Tag: golf (Page 3 of 5)

It was a big weekend, as I had my much anticipated visit to a local country club for a round of golf with a friend. But before we get to that, I must share the round I played nine days earlier.

That day I was not sure of my goal. It was a cold, dreary day and I had a hard time getting motivated. But, looking at the forecast and my schedule for the next week, I realized this might be my last chance to play before the country club visit. So I bundled up and forced myself to go. When I got to the practice green, I saw one foursome of old guys teeing off, with a five-some of old guys behind them. That seemed to make for a long round. So I decided to just play nine holes and to walk, figuring that would keep me from pushing them and give me a chance to hit extra shots if they were moving slowly.

The front nine went pretty well. I was spraying the driver but always leaving myself an angle to the green, and my approaches were spot-on. I was two-putting everything but still playing solid. I caught and passed the first group in front of me on the fourth tee. The group in front of them was fast so I managed to finish the nine in under 90 minutes, shooting a 43. As I walked to the clubhouse I debated whether to play another nine. I was hitting it well, but might it be a good time to just stop and savor those nine holes? As I passed the 10th tee I saw it was open, so I popped into the starter’s room, got clearance to play the back nine, and continued.

That nine was very much like the front: I was playing steady golf and recovering when I got into trouble. I nearly eagled a long par four after destroying a drive and getting a great bounce with my approach. On another hole I sent my approach about thirty yards to the left of the green, landing in the 17th hole’s tee box. Luckily no one was standing there. My pitch hit the flagstick and I tapped in to save par.

I did not look at my score when I made it back to the 17th, but I knew I was playing well. My drive was long and just off the fairway. When I reached it I was blocked from advancing by a tree. No big deal. I pitched out to the fairway and left myself a very manageable approach. I took an easy swing – too easy it turned out – and came up short of the green. My pitch barely made the green and I had a 40 foot, uphill putt for bogey. I turned that into a four-putt and carded an 8. Not good.

I stepped to the 18th tee and told myself to relax, one bad hole can’t ruin your score but two can. I took a deep breath and pounded my drive nearly 300 yards and in the fairway. I stepped up to hit my approach, took an easy practice swing, reminded myself I had been hitting these well all day…and hit about two inches behind the ball, taking a huge divot that traveled farther than the ball.

“FUCK YOU, D!” I yelled at myself.

I dropped a ball to prove to myself that I could make the shot. I pulled this one badly into some thick grasses well to the left of the green. That was significant because it was the only ball I lost in the round. I walked up to my first shot and again sent the ball left, but this time just a few feet off the green. I chipped on, two-putted, and carded a 6 for the hole.

As I totaled up my score I saw I was sitting at 30 when I stepped to the 17th tee. The 14 on the final two holes really hurt. Sure, I had just shot 87 for 18 holes, but I knew I left three shots on those last two holes. 84 would have been pretty dope.

While I walked to my car I burned off that disappointment and realized – Holy Shit! – I just shot a legit 87! My goal this fall was to break 100 and I had just broken 90! And that was without doing anything exceptionally well all day. Just steady, boring golf where, the 17th excepted, I avoided any blowups. I felt ready to tackle a real course.

So, Sunday. We got pushed back a little because of frost. When we teed off the windchill had pushed out of the 20s into the low 30s, but it was still quite nippy. As I hit balls on the range, I was lacing everything and feeling good. Never a good sign. My goal for the day was to break 100. This was a much tougher course than any I’ve played,[1] I was playing with someone, and I was wearing layers to fight the cold.

I will tell you that I had a lot of fun. For most of the day it was just the two of us on the course. My host, E, is a med school buddy of S’s and plays around a 5 handicap but is not cocky about it and does not make you feel bad about not being that good. We walked the course, hit extra balls when we needed to, and had a great conversation.

But my game was shit. Strangely, and to the befuddlement of my host, my best shots of the day came from the rough. Every time I was in the thicker stuff, I would absolutely flush the ball and hit it straight at my target. I lost two balls by just destroying what were supposed to be easy shots and having them sail OB. When I was sitting in the fairway, I would push it, pull it, or chunk it. I bet I hit 10 great shots from the rough. Maybe four or five from the fairway.

E noted around the 12th or 13th that I wasn’t rotating completely on my follow through. I’m going to blame it on the cold and a tight back. As I focused on turning after contact, I began hitting it better. In fact, those next five holes were by far my best of the day, routinely out-driving E.

