Willow Valley Blues

Last Sunday, while Jim Furyk, Bart Bryant, and other professional golfers were contesting the final round of the 2006 Canadian Open at Hamilton Golf & Country Club, myself and a motley crew of amateurs were contesting the final round of the 2006 Deepwoods Golf Association Tour at Willow Valley Golf Course, just a stone's throw away.

Furyk moved to the top of the leaderboard, pocketing $900,000 for his effort, while I slid closer to the bottom, shelling out greens fees and gas money in the process. I'll save the discussion of golf economics for another day. For now, let's concentrate on what I did wrong at Willow Valley.

Bad Start. My first shot of the day was a complete mis-hit, pulled into the fescue bordering the tee box. I was forced to declare an unplayable lie and take the accompanying penalty stroke. This led to a quadruple-bogey. Try as I might, I could not erase the memory of that shot on subsequent holes.

Pulled Shots. After my round at Watson's Glen, I thought I knew why I was pulling the ball. Apparently, I was wrong or only partly right. I pulled the majority of my drives and as a result, found very few fairways all day.

Poor Sand Play. Willow Valley is rife with bunkers and I had trouble with them all day long. I expended thirteen shots getting out of ten different bunkers. My stroke was far too deep, taking an excessive amount of sand with each attempt.

Par-3 Meltdowns. Most of the par-3 holes at Willow Valley are tantalizingly short. These are precisely the holes that I often turn into disasters, perhaps because of a lapse in concentration. Short does not mean easy, especially when water and sand traps abound.

There were some good moments, including a birdie on the fifteenth hole, a 515-yard par-5. After a squarely hit drive and a poor second shot, I hit a wonderful 8-iron to within five feet of the hole. A single putt produced the bird. The best shot of the day was off the tee on the fourteenth hole, a 185-yard par-3. Gripping my 3-iron with an experimental interlocking grip, I hit a perfect little draw shot over a bunker and onto the green. Too bad it took three putts to hole out from just ten feet away.

Score: 114
Par: 72
Putts: 36
Fairways: 3
Greens: 2