When I set out to play a lot of golf whilst in between jobs, I hoped to break 90 before it was all said and done. And I started out decently well, breaking 100 2 out of my first three rounds while playing some pretty tough courses. Last Thursday, I headed down to Charlottesville to play a round with my college roomie. We played a very short, easy course. Plus, it was only a part 70, whereas the courses I had played before had been pars 71 and 72. I had played it before a few times, but the best I had shot was a 91. Last Thursday, though, despite not being able to drive the ball or do much of anything very well, I managed to shoot an 87. I even left quite a few strokes in the bag. I was pretty happy with that round, though. I wasn't as happy as I was on Sunday, when I played another short course with another college friend and shot another 87. That one wasn't long, but it wasn't quite easy, either, and I was completely ecstatic with that one. I played again with the same college buddy on Monday, on another short course, but I put up a 47 on the front. However, I put together a personal best string of 6 consecutive 4's to finish of the back 9 and ended up with an 89. So that was 3 rounds in a row in the 80's. I rule!
I took Tuesday off from golf due to some other plans, but I got back out today and walked the course I shot a 95 or 96 on last week. After waiting on 4 holes to start out, the slow foursome in front of me finally waved me through, and it was smooth sailing from there on. However, I only managed to put together a 95.
So it would seem that the secret to breaking 90 is 1) play with a college buddy and 2) play a short course. We'll see if we have a chance to test that before I go back to work.
The main goal now is to get a birdie. I haven't had one in a long time, and I'd like to think I'm due. I've had at least 5 birdie putts lip out in my last two round, so maybe I'm getting dialed in.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Time Off For Golf: Round 3, More of the Same
It was a little foggy and muggy when I teed off this morning, but I figured I could handle it just fine. Besides, I generally prefer overcast skies to sunny ones when I play. I decided to ride rather than walk today, as I figured my legs might actually fall off of my body when I played softball tonight if I walked this morning. I managed to tee off by myself, although only 9 of the holes were going to be familiar during this round. Potomac Ridge has 27 holes, and they kind of send you out on whichever ones they like. The ones I'm most familiar with are the Meadows and the Hollow, and I played those yesterday, but today I was supposed to play the Meadows and the Ridge. I had only ever played that Ridge once before, and I didn't particularly like it. I sure was glad I didn't try to walk it yesterday, though, as it has a lot of up and down that would not have been very agreeable to a walker.
On the 6th hole, I had hammered a drive right down the middle and had about a 150 yard uphill approach left, when the two guys in front of me waved me up. Things were moving pretty slowly, and I didn't think I'd be able to play through anyway, but I went ahead and stepped up to hit my second shot. I promptly chunked it about 30 yeards down the fairway. I guess I couldn't handle the pressure of an audience. I then hit the third shot on and three-putted for a double bogey 6. The guys, whom we'll call Mike and Alan (because those were there names), invited me to play with them for the rest of the round. I think maybe they wanted to be able to watch my bumbling to make themselves feel better. So I finished out with them, and they were very pleasant and helpful, in that they were able to tell me where to aim on some of the trickier Ridge holes. They didn't try to tell me what I did wrong when I screwed up, either. And they had plenty of opportunities.
Despite hitting the first fairway, I really didn't drive the ball very well today, although the numbers say I somehow managed to hit 7 of 14 fairways, which isn't bad for me. Still, I mostly managed to keep the ball on the course. I still couldn't hit my approach shots worth a damn, either, and I really need to get those going if I hope to break 90 before going back to work. But I did chip it a little better today (albeit not well), and my putting might not have been quite as bad as the last two days. The round broke down like so:
On the 6th hole, I had hammered a drive right down the middle and had about a 150 yard uphill approach left, when the two guys in front of me waved me up. Things were moving pretty slowly, and I didn't think I'd be able to play through anyway, but I went ahead and stepped up to hit my second shot. I promptly chunked it about 30 yeards down the fairway. I guess I couldn't handle the pressure of an audience. I then hit the third shot on and three-putted for a double bogey 6. The guys, whom we'll call Mike and Alan (because those were there names), invited me to play with them for the rest of the round. I think maybe they wanted to be able to watch my bumbling to make themselves feel better. So I finished out with them, and they were very pleasant and helpful, in that they were able to tell me where to aim on some of the trickier Ridge holes. They didn't try to tell me what I did wrong when I screwed up, either. And they had plenty of opportunities.
Despite hitting the first fairway, I really didn't drive the ball very well today, although the numbers say I somehow managed to hit 7 of 14 fairways, which isn't bad for me. Still, I mostly managed to keep the ball on the course. I still couldn't hit my approach shots worth a damn, either, and I really need to get those going if I hope to break 90 before going back to work. But I did chip it a little better today (albeit not well), and my putting might not have been quite as bad as the last two days. The round broke down like so:
- Birdies: 0
- Pars: 5
- Bogeys: 7
- Double Bogeys: 3
- Triple Bogeys (or worse): 3
- Fairways hit: 7
- Greens in Regulation: 3
- Bunkers hit: 2 (I got up and down for par from one of them)
- Putts: 34
- Total score: 95
I'll take it, too. A tiny bit better this round was, if only because I had one more bogey or better. I'm headed down to Charlottesville to play with my college roomie. We'll see what happens down there.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Things I'm Sure I Shouldn't Hear
I'm sitting here watching the pilot episode of the new show, Life (I'm not quite sure what I think of it yet, but I reckon I'll watch at least one more episode), and I happened to catch the tail end of a commercial for Friday Night Lights, which said, "Friday Night Lights: finally on Friday ..." I just don't know what to say about that commercial other than, regardless of whether it should have ever been written, I'm quite sure I shouldn't have ever had to hear it. Ridiculous.