So, to the score. 55 on the front, 53 on the back.

For all the issues I’ve laid out above, the big issue was the putter. My putting was garbage. Some of that was speed. These were way faster greens than what I’ve played on this fall, even in the cold. I was leaving myself with 8-foot come-backers after missing six-footers. I also had a hard time with the slope of the greens. I’m used to one or two greens per nine having elevation, and then not much. There wasn’t a flat green to be found at E’s club. About the same time I got my swing together I finally figured out the speed and began turning three putts into two. But I had only one one-putt all day, often missing by several inches to one side or the other. That was simply not knowing the course and having a hard time finding the line.

We both played our fair share of leaf balls. The ground crews had blown all the leaves off the fairways into the rough between them. Frankly I’m amazed we found as many as we did, but we both lost at least three balls in the leaves that were piled up.

E also took time to work with me on my sand game, as I found green-side bunkers four times. The first time I shot my ball across the green into the opposite bunker. We spent five minutes working on how to get out. By my fourth trip to the sand, I finally hit a nice, soft shot that left me with a five-foot putt. That I naturally missed. Anyway, that’s the nice part of being on a course that only a few other people were on; if you fuck up you can take some time to figure out what you did wrong and try to correct it before you have to use that skill again.

E also taught me about equitable stroke control. For you non-golfers, that’s a fancy way of saying there is a cap on how bad a score you can post on a given hole, generally triple-bogey. I think the logic behind this, which goes into how handicaps are calculated, is a little dodgy. But I gladly shaved a stroke off my score because of it.

So, anyways, it was a pretty good day. I wish I had played better, but it was what it was. This was a longer, tougher, better course with a lot more elevation changes than where I had been shooting my 92s and 87. I would have been thrilled with a 99. 108 is not the end of the world and just highlighted the areas I need to improve upon.

I hope this wasn’t my last round of the year. But the forecast sure looks like we only had four weeks of fall and are officially in winter. If it was my final round of 2019, I think I’ve hit two of the three goals I set before I had my first lesson:

• Break 100. Check, and I broke 90!
• Get my game where I would not be embarrassed to play if someone good invited me to join them. Check. I didn’t play well Sunday but I did not embarrass myself. Well, maybe I did on one shot. But just that one.
• Get my game to the point I could explore replacing my starter clubs with “real” clubs. I need to talk to my instructor about whether I’ve reached the point where I can go to a fitter, or if I need to get more consistent before I can do that.

So that’s that. Counting up my scorecards, I played five, 18-hole rounds; three, nine-hole rounds, and at least 11 rounds at the pitch and putt course. Not a bad way to get back into the game after over a decade away from it. Obviously, I’m really enjoying it.

Sadly, I learned yesterday that the city is going to close one of the two courses I’ve been playing and turn it into an adventure park. I liked having two reasonably priced, fairly open public courses within 20 minutes of our house. I’ll have to find another one to balance my “home” course in the spring.

As we get deeper into October, the opportunities to play golf in the midwest are rapidly shrinking. I have played twice in the past couple weeks, both rounds worthy of brief breakdowns.

First, as the title suggests, I have now carded a lifetime best of 92. In fact, I shot 92 in each of my last two rounds. Which, given where I started and what my goals are, is pretty great, right? As with any round of golf, there were enough shots left out there that I lamented not going lower as much as what I actually accomplished.

The first round was a solid round. I shot 46 on the front, 46 on the back. I had a birdie on each nine. On the 8th hole I hit a 30-foot birdie putt. On the 13th, a 503-yard par 5, I hit my second shot within three feet of the green and then left my chip a foot short. I banged in the birdie putt with a pretty rapid heart rate after nearly getting my first ever eagle.

I was consistent on both nine. My tee game was kind of crappy but everything else was working. I was hitting irons well, even on par threes. My short game and putting game were generally quite good. Four one putts and three three-putts.

The big bummer was that I was in a fight with the trees all day. I recovered well but it seemed like I was either hitting a tree or having to work around one on at least 12 holes.

