt. However, Newport
never lost his focus, and made the hole with another accurate putt. Three times
prior in his career he made 14 and 15 in a row, only to be disappointed. This day, he
was determined to make it beyond the previous attempts. As Newport stepped up to
hole 15, he knew he had moved ahead of Dr. Lebo with a comfortable margin;
however, he knew he had to close the round better than he had the
previous two rounds. It was at this point in the previous round that he
had lost ground to his competitors and allowed them back into the
tournament. He kept reminding himself…defend. However, it was also
at this point that the thought of shooting a perfect 18 was truly within his
Hole 15 grasp. Hole 15 was a hole of a simple design. A straight hole of
approximately 14 feet. However, the putt had to be straight to make it.
Pull it slightly left, it would break away left. Push it slightly right, it would remain
right and not break left. Newport hit it center cup. Hole 16 was a long zig-zag
shaped hole with a slight 3-inch incline at the back of the hole to a flat surface 3ft x
3ft. The hole had a triangular obstacle about 15 ft from the tee mat adjacent to the Hole 16
left rail and a rectangular block parallel to the triangle with an 8-inch opening –
forcing the shot to be played backdoor. If the ball is hit overly firm, it is coming down the hill, leaving
a difficult par putt. The length of the hole invites under-hitting and over-hitting the hole. To add to the
complexity of the shot, there were perpendicular striated lines along the length of the hole due to the
cleansing of the carpet that took place several weeks before the event. Did it impact the roll of the
ball? Not really. Psychologically…it was hard to ignore, especially with Newport’s results the previous
two rounds. However, the striated marks were more helpful than psychologically distracting. Newport
willed his mind to focus on his mark and ignored the striated lines – it worked. Hole 17 was a short
hole with an angular obstacle positioned to allow the putter to
Newport’s location in red
manipulate the ball to a side area to the right, which is where the
cup is located. The challenge of the hole was that the cup was
located on the edge of a slight rise with a flat surface behind the
cup of only a few feet. The cup, located only a few inches from
the incline, was in the same location as when Baird shot his 18;
however, the angled obstacle was in a different location. When
Rick Baird shot his 18, the obstacle was located in the middle of the fairway – the obstacle, during
Newport’s round was located to the far left, adjacent to the left rail – making the path to the hole from
the obstacle a bit longer, and possibly a bit more challenging…at least for Newport. He had not made