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I shot an 85 yesterday without any shots that really stood out as spectacular to me. On the first nine, the highest SG shots that didn't originate on a tee were a 22 yard chip from the rough to 6' and sinking a 10' putt (not the same hole). On the second nine, driver 4-hybrid to 17' on a 421 yard par-4 was pretty cool. Sinking a 15' putt for par on the 420-yard par-4 15th was my largest SG of the day (0.98 vs 10 hcp), and that one goes on my acting resume because when it went in, I acted like I wasn't surprised I made the putt. I'm a lot happier with that round than this post indicates. It shows I can play to a pretty good score (a 10-11 handicap shooting 85 on a 70.9 / 125 / 6400 yard is a good performance I think) without having to work miracles. -
Shot an 85 yesterday (posts as an 84). 40 first nine, 45 second nine. Only two holes worse than bogey: a double on a par-4 and a totally preventable snowman on the par-5 18th (the one where Arnold Palmer once made a 12 during the L.A. Open). Bogeyed every par-3. Par-5s were 6-6-8 (there are only three). Lots of work to improve upon these. Especially performance on 18: wild tee shot, great recovery, good third I thought, but it somehow drew against a left-to-right wind and finished barely in bounds, where all I could do is smack with a putter towards the green. And I did, leaving it in the rough for my fifth. Chip way past the hole, putt 5' past the cup, a miss, and a tap in to complete the snowman. Played the par-4s in a cumulative 5-over (there are eleven), one of which was a double. Strokes gained: par-4s during the round gains 2.16 over the 5-handicap baseline, that's pretty cool. No birdies. Only 5 GIR, 7 near-GIR, and one green hit on a full swing that wasn't for GIR (par-4 9th, drive, recovery, sand wedge to the green).
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I played this course yesterday (casual friendly round, not a tournament) with friends. I told my playing partners up front I was going to try a second approach shot on #7, the hole I was describing. I hit my tee shot to where I had 130 or so yards to the green from the fairway (per ShotScope GPS and also laser to a pin near the middle). There was a decent wind in my face. If we hadn't had this conversation, I would have hit 7-iron (140 yard average under calm and flat conditions). I played that shot, full normal swing, hit the green 24' short of the pin, made an easy two putt for a par. My second attempt at the approach shot (which I hit right after my main one) was a 5-iron, using the swing I usually use to hit a 100-yard low shot (I'm not sure if it qualifies as a punch shot) where I'm trying to hit it straight and low, such as if I'm behind trees and attempting a recovery-and-advance. I hit it decently well and the ball finished at the back of the green. Incidentally, I've recently started a notebook for this course. Somehow I don't have a lot written down despite having played this course semi-regularly for almost two decades (minus the times I'm not playing golf, of course). I added that to my notes for this particular hole. Next few casual rounds there, I think I'm going to hit an additional approach to that green with different clubs on the low shot and take notes. It's a small sample size but it seems worth knowing instead of having to guess during an important round. As my handicap edges closer to single digits, I think it's good to have shots like this in the repertoire -- not only mechanically, but knowing situationally what I can do. I recognize that the really good players tend to hit their stock shot on the vast majority of occasions, and I'm not about to try to shoehorn in punch shots everywhere, but knowing options into the wind and/or to a lowered green beyond "take more (or less) club" seems like a good thing.
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