best round of my year

[clearwaterms]

I went out to play a quick 9 before work this morning.  My local muni 9 hole course has a special if you tee off before 7AM, you can walk for about 1/2 price.  They also have a replay special that you can play a second 9 for $7 to walk.  The course isn't difficult by any stretch.  It is a full length course at 3,253 (whites) for a par 36.  It does allow you to hit driver on all but one of the par 4/5's.  But the course has no sand traps, and water only comes into play on 2 holes.  The course is a forest preserve course.  So it was cut out of the forest preserve.  So it does have a fair number of mature tree's, but the fairways are pretty open.

Anyway - the 'front' nine was nothing special, my average score is somewhere around 45 or 46 and I carded a 46 with one triple bogey and only 1 par.  I decided having a little extra time this morning, and noting that as far as I could see the course was pretty empty and nobody was waiting to tee off to try to play again.  I started the round very much my normal carding a bogey on one, and a lost ball bogey (ie a birdie if I didn't lose the ball) bogey on 2.  However, after saving bogey on 5 with a 40 yard up and down, I played the last 4 holes birdie, par, par, bogey for a 9 hole best 40.

I have shot a 42 at the course in the past, but that was 2 years ago, and last year, I played the first 5 there 1 under only to blow up on the last 4 holes and end up carding a 43.

My best 18 hole round was a 15 over 87 at a different course, and I typically play right about bogey golf shooting in the low 90's, occasionally breaking into the 80's with a 17 over 88/89.

So to play my home course and shoot 40 with a lost ball bogey on the 2nd hole literally had me floating on cloud 9 on the short drive away from the golf course.

All season, I have really struggled with the driver, and today, i hit 5 fairways (2 of those were very high and short though) but the part of my game that caused me to shoot that good was I didn't 3 putt anything, and I got up and down several times.  It just seemed like when I was hitting the driver in play, the rest of my game was better because I had more confidence instead of trying to invent a scrambled shot to try to get close to the green in 2.

[clearwaterms]

***update***

yesterday I played another Municipal course near my house with my dad.  The course is an easy 65.8/110 at only 5500 yards with a par of 72.  That being said, I played the front 9 to an average 8 over 43, but played the back nine to a 1 over 38, finishing the last 3 holes (eagle, par, birdie)

All together, I had 1 eagle, 2 birdies, 5 pars, 8 bogies and 2 doubles.

The grass around the green wasn't what I was used to playing, and it was very inconsistent, thick in some places, and thin in others, so my chipping was off, and I lost 3 golf balls off the tee box resulting in a bogey save, and the 2 doubles.  But, I feel like the pieces are starting to fall into place.  My handicap is down from the 19~20 range down to 17.4 after posting that net 64 yesterday.

[David in FL]

***update*** yesterday I played another Municipal course near my house with my dad.  The course is an easy 65.8/110 at only 5500 yards with a par of 72.  That being said, I played the front 9 to an average 8 over 43, but played the back nine to a 1 over 38, finishing the last 3 holes (eagle, par, birdie)  All together, I had 1 eagle, 2 birdies, 5 pars, 8 bogies and 2 doubles.  The grass around the green wasn't what I was used to playing, and it was very inconsistent, thick in some places, and thin in others, so my chipping was off, and I lost 3 golf balls off the tee box resulting in a bogey save, and the 2 doubles.  But, I feel like the pieces are starting to fall into place.  My handicap is down from the 19~20 range down to 17.4 after posting that net 64 yesterday.

Congratulations on the round and the eagle! Now, how about updating your profile to reflect that 17.4?! ;-)

[Fairway_CY]

What an awesome round!  It feels great when your game comes together and you post some good scores!  I remember in 2010 when I started the year as a 23.0 handicap and ended the season at a 16.7 handicap.  I posted a bunch of good scores which got me confident enough to carry it through.

Keep up the good shooting!

CY