and so it has come to pass, that on one gloomy wet and wild wednesday afternoon in the midst of bucketing rain and the intense pressure of the SGA vs MGA matches at seletar country club that my amazing run in singles matchplay has come to an end.

a 1down loss to malaysia numero uno edmund au. the 6th match that came up the 18th hole over the past 2 days. the 6th match to go malaysias way.

like the americans at the K club in the '06 ryder cup we were fucked by the home hole.

but boy did we give them a run for their money. needing 5.5 points out of the possible 8 to win the cup again our front 4 matches blitzed the competition and we had a 7-5 lead going into the 2 hour weather delay.

but of the remainig 4 matches, 2 were 3 down, 1 was 1 down and i was all square after 9. made a few soft losses and halves but still all square.

2 hours of rain later we were out on the course, still pissing rain i might add. the bumpy and crappy greens costing me 3 early holes on the back nine.

my 5 footer for birdie on 10 wobbled offline. halve

my 6 footer for par on 11 wobbled offline then lipped out. loss.

my pitch on 12 landed on a bare patch of sand and stopped dead. loss

standing on 13 tee 2 down was not a good feeling. leaked one a little right of the fairway into the rough. but when we got there the ball was no where to be found. plugged somewhere in te thick soggy ground.

pissed i was.

but nonetheless i sucked it up and managed to make a bogey after re-loading from the tee. forced edmund to make his par. sent the message that i wasn't just going to roll over and die. gave myself a glimmer of hope.

i was back in the zone.

3 down with 5 to play. with the fate of the matches on the line, scoreline 7.5/7.5 wouldn't that be one for my personal amazing stories collection.

so in now pouring rain and annoyingly strong wind i stripe one down the par 5 14th then pound a 3 wood from 230m to about 8 feet for eagle. edmund then stiffs his 3rd shot to 2 feet. my eagle's now a must make. i dug deep and holed it. my "gallery" went wild and all the course knew i had started the comeback

we both his great shots to 10 feet on the next but could only manage a halve.

down 16 a dodgy chip left me with a 10 footer for the hole after edmund found trouble off the tee. again i dug deep and buried the sucker in the back of the cup. 1 down 2 to play

of course through all the intensity i just looked over at my buddies kun yang and kaiwen and mouthed "how fucking awesome is this?" to which kun yang replied "you having fun?"

i grinned. "you have no idea"

again on 17 i was put to the test. 6 feet for par to halve the hole and send the match up 18. miss it and the cup went their way without a grandstand finish. i had fought too hard over the closing holes to let it go now. yet again i dug deep within and drilled it in the back of the cup for the halve. game on

on 18 an indifferent shot left me farther back than i had hoped. with a tough back right hole, rain, wind and a stupid tree to get over i had to hit my hybrid flush. i did just that, maybe TOO flush. it flew to the right level but released past the flag leaving a tricky downhill putt. edmund chunked it onto the front edge of the green before hitting a great lag putt to about 3 feet.

mines a must make now. i'm torn between a chip or a putt. i putt it but no where near hard enough and it slithers away. a short while later the malaysians celebrate their 8.5/7.5 victory while i seeked comfort and congratulations from my teammates and coach kim.

everyone said how proud they were of me and how well i played under the pump. i don't doubt that, but maybe it wasnt my play under pressure that let me down. maybe it was a few little mistakes early on which cost us the cup. nevertheless i had given my all and then some, if there was ever a way to go down, that was it.

i couldn't be prouder of the way i had played and how i performed under pressure in must make situations. it just goes to show how far i've come since making my swing changes and i'm so excited to see everything slowly coming together.

i told you i was getting close :)

anyway i just wanna say a bunch of thank you's:

to kim baldwin: who supported me and helped me out tremendously with trusting my rhythm and feel throughout the week and trusting me with the responsibility of anchoring the team in that all so important last match

to jonathan leong: my big bro for all the love, support and cynical trash talking throughout the week. keeping me cool and singing the necessary patrizio buanne songs when needed. and last but not least..."FUCKING WITH THEIR MINDS" :)

to kun yang and kaiwen: for staying out there in the rain to watch me play and support me over those crucial last few holes

to gab: for being such a vocal supporter and being there to cheer us all on

to the rest of the team: for doing such a wonderful job with what we had. i know it was close but hey, we did awesome and there's nothing to be ashamed about. they got lucky ;)

to God: for helping me stay in it throughout the entire week and never once give up or stop believing in myself

Will I be remembered as the one who lost the cup or the one who fought till the very end i'm not sure. we'll live the world be be the judge of that

all i know is that i played my guts out there. i poured my whole soul into that match and if a 1 down loss is the best i could do then so be it.

and if u think u can do a better job. you stand out there and try to not wet your pants while you're at it :P

but be warned my fellow golfers. timmy's back baby...timmy's back

spread the lovin'

Rob Valentine