With a break in the Hooter’s Carolina Winter Series Lake City golfer Paul Woodbury entered the Grand Strand 2011 Winter Match Play and earned the top position on the board.
“This win really helps with my confidence and knowing that I can win,” said Woodbury.
The match play; a four-day tournament, began Nov. 28 with a qualifying round to determine the 32 golfers to progress in the tournament.
In the second day Woodbury made a 30-foot putt for birdie on the 18th hole that tied the match and pushed it into extra holes to determine the winning golfer.
“I’d been putting really well and I got over the putt and was feeling really confident,” he said. “I knew I had to make it. If I missed it, I lost out and had to go home with no paycheck.”
Woodbury said sinking the 30-footer was “like getting a half-court shot on the buzzer.” He went on to win the extra hole and move forward and win his next day’s matches.
Joe Woodbury, Paul’s father, said his son is “in a critical point in his golf career because he no-longer has a golf coach, he no longer has team mates, he no longer has the whole school watching him; he’s kind of on his own.”
“This is where he can lose if he thinks it’s just a golf match and nobody else knows anything anyway,” said Joe Woodbury. “That’s where [golfers] can fall out of it.”
He noted that when a golfer first moves out on his own is when those who have the determination to get to the next level are found.
His son seems to have that determination.
His final match in the tournament was Thursday against Jeremy Pope from Mrytle Beach.
“We had a really good match,” said Woodbury. “We were all square after 18 holes and went to extra holes,” he said. “On the fourth play-off hole I made about a 15-footer for birdie to win the tournament - it was a great match.”
The Carolina Winter Series resumed today at Crow Creek Golf Club in Calabash, N.C., and plays through Friday. Paul Woodbury is currently third in the money standings with $10,883.33 and with an overall series average of one under par.
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