On the sixth hole that nearly ruined my round. I hit my tee shot well right and had no clear shot through a line of trees to get back to the fairway. I tried to hit a low liner beneath the trees that would roll up the fairway, but got too much loft under the ball and hit a branch and drop about 30 yards away. I walked up and had a look at the green, about 175 away,[1] but it was guarded by a tree on the right. Aim left and I bring sand in to play. So I tried to hit an easy seven iron that would either drop before it hit the tree or be short of the sand if I went left. Naturally I smoked it and hit that tree that guarded the green. I saw my ball smack a branch and drop straight down into the fairway. But when I got to the area where I expected the ball to be I couldn’t find it. I spent 10 minutes searching through the leaves, walnuts, and other fall foliage that was dotting the fairway but never found my ball. The glories of fall golf: losing a ball in the middle of the fairway.

I took a penalty stroke, dropped, and then had my only three-putt of the front nine. An eight that could have easily been a six or even a five. A six puts me at 90 for the day. A five and I freaking break 90.

Damn!

I got out again yesterday on the course I’ve played several nine hole rounds on. It was very chilly so I was bundled up, and there was almost no one out, which made it nice. I raced around the front nine in an hour and fifteen minutes. In those 75 minutes I put up my best nine-hole score: 42. I had two birdies through my first seven holes – including a breaking, 30-footer on 7 – before I accidentally looked at my total score and saw I was sitting on 30. I tried not to think it, but I knew if I played the way I had played through the first seven on the last two, I would break 40.

Dumbass.

Eight is a par three with trouble on both sides. You have to hit it straight. The fairway was being mowed when I stepped to the tee and the guy pulled his tractor off to let me hit. Would you have guessed that I barely made contact and hit a truly shitty shot that went about 40 yards? Fortunately I hit a decent second shot that rolled up to the green, leaving myself about 45 feet to work with. I hit a really solid putt, but just a hair fast and with a touch too little break. I burned the low edge and then my ball caught the decline and ended up 12 feet away. That sucked. I just missed my come-backer and left myself with a tricky four-footer to salvage a 5. I snuck it in rather nervously.

Then on nine I lost another ball in the fairway. Fucking leaves and low, October sun. A penalty stroke, a terrible chip, and a two put left me with a seven and 42 for the front nine. Which is awesome, when you consider where I was a couple months ago. But ending it that way really sucked knowing it could have been a 40 or even 39.

I made the turn and finally found some traffic., forcing me to wait on the tee box. I smoked my first two tee shots but I was losing confidence elsewhere. I had also never played this half of the course, so every shot was new. On 13 I linked up with another single, a very nice 78-year-old guy who was a delight to play with. Despite the company, my game fell apart. I suddenly didn’t feel comfortable over the ball, my short game went to hell, and my putting was terrible. On the front nine I had six one-putts and only needed 13 total. On the back I never one-putted and needed 20 total putts. And, honestly, I snuck a couple in that were lucky; it could have been worse.

I racked up 50 shots for the back nine, matching my 92 from the week before. I was thrilled about the first nine; upset about the second.

The one generally good thing from the round was that, for the most part, I drove the ball well. I decided to hit driver all day and force myself to stay in my swing. I had a couple that got away to the right, but these were low, cutting shots rather than the high, majestic slices I had been hitting last week. I had three drives over 270, and all three were in play.

I’ve been trying to focus on how good my first seven holes were and build on that, rather than obsess about why my swing disappeared on me on the last 12 holes. A few dreary, chilly, windy days will keep me from hitting balls for awhile, which may be a good thing. I’m hopeful I can get a few more rounds in this season before it gets too cold to get out.

It’s been a couple weeks, time for a quick-ish golf update.

I have played three times since I last checked in; two nine-hole rounds and my first 18 of the year. On the 9’s, I shot 52 and 48. On the 48 I actually played the entire nine without losing a ball, which may never have happened. I should note that on one hole I blasted my drive way right and figured it was gone. Two holes later I found it sitting near my tee shot on that green. Neither time did I hit the ball as well as in my first round a few weeks back. But both times my short game and putting was outstanding.

That’s the lure of golf. One day you hit it well off the tee but suck everywhere else. The next you can’t keep it in the fairway but once you’re inside 100 yards, you’re money. Next thing you know you’re thinking, “If I could just put those two halves together!” and you get obsessed.

For my 18, I went to a new course. Another fairly open, pretty generic public track. I went out last Thursday and there was almost no one else out. There was a single in front of me, who let me play through on the second tee because he was walking and playing two balls, and a twosome in front of me who I passed at the turn. With that space, I spent a lot of the day hitting two balls per hole. I needed to do that, as I was all over the place again. There weren’t a ton of trees, but I kept finding them. It was a bit distressing how often I found myself either in the trees or lining a shot off a limb.

