Bartlett Hills Golf Club 5-23-2010

[Dave H]

I played my first competitive round of golf yesterday at Bartlett Hills Golf Club. I had a blast. I played lights out (for me) on the front 9 shooting a 43. This included 4 holes of 2 under and I missed a tap in par (doh!). The back 9 I fell apart a bit shooting a 53. I think this was mostly due to the heat - about 95 degrees. My body just wasn't ready to deal with the heat plus the wind died, I was running out of water, and I was having a hard time focusing, especially on the green.

Once again, the driver was really working for me. The power fade is my good friend now. Aim down the left side of the fairway and put it right down the middle if all goes well.

Iron play was ok, overall I think better than on Saturday. The biggest challenge was bad shots in the worst places. Sometimes I just got plain lucky too - on 6 I hit a huge drive down the middle leaving myself 130 yards. My approach shot only went about 10 yards in the air but it rolled all the way to the green about 12 feet from the hole.

Putting was once again terrible. I feel really comfortable over the ball and in my reads, I just can't get the feel for the pace. Hopefully it's just a fluke as my putting has been getting better as of late.

The best news was the 2 birdies I had - first of the year! On the 4th, a par 5, I hit my drive up the right side but it was ok, just in the rough. I used my 4h to try and just put myself in a good position. I hit it way right and estimated myself to be about 100 yards from the pin in the right rough. I decided to use my 52 degree wedge as I've had really good success with that club from 100 yards and in the rough. Well, I stuck it literally 4 inches from the hole for a tap in. Might have been my best ever shot. The second birdie came on the aforementioned 6th hole. I was able to sink the putt for the 3. That was actually the #1 handicap hole on the course and because I got 2 strokes it was a net ace...the guys I was playing with couldn't believe it. I think they were ready to accuse me of sand-bagging :)

In summary:

Score - 96
Fairways - 6/14
Greens - 4/18
Putts - 39 (yuck!)
Penalties - 2

Next up...hopefully this weekend. We'll see.