Time Off For Golf: Round 2, Gasp
I played the blue tees at Potomac Ridge today. It was a bit warmer and a bit more humid today, but it was still pretty nice out. I walked the course today, and even with my super cool bag cart in play, I had forgotten how ... aerobic an activity it can be. Huffing and puffing my way up to my ball on the 15th hole, a course marshall stopped to admire my cart. He told me that he needed to get one of them because they're cool. Completely drenched in sweat as I was I pointed to his normal, powered golf cart and suggested that I needed to get one of THOSE. Despite the effort involved, I got around in just over 3 hours, and that was much faster than the 5 it took me yesterday.
Once again, I was pretty solid off the tee, managing to hit 7 of 14 fairways, and I only lost one tee shot all day. Unfortunately, I still couldn't putt or chip, and my approach shots were, on average ... shitty. The round broke down like this:
Once again, I was pretty solid off the tee, managing to hit 7 of 14 fairways, and I only lost one tee shot all day. Unfortunately, I still couldn't putt or chip, and my approach shots were, on average ... shitty. The round broke down like this:
- Birdies: 0
- Pars: 6
- Bogeys: 5
- Double Bogeys: 4
- Triple Bogeys (or worse): 3
- Fairways hit: 7
- Greens in Regulation: 6
- Bunkers hit: 0 (!)
- Putts: 34
- Total score: 96
While my actual score was better than yesterday, the weird math of handicapping golf courses makes yesterday's round statistically better than this one. But I'll take this round over that one any day.
I was cruising on the second half of the front nine, having parred a par 4, bogeyed a par 3, and parred a par 5 to make a nice 3-hole stretch, when I came to an par three that was 160 yards uphill into the wind. I wanted to stay away from the bunkers and schmutz in front of the green, so I pulled a 5-iron and hit it better than I've ever hit a 5-iron before. It looked great. I kept tracing the line with my eyes, and it was just right of the flag, with a gentle draw. I was thinking that shot was going to be knocked absolutely stiff, and then it came down on an up slope some 20 yards behind the green and one-hopped into the woods. That hole that was looking like a par at the worst turned into a quadruple bogey 7. It's a humbling game. I'll just have to try it again tomorrow.
Monday, October 01, 2007
Time Off For Golf: Round 1, Room for Improvement
It was a good day to play golf. It was sunny and 75-ish with low humidity. Nice, nice, nice. I headed down to Old Hickory to begin my whirlwind golfing tour. That's a somewhat fancy course, but they always have coupons for cheaper play available via clickit, and it works out being a good deal in my estimation.
I should probably mention that my plan for all this golfing includes attempting to get some exercise by actually walking while I play most of the time. I even used some of my Amex points to get myself a sweet little collapsible cart to push my bag around on. It's made by Clicgear, and it's super cool. (The Girl, who thinks she is funny keeps claiming it looks like one of those jogging baby strollers. Naturally, I think that is far less amusing than she does.) Anyway, I was paired up with three other guys today, and Old Hickory has a lot of distance between some of the holes, and I didn't want to slow them down. So I ended up riding.
I was riding with an older guy named Steve. Steve is apparently a pretty good golfer, but he hasn't played much lately. At least that's what he kept telling me. He also decided that a couple of other guys needed explanations of what they did wrong when they hit a couple of bad shots. I don't know how I avoided his advice, but I don't think I would have received it very well.
Since the course is awfully tough, with sand all over the place and trees on most holes, I usually play from the white tees when I play with my boys, even though it's awfully short from there. Today, I played one set back with everyone else from the golds, and it's definitely a different course from there. Still, my driver, which is absolutely locked in on finding and flying over almost any out of bounds marker on the course, got confused today and managed to hit 9 of the 14 fairways. I even managed to put together a run of 4 pars in a row on the front 9 and shoot 47 on the outward set of holes, but the tougher back nine beat me up, and I shot 54 on them, for a grand total of 101. I couldn't putt or chip worth a damn today. So there's plenty of room for improvement in the next couple of weeks.
The shot of the day for me was absolutely plastering a 350 -360 yard drive on the third hole. It's nice to tee off to a downhill fairway with a tailwind.
I should probably mention that my plan for all this golfing includes attempting to get some exercise by actually walking while I play most of the time. I even used some of my Amex points to get myself a sweet little collapsible cart to push my bag around on. It's made by Clicgear, and it's super cool. (The Girl, who thinks she is funny keeps claiming it looks like one of those jogging baby strollers. Naturally, I think that is far less amusing than she does.) Anyway, I was paired up with three other guys today, and Old Hickory has a lot of distance between some of the holes, and I didn't want to slow them down. So I ended up riding.
I was riding with an older guy named Steve. Steve is apparently a pretty good golfer, but he hasn't played much lately. At least that's what he kept telling me. He also decided that a couple of other guys needed explanations of what they did wrong when they hit a couple of bad shots. I don't know how I avoided his advice, but I don't think I would have received it very well.
Since the course is awfully tough, with sand all over the place and trees on most holes, I usually play from the white tees when I play with my boys, even though it's awfully short from there. Today, I played one set back with everyone else from the golds, and it's definitely a different course from there. Still, my driver, which is absolutely locked in on finding and flying over almost any out of bounds marker on the course, got confused today and managed to hit 9 of the 14 fairways. I even managed to put together a run of 4 pars in a row on the front 9 and shoot 47 on the outward set of holes, but the tougher back nine beat me up, and I shot 54 on them, for a grand total of 101. I couldn't putt or chip worth a damn today. So there's plenty of room for improvement in the next couple of weeks.
The shot of the day for me was absolutely plastering a 350 -360 yard drive on the third hole. It's nice to tee off to a downhill fairway with a tailwind.
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