Ever since a late season round last year at Silver Lakes Golf & Country Club, I've been meaning to buy a new putter. It's not that my putting was bad that day, just that my putter was bent out of shape, which I discovered on the first green. I squared it up as much as I could and it served relatively well for the next eleven rounds. On Friday, I finally ponied up for a replacement. After a visit to my local Golf Town, I emerged with a new Odyssey White Steel #1 putter.
To christen the new hardware, I headed out to Lakeview Golf Course in Mississauga, a track which I've played before, but not for a couple of years. The weather was perfect and the century old golf course was in pretty good condition for this early in the season. It will look nicer when leaves fill out the trees, but playability was fine. Too bad I could not say the same for my game.
Things got off to a rough start on some of Lakeview's sloped greens. I began with two double-bogeys and a bogey on holes one through three, thanks to a trio of 3-putts. Pin positions were tough and if you took a run at the hole and missed, the ball kept going and going and going. Back-to-back pars on holes four and five settled me down a little bit, but the wheels came off on number six.
Measuring 434 yards from the white tees, this par-4 is rated as the toughest hole on the course. I hit a drive to the middle of the fairway, but only about 225 yards. Facing 210 yards to reach the green, I thought about using the 3-wood. Since I haven't been hitting that club consistently, I opted instead for a 3-iron, even though it might leave me ten to twenty yards short. I figured being ten yards in front of the green in the fairway would be better than being ten yards to the side of the green in the rough. It was a good idea, but I overswung badly, perhaps trying to reach the green subconsciously. The ball dribbled to the side of the fairway and I still had 130 yards to go. I pulled an 8-iron well left of the green, then had a pitch shot hang up on the green collar. A nice chip shot missed by about an inch, but the ball caught a downhill slope and travelled well past the hole. I needed two putts to walk away with a triple-bogey.
On the next two holes, I made two very ugly drives. These put me in a bad position right off the bat and it was a challenge to recover. I actually made some nice shots to limit the damage to a pair of double-bogeys. A bogey was entirely possible on the second of these holes, but an impossibly sloped green and tough pin position spawned another 3-putt. On the ninth hole, a par-3 measuring 197 yards, I spoiled a fantastic shot with a 3-iron off the tee by 3-putting once again.
I added two more 3-putts on the back nine, for a total of seven on the day. The only nice putt I made during the round was on number twelve, a tricky hole that doglegs around a couple of apartment buildings that cut into the golf course's property. A late-breaking 15-foot stroke found the bottom of the cup to salvage bogey.
When all was said and done, my scorecard said 97, which isn't terrible. However, this was one of those cases where the scorecard doesn't tell the whole story. Yes, I made some good shots at various points throughout the round. Unfortunately, I also made some bad ones. The inconsistency is what concerns me. I will have better putting days, I'm sure. For now, I have to straighten out my drives and make sure I hit down on the ball with my irons.
Score: 97
Par: 71
Putts: 42
Fairways: 5
Greens: 6
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