Playing the two balls was key. I’m not turning my scores in for a handicap, so I had no problem counting only the best ball from each hole. With that in mind, I finished with a 97. I’m not officially counting it as my first ever sub–100 round, but I think it shows my improvement. Again, I putted pretty well and I chipped well on about two-thirds of the holes. Tee game was garbage. Fairway game came-and-went. But, still, progress. Somewhere I read that high handicappers should add a stroke to par on each hole and focus on playing to that number. Doing that I actually had eight pars and two birdies. Only one really bad hole, where I lost two balls and carded a nine.

I reminded myself that not only have I never broken 100, I generally shot in the 110+ range back in the day. And that was with a lot of lie improvement, not counting every penalty stroke, etc. I’m certainly not adhering to the official scoring rules 100% yet, but I’m playing closer to those rules than I used to.

I also had to remind myself that according to pretty much every source I can find, the average amateur golfer in the US shoots 100. It’s easy to get lost in the scores of friends who are single handicaps and break 80 routinely. It’s a good reminder that the majority of people out there are in the same fight I am. And that if I keep working and improving, getting down into the 90s is a big deal, not only compared to what I used to shoot, but compared to the average golfer.

I had my second lesson today. At my first lesson back in July, I felt like I could barely hit the ball. Today I was hitting it well from the start, getting lots of compliments from my coach. Just as he had me hit driver for the first time, the owners of the range came over to say hello to him. They are old friends and hadn’t seen each other in a while. I was taking a three-quarter swings with the driver and on one just murdered the ball, hitting a low, straight rocket that didn’t carry all that far, but did roll forever. “Not sure why you’re taking a lesson from him with a swing like that,” one of the owners said. That was about the only driver I hit well in the session, but it was obviously well-timed!

We honed in on a few areas I had been struggling with. I have no idea how to hit a hybrid, so we worked on that a bit until I was generally hitting decent ones. When I’ve played for some reason I struggle hitting irons off the tee on par 3’s, so we spent awhile working on that as well. I never got that locked in, and as tends to happen when I hit a series of bad shots, that get me out of my groove and the final few balls of the session with driver were all violent slices.

Despite that poor finish, both my coach and I were pleased with my progress. I hit a lot of good shots today, where back in July you would think I had never swung a club before. He said a lot of my swing is good, it is mostly about focusing on a few small areas to bring it all together and make it more consistent.

So, again, progress. I’m going to try to get out and play on Friday (tomorrow is parent-teacher conference day at St. P’s) at one course or the other, hopefully a full 18 again. In addition to locking in the swing areas that are deficient, I need to learn how to make good swings over 18 holes. I have a tendency to lose it then fight for a stretch of 3–4–5 holes trying to get it back.

Few things in the world are more enjoyable to non-golfers than stories about golf. Below are 1300 and change words about my trip to the course yesterday. Feel free to skip if that’s not your bag.

After weeks of hemming and hawing, of hitting the driving range and the pitch and putt course but only thinking about playing real golf, I finally bucked up and hit the course yesterday.

It went pretty well.

I played nine holes on a decent public course where I’ve done most of my practicing. The front nine is par 35. I shot 47. I was absolutely thrilled with that score.

Before playing I hit a few balls on the range to warm up and gauge where my swing was. I was hitting my irons well but when I moved to the tee, I could not hit a good 3-wood. I was either hitting worm burners or big slices. In a big change from normal, I was actually striking the driver well. My plan when I played had been to keep the driver in the bag and focus on keeping the 3-wood in play. This warm up tome adjusted my thinking.

I caught a dead spot in the lineup and headed to the first tee as a single. I took out driver, took a slow, controlled swing, and just mashed the ball. It hugged the right tree line as it raced down course, only to take a sharp right turn and disappear somewhere toward the parking lot. I paused, waited to hear contact with a car or window that never came, and dropped a breakfast ball and my 3-wood. This time I aimed left to take the slice out of play. This time I hit it on the screws and straight where I was aiming, which happened to be in the left rough near some trees. Still, in play and leaving me a decent approach shot. I pitched under the trees but my ball rolled through the green, I chipped on, and then three putted for a 6. Not a great start but I had a score on the card.

