I managed to squeeze in a round yesterday for the first time since the semi-panic inducing 90. Declarations are a dangerous thing in golf, but I think it’s safe to say that the time that I have put in working on my partial wedges is paying off. I’m officially ready to declare the panic over.
I took the day off, and after spending the morning doing some painting work on my porch, headed to the course to try and get in a round before it was time for the second coat. The wind was blowing pretty strongly, and the greens had just been aerated and top dressed, but the sun was shining, and it was the perfect temperature for walking in short sleeves.
I didn’t have a huge amount of time, so I skipped around a bit to get in as many holes as I could. I ended up starting on #5, skipping #9 and #10, then circled back to play #1 through #4 after #18. I ended up playing 16 holes total.
It was a very steady round, and taking bogeys for #9 and #10 for posting purposes, I posted a 79, for a differential of 12.5. This dropped my handicap to a 13.5, continuing a very positive, and somewhat surprising, trend in the right direction.
Given how solidly I played, I really wish that I could have played #9 and #10. While I have certainly posted some big numbers on both of those holes, I’ve also made quite a few pars as well. One of my unofficial goals for the season is to play a round without any double bogeys. Yesterday I was able to go without a double-bogey for the 16 holes that I played. However, I don’t think it’s fair to count this as double-bogey free round since I didn’t actually play two of the holes. However, looking back through my prior rounds, this was by far the longest double-bogey free stretch that I’ve had. My previous best was a round where I didn’t make a double until the 10th hole.
All four of my righty drivers left me with clear shots to the green. I hit seven lefty drivers, and only two of them left me without a clear shot to the green. Also, in the case of the par 5 15th, my lefty driver went pretty far left, but I was still able to lay up to wedge distance with my righty 5H.
I played a couple of lefty hybrids off the ground – one with the 6H and the other with the 4H, and I struck both of them very well. These are some of the more difficult shots for me, so I was very happy to make good contact on both. The 4H was a somewhat awkward uphill lie. I pulled it a bit, but I was guarding against missing it left, which would have been much worse.
I didn’t duff any shots, and two putted every green except for two of them. For those two holes I holed out from about 15 feet on the fringe for one of them, and two putted from the fringe from about 15 feet for the other.
I certainly didn’t hit it perfectly, but I never got into real trouble. On #14 (very short par 4) I hit a righty hybrid that got caught up in the wind and went well right into the trees. However, I was lucky enough to have a straight partial wedge at the green, and made a really good and committed lefty swing to knock it on and two putt for par. On #17, (par 4) I snap hooked my lefty driver. I had an easy punch out to the left, but decided to punch it through a bunch of trees straight at the green. Somehow it got through, leaving me with an easy pitch to the green for a two putt bogey.
I had a few opportunities to hit partial righty pitching wedges, which I was really looking forward to since I had put in the practice time. I was happy with how I hit all them, even though I only hit the green once. On #3 I had a steeply uphill shot to the green. The slope adjusted distance was 90 yards. I didn’t think I’d be able to hit a solid SW that far from an uphill lie, so I hit a partial PW instead. I hit it exactly how I wanted, but I misjudged how hard I needed to swing. The error was entirely mental – not physical. A similar thing happened on #8, a short par 3. I misjudged the wind a bit, and didn’t quite hit the PW hard enough to get to the green. I still managed to make par.
The third righty PW was kind of funny. It was on #15, and I had 90 yards uphill to the flag, playing 100 with the slope. I was so excited to try out the partial righty PW that I forgot I was supposed to play that shot lefty. I hit it pin high, six feet left of the hole, and two putted for my par. I then realized my mistake and went back to my original spot and hit a full lefty PW to 15 feet, then two putted for par.
The only downside of the day is that when I woke up this morning, my left wrist was very sore. I couldn’t remember doing anything on the course that would have caused a problem. I then realized that I had spent a few hours yesterday holding a “Handy Pro Pail” in my left hand while I painted the columns on my porch. My annual 4-day golf trip is coming up in a couple of weeks, so hopefully the inflammation will go down quickly. I’d like to be able to get a lot more practice in between now and then, if for no other reason than to prepare my body for four days of golf.
I’m really looking forward to the trip for several reasons, one of which is that it will give me my first chance to test my game on a “real” course. We won’t be playing particularly long tees (we’ll most likely play from 6000 – 6200 yard tees), but my course doesn’t have any bunkers, and water only comes into play on two holes. While there is technically OB on the perimeter of the course, it very rarely comes into play. On much the course, you can spray the ball quite a bit without getting into serious trouble. It’s also short enough (5362 yards) from the white tees that several of the par 4’s are either reachable, or just require a flip wedge after the tee shot.
Still, based on prior experience, I know that the handicap system works pretty well. Based on the course rating / slope for the courses we’ll be playing, I should expect my scores to be 4 – 5 strokes higher than on my home course. I was able to get in a bunker practice session a week or so ago, and hopefully I’ll be able to do that again, as that is a part of the game that I simply don’t get to practice on a regular basis. While I’m pretty confident in getting out and on the green right handed, I’m not nearly as consistent left handed.
Alternate Golf 