Two Weeks In... Still Undefeated

[Fairway_CY]

So... Sunday was Week 2 with the new golf club. From everything I had been told by people who had been around for awhile... my matchups for the week were going to be fairly favorable. They weren't kidding. Both my singles and my doubles matches were 6 & 4 wins. I'm 1 of only 11 members who are 2-0 in singles... and as a team, we are now 1 of only 5 teams with a 2-0 doubles record. Very nice... but in Week 3, things get tougher for us.

Things started out pretty tough for me... I kit a good opening drive, but it didn't fade like I needed it to and hung out to the left. It landed in a waste bunker... I chunked my 7 iron out of there... then advanced it down the fairway a bit... and then hit an ugly 6 iron that I got lazy on and it fell off to the right. My wedge from there ended up about 35 feet away and I two-putted for an opening 7. I settled in a little bit after that and went bogey - bogey - bogey before struggling with a triple bogey as the result of a topped drive followed by a poor 5 iron from trouble and then a decent 4 iron just short of the green. I hit my wedge too long... then I fluffed my chip, putted from off the green to about 3 feet... and put that in for the 7. I closed out the front nine with bogey - bogey - double - bogey for a fairly ugly 49.

The back nine started out a lot better. A good drive, a 3 hybrid (18 degree) and a wedge put me on in regulation... but then I 3-putted from 48 feet for a bogey. An ugly up and down failure on the next lead to another bogey and then leaving a ball in the trap on #12 lead to a double bogey. I then went par - bogey - par before the wheels fell off.

If you read my post on the forums... this is where it happened. I hit a nice drive of just short of 260 yards and it left me 211 to the hole. It was all carry over water, and there was a fairly sizeable lay up zone to the right. I didn't think I had the shot to carry it... so I pulled a 5 iron to lay up to the right and give myself about 70 yards in without having to take on the water. My partner decided to start talking again and giving me advice that I never asked for. By the time he finally shut up... I was frustrated. I proceeded to hit ENTIRELY the opposite shot of what I intended and I pulled the 5 iron directly into the water. Dropped behind the water, but without thinking, and didn't just drop it in the fairway. Instead, I gave myself an ugly lie... chunked it into the water again... then dropped and hit on to about 45 feet away. A 2-putt from there gave me a triple bogey 8. Next hole, I dunked my tee shot into the SAME pond by topping it... then bombed the 3rd shot from the tee. My 5 iron missed by INCHES and ended up in a trap. I knocked it out of there and 10 feet by... but it was a slippery downhill putt that JUST missed the hole and then took off and ran 9 feet by. I missed the putt coming back and ended up with a 2nd consecutive snowman.

I closed out the round with a nice hole... 268 yard bomb up the left side of the fairway... 9 iron to about 30 feet left of the pin... 2 putts for par. A nice way to close out the round... but another not-so-good nine ending with a 48 for an 18 hole total of 97. The net 71 was enough for me to sneak in to a tie for 3rd and earned me 70 Ryder Cup points and put me in 7th place through 2 weeks in those standings. I've got a bit to work on for our next tournament on April 25th... including keeping my head straight on the course. My opponent will be MUCH tougher than those I faced the first few weeks and I won't be able to get away with blowup holes like those I've had so far.

Some stats from the round:

7 of 14 fairways (201.36 yard average)
3 of 18 greens hit in regulation
35 putts (17 front - 18 back)
1 of 15 up and downs for par
0 of 7 sand save opportunties

Playing a round tomorrow with some friends. I hope to finally break the 90 barrier. I felt good at the range tonight. The 1st handicap revision of the 2010 season comes out tomorrow and I will drop to a 21.6 at that point. I hope to below 20 by the next revision in 2 weeks.

I'll update the blog tomorrow evening following that.

'Til then...

CY

[sean_miller]

You sure seem to shoot a lot of rounds under par at your current handicap, so I'm sure it'll be below 20 very soon.

[Fairway_CY]

Yeah... that's what I'm figuring. Improvement is all I care about right now. I haven't been too far off net par so far this year, so... if I can keep it up - it'll drop pretty quickly.

CY