Hole two was more of the same. Off the tee with the 3-wood, I aimed left, hit it straight, and had a decent angle at the hole from the third fairway. For all my practice in recent months, I really have no idea how far I hit my clubs. That happens when you’re inconsistent and just trying to make solid contact. I had to get over some trees and it seemed like I was 125-135 out, so I took a 7-iron. Which I absolutely nuked. My ball bounced once on the green, then off, down a hill toward a tree line behind the green.

Not having played this course before I didn’t know hidden in those trees was a fence that was the border of the course. Digging around in the shrubs I found three Pro V1’s, which was cool, but not my ball. I dropped, took my penalty stroke, chipped up, and two-putted for another 6.

Four over through two, two lost balls. Not an ideal start. But I felt good. I stepped to the third tee, realized aiming left didn’t seem to be helping me, so took aim at the center of the fairway, and sent one straight down the middle. That’s what I’m talking about!

OK, I’ll stop with the full accounting there. That kind of summed up my day. I only hit three bad tee shots with a driver/3-wood all day. I define bad shot as either not making good contact or the ball not going where I aimed. Two I took mulligans on as they went well out of play. The third I topped a little but it still had enough juice on it to roll out close to 200 yards.

On the two par threes I guessed on what iron to use and both times hit shots that where pin-high…only 30 yards to the left. I’ve always pulled irons off a tee and apparently I still do.

My approach shots were like my tee shots: mostly really good. I was making solid contact and the ball was generally going where I aimed.

Around the green I was ok. I chipped to a foot once. I put several others in makable range. I had two piss-poor efforts.

On the green, though, I was bad. I didn’t mark it down, but I think I three-putted at least six holes. Maybe seven. That’s a round killer. But it is also correctable, especially since I feel like I’m a decent putter. I just need more reps on the practice green and to learn how to read greens better. Correcting putting issues brings your score down quickly when you start removing the three-putts from your round.

My best putt of the day was a 45 footer that I left about a foot short. By this time I had joined two guys who were in front of me.¹ I actually scuffed behind the ball, made poor contact, and let out a noise of disgust as I hit it. Luckily the putt was downhill and gravity kept tugging it until it was close. I laughed when one of my new partners asked if I could show him how to scuff his putts like that. I realized that had I made solid contact, I would have sent the ball at least 20 feet past the hole and three- or four-putted. An error pays off!

My only one-putt of the day was on the final hole, a dead-straight six footer that I knocked in. For a moment I thought I had birdied the hole. Then I realized that in my excitement I forgot a stroke. Still, a good way to end the round with a solid par.

As I said at the beginning, I felt great about this round. I was pretty consistent tee-to-green, likely the best nine holes I’ve ever played. I was making good contact and sending the ball where I wanted it. It was just on the green where I struggled. I had a handful of other errors that are typical of a player of my caliber. They can all be corrected with more practice and play. If I can dial in some rough distances with my irons, that will be a huge help. All together, I can see a pretty clear path to shaving several strokes off Wednesday’s score.

Now, this isn’t the toughest course in the world.² My swing has been erratic lately, and this seemed to be a good day. But it was super encouraging to put a decent round – for me – together. I don’t know that I had ever broken 50 before on a nine-hole round. And if my first goal in playing again is to break 100, I’m well on the way to that. In fact, I gave serious consideration to making the turn and getting another nine in to see if I could go ahead and check that off my list. But I wanted to quit while I still felt good and before the real heat of the afternoon kicked in.³

My current plan is to play once a week for the rest of the month and into early October. A friend who belongs to a country club promised to invite me to play with him once their fall guest rates kick in. I wanted to be sure I wasn’t a complete disaster if that happens. Wednesday felt like a good first step toward that goal.

Before I took my lesson in July I told my coach I had three goals:

• I wanted to break 100
• I wanted to be able to play with friends who are good without embarrassing myself
• And I wanted to get good enough so I could put aside my starter clubs and go buy some new, nicer ones.

I’m not pricing new clubs yet, but I feel like that may not be too far down the road now.

1. Two older, very friendly gentlemen who had flown A-10s together.

2. Par 70, 6061 yards, 68.4 course rating, 110 slope rating.

3. It was in the mid-90s and very humid. I was soaked from those nine holes, and that was riding in a cart.