I Saw Wet at Saw-Whet

Last November, I proclaimed this blog dead. That may have been a little premature. You see, after playing my first round of the 2008 season today, I felt so invigorated that I decided the blog should be resurrected. To give it a fighting chance at survival in its second life, I resolve to keep entries short and to the point. They may not be as well written as those of the past, but at least they will be regular. So here we go.

After a long and snowy winter, golf season is finally back in the Greater Toronto Area. Originally, I was not going to play this weekend, since the forecast earlier in the week was calling for rain. It actually rained quite a bit on Saturday, but when I emerged from my slumber on Sunday morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find blue skies and moderate temperatures. That was all I needed. I called some local golf courses to check for openings and off I went.

The choice for the season opener was Saw-Whet Golf Club, located in Oakville. Knowing that most courses would be pretty soggy, I didn't want to drive very far from home. Saw-Whet is also fairly wide open, which is good when you haven't swung a club for five months. It turned out to be a good choice. Yes, it was soggy, but other than that it was in pretty decent shape.

The first hole of the day turned out to be the worst. A sliced drive, an ill-advised shot with the ball at the base of a pine tree, a penalty as a result of an unplayable lie, and a questionable approach shot preceded a decent pitch and two-putt for triple-bogey. Thankfully, I did no worse than double-bogey the rest of the way.

Holes two through eight were very solid, though not spectacular. I struggled with the driver, slicing consistently. Fortunately, my iron play was good, as was my short game. When I straightened my drives on the sixth and seventh holes, the result was a couple of pars. The sixth hole was absolutely textbook. Drive to the middle of the fairway, hit an iron twelve feet past the hole, lag a putt to within two feet, then tap in like it's this easy every time.

The back nine was not without difficulty, but every time I was in trouble, I seemed to limit the damage to double-bogey. Whether I was under a pine tree on the tenth hole, topping my second shot on the eleventh, pulling my second shot into the bushes on the thirteenth, under another pine tree on the fourteenth, or messing up my tee shot on the eighteenth, I never strung two mistakes together.

I even managed a par on the sixteenth hole, a par-5 that plays much longer than the 409 yards indicated on the scorecard. Players tee off from an elevated tee and have to carry a stream at the bottom of the valley below. Only the longest hitters can reach the top of the hill on the other side. Shorter hitters will not get any carry as their ball will land on the upslope. This is precisely where I found myself after my first shot. My second shot was a well-struck 3-wood, which drifted just right of the fairway and came to rest 120 yards from the green. My approach with a pitching wedge was the perfect distance, landing just off the green but near the flag. From there it was a chip and a putt for par. Yay.

Bottom line: The iron play and short game were there today. The driver needs lots of work after the long winter. I need to hit the driving range in order to get my rhythm back with the big stick.

Score: 95
Par: 71
Putts: 30
Fairways: 7
Greens: 1