Casual Round (4/22/10) and Week 3 Preparations

[Fairway_CY]

I headed to the course today hoping to get in a solid on-course session prior to my Week 3 matchup this coming Sunday. I had been to the range twice this week... once on Monday to loosen up a little because it had been about five days since I touched a club... and then again on Tuesday for a full session. Monday was nice... not much to work on, just loosening myself a bit... I only hit a medium bucket, and spent a good amount of those hitting to shorter targets (between 70 and 130 yards). Tuesday was a great range session. I was hitting EVERYTHING well. Ummm... maybe not my driver, but... more good shots than bad with it. I was next to a guy who hit the ball real well... and at one point, we got to talking. After awhile, I asked him what his handicap was (I was impressed by how well he was striking the ball) and he said it was 3.0 as of the last revision. When he asked me mine and I said it was 21.5 - he basically said I was full of it. Felt good (almost validating) to have a low handicap player say I was hitting the ball well beyond my handicap limitations.

Anyway... today was a good day for me. I didn't get to hit the range, but I did spend a few minutes on the practice green. Unfortunately, the course I played at was recently aerated and hadn't fully healed, so the greens were still a bit bumpy and VERY sandy. Someone posted here earlier this week and likened aerated greens to a Plinko board. This was VERY descriptive of the greens today. Once the ball slowed down, it was almost a crap-shoot as to which way the ball would go. I shot a 91 today (tied my career best - but was two off that pace because it was a par 70 course) and felt VERY good about it. Drives had a LOT to be desired... but my iron play really kept me alive on a lot of holes.

The hole-by-hole breakdown is below:

1st - 3 Wood OB. Next 3 Wood found fairway. Ugly hybrid short and right. Wedge up. 2 putts for a triple bogey.
2nd - Hybrid to left side of the fairway (pulled). Long way home... hybrid short and right again. Chip up. 2 putts for bogey.
3rd - 6 Iron hit VERY fat. Sand Wedge from rough to 20 feet. 2 putts for bogey.
4th - 3 Wood faded just off fairway. Got lazy on my Pitching Wedge. Up out of greenside trap. Lipped out 19 footer. Bogey.
5th - 3 Wood in left rough. Lazy approach again, this time with 9 Iron. Chip up to 1 foot. Tap-in for par.
6th - 3 Wood just through fairway. Topped 3 wood from rough. Hybrid to about 110. Pitching Wedge to 25 feet. 3 putts for double bogey.
7th - Topped driver. 5 Iron to left side of fairway. Sand Wedge from 70 yards to 12 feet. 2 putts for bogey.
8th - 3 Wood finally found the fairway, but short. 5 Iron dropped off just right of the green. Chip to 9 feet. Putt lipped out. Tap-in for bogey.
9th - 8 Iron hit just short of green and ran 10 yards back down hill. Sand Wedge to 3 feet. 1 putt for par.

For me... a pretty good front side 45.

• Considering the opening triple... I felt good about the overall score.
• The 6th hole could have been much uglier.
• I love the 7th hole but got too excited on the tee and TOTALLY screwed up the tee shot.
• Tee ball on the 8th hole got caught in the wind. It was smoked... but went NOWHERE.
• 8 Iron on the 9th was 5 feet from being PERFECT.

10th - 3 Wood pulled to left rough. Pitching Wedge from 115 to about 25 feet. 2 putts for par.
11th - 5 Iron just to the left of the green. Chip up. 3 putts from 18 feet. Double bogey.
12th - Driver found the right side of the fairway. 6 Iron from 160 +/- to 20 feet. Made putt for birdie.
13th - Driver pushed ball right, wind pushed it further OB. Crushed the next ball from the tee about 290. Flubbed chip. Putt from off green. 2 Putts from 22 feet for triple bogey.
14th - Driver bombed into right rough. Hybrid pushed. Jailed beneath a bush... 7 Iron out. Sand Wedge from bad lie (tweaked wrist). Chip to 9 feet. 2 putts for double bogey.
15th - 7 Iron to left side of green. 3 putts from 27 feet for bogey.
16th - Driver 261 yards up right side of fairway. 8 Iron hit wall of wind but found the green. 3 putts from 48 feet for bogey.
17th - Hybrid into right rough. 5 Iron to back of green. 3 putts from 49 feet for bogey.
18th - Hybrid topped into right rough. 8 Iron to center of fairway. Pitching Wedge to front of green. 3 putts from 54 feet for double bogey.

Back side total of 46.

• The 13th and 14th holes hurt me. The 2nd drive on the 13th was crushed... with the downhill (30 feet +/-) fairway, it ran out to about 25 yards short of the center of the green on a 332 yard hole. But the hole was still ugly.
• Got to 18 needing a par to break 90 for the first time. Once I topped the tee shot... I just didn't want to make any more mistakes.
• Closing out the round with 4 consecutive 3 putts (and 6 of them overall) was NOT a good thing... but I can blame SOME of it on the greens.

All in all... it was a real good day for me. I'm all set for Sunday... just hoping the weather holds out. I'm NOT a good rain golfer. I'll be back tomorrow to preview my Week 3 matchups.

'Til then...

CY