Signs of Hope at Bushwood

Of the dozen rounds of golf I've played so far this year, four were at courses I had never visited before. Not surprisingly, those courses accounted for some of my worst performances. A return to familiar territory was in order, so I headed out to Bushwood Golf Club, located in Markham, Ontario.

My final score was 107, which is better than some of my recent scores, but far from where I want to be at this stage in my development. Despite the score, I walked off the 18th green feeling pretty good about the round. Mixed in with the usual mistakes were a lot of positive things to build on.

For one thing, I regained control of my driver, hitting seven of fifteen fairways. I rattled off two great ones on the second and third holes. My approach shot on the second hole was a tad long, and that on the third a tad short. In both cases, the result was bogey, as I required a chip and two putts to hole out.

On the fourth hole, my driver failed me, but I made up for it with some pretty iron play. After topping the ball on my first shot, I hit a perfect 7-iron to the middle of the fairway, followed by a pitching wedge that landed safely beyond a bunker, right on the green. Two putts later, I had saved bogey.

It was a similar situation on the tenth hole. After a scary tee shot that pulled and hooked to the other side of kingdom come, I hit the same combination of 7-iron and pitching wedge, ending up pin-high, just off the green. A chip and a putt later, I was glad to salvage double-bogey.

Holes eleven and twelve were particularly fun and featured some great shots. Having popped my tee shot on eleven straight into the air, I faced a difficlut second shot. My target was a very narrow patch of fairway flanked by a pond on the left and out of bounds on the right. My 5-wood served me well, producing exactly the desired result. From there it was a chip and two putts to once again score bogey.

The twelfth hole was the only one that produced a par. It came after a laser-like drive to the center of the fairway and a pitching wedge that landed within ten feet of the hole. My birdie putt missed by inches, so I had to settle for a tap-in par.

Score: 107
Par: 72
Putts: 40
Fairways: 7
Greens: 1