It's been a while since I posted anything. Time to catch up. Here are my latest rounds, most recent at the top.
Kedron Dells
Kedron Dells, you are my nemesis. I hate you with a passion. Don't get me wrong, you are a fine course. You provide a great challenge and good value. It's just that you deplete my energy and sap my spirit like no other track. Other courses are more difficult, but you know me much better than they do. You know exactly which buttons to press to knock me off my game. Your torturous tactics are seemingly infinite. When I develop a defense for one of them, you simply employ another.
In spite of your cruelty, I keep coming back. In fact, when I haven't seen you for a while, I look forward to reuniting. Why? Because I want to crush you. I want to pay you back ten-fold for the pain you've caused over the years. I want to dismantle you hole by hole, then stand victoriously over your worthless carcass. And I will. You picked the wrong guy to mess with, Kedron. You thought you were taking advantage of a hapless golfer, out for a stroll on a Sunday afternoon. You're going to regret that choice very soon.
Score: 115
Par: 71
Putts: 37
Fairways: 3
Greens: 1
Bridgewater
I got robbed! You see, if I play a round of golf and collect triple-bogey or worse on only one hole, chances are I have broken 100. That's exactly what happened this time - all but the part about breaking 100. Despite limiting the blowup holes that seem to plague my game, I still did not break the century mark. The reason was that I only had a single par.
The scene of this somewhat unusual round was Bridgewater Country Club, located in Fort Erie, Ontario. It was the first time I had ever played there, but I was optimistic, since it was on the heels of a successful maiden round at Twenty Valley a week earlier. Through the first six holes, I was in a nice little groove. With one third of the round over, I was standing at six over par. Most of those were bogeys, but there was also the lone par of the day and a double-bogey mixed in. The stretch included four consecutive greens in regulation (excellent), but I 3-putt three of those (terrible).
I can't really say the wheels came off the wagon after that nice start. The next six holes, for example, included two bogeys and four double-bogeys. I was playing at a similar level, but my shots started to get a little less precise. I pulled a couple drives to opposite fairways, left a couple approach shots short of the green, had some trouble getting out of a couple of bunkers, and mis-hit a couple chip shots. Nothing was really terrible, just kind of sloppy.
The terrible moment was reserved for hole #14, a 302-yard par-4. I pulled two consecutive shots into the woods using a 3-wood. After that, I put it in the bag in favor of driver, which worked like a charm. The damage was done however, and quintuple-bogey was the result. I rounded out the round with more double bogeys and a bogey. The stretch also included more 3-putts, of which I had seven for the day. So just when I get the driver looking respectable again, my chipping and putting decides to abandon me. Alas, that is the cruelty of golf.
Score: 102
Par: 72
Putts: 41
Fairways: 5
Greens: 5
Twenty Valley
Twenty Valley is a new course for me, so I was looking forward to it. I started out inconsistently, alternating between pars and triple or quadruple-bogeys. The quadruple came on the second hole, with the cup located on a ridiculous part of the green. I mean just a stupid location. Four putts as a result. I settled down on the fifth hole, playing #5 through #9 in six over par. My score after nine was 48, which was respectable for a new course.
On the back nine, I managed no worse than double-bogey on any single hole, but that included just a single par. Four bogeys and four double-bogeys rounded out the other eight holes. My ball striking was OK, but as on the front nine, I could not buy a putt. Come on man, give me a break! This was a well-played round, but there is no real reward when you amass 42 putts over eighteen holes.
Overall, I guess I was happy with my score. Oh yes, the course was very nice too!
Score: 97
Par: 72
Putts: 42
Fairways: 3
Greens: 4
The Highlands
For God's sake, change your name back to Bradford Highlands, will you? There are fifty thousand golf courses called the Highlands throughout the world, it will do you some good to have something more unique. Geez.
I had this round all planned out, shot by shot. I have played it enough that I know all the tricky holes and where all the trouble spots are. On the first hole, for example, you don't want to be anywhere near the right side with your tee shot. I certainly wasn't, launching a drive past the tenth fairway to the left. A nice 8-iron put me to the 100-yard marker, en route to a nice bogey.
On the fourth hole, 324-yard par-4, you don't want to lose a ball to the woods on the left side. To avoid this, I played a conservative 4-iron. Well, I pulled it right into the woods, which led to a triple-bogey. On the sixth hole, a 342-yard par-4, I also hit the very hazard I had planned to avoid. This is a pond on the left side of the fairway. I actually hit it twice, leading to a quadruple-bogey. Aargh! In spite of these bad holes, I played well enough to salvage a 49 after nine holes.
The tenth and eleventh holes killed me, and they're not even hard holes. With the course marshall watching intently, I duffed a 3-wood off the tee on #10. After advancing the ball to the end of the fairway, I duffed a sand wedge in an attempt to hit the green. The end result was triple-bogey. I mis-hit a 3-wood into a creek for my second shot on #11. This too, resulted in a triple-bogey.
Then, I started playing well. I played the next six holes in five over par. Going to the last hole, a 493-yard par-5, all I needed was a triple-bogey or better to break 100. Now, I've been in this position a couple times before on this very golf course, and for some bloody reason, things haven't worked out. Well, I need someone to erase the memory of those occasions, because the very same thing happened again. Talk about mental breakdown. I totally psyched myself out. I finished with a quadruple-bogey for the lovely score of 100. Stupid, stupid stupid!
Score: 100
Par: 72
Putts: 35
Fairways: 3
Greens: 2
Grey Silo
Round Four of the Duffer's Dream Tour took place at Grey Silo, which I had played a couple of times, but not recently. This round flat out sucked. I could not hit anything clean off the tee. It didn't matter if it was driver, 3-wood, or even 6-iron. If the ball was propped on one of those little wooden sticks, it meant I was either slicing it, pulling it, topping it, you name it. On rare occasions when I hit a fairway, it was soon followed by some other type of garbage.
Through fourteen holes, I had already amassed five triple-bogeys, which was enough to send me off the deep end. The fifteenth hole was a quadruple-bogey and the seventeenth alone was seven over par. For speed of play, the Duffer's Dream Tour limits individual hole scores to double par, so this particular hole was scored as five over. Seven over is my estimate of what I would have really scored, had I finished the hole completely.
Grey Silo is a nice course, but if you are striking the ball poorly, it will eat you up. I had nine penalty strokes due to lost balls. That means eighteen strokes just given away with no benefit. I hate that!
Score: 109
Par: 71
Putts: 37
Fairways: 4
Greens: 2
Peninsula Lakes
Round Two of the Deepwoods Tour took place at Pen Lakes. I shot a 91 there earlier this year, so I was feeling confident. I couldn't hit a single club on the driving range, so there was a chink in that confidence. All I could do was go out on the course and see what happened.
We played the Quarry nine first. I played poorly through the first six holes, collecting three triple-bogeys along the way. All of my trouble came off the tee, whether it was a sliced driver, a topped 3-wood, or a pulled 4-iron. Fortunately, I played well over the next three holes, including two par-5 holes and one par-3. The par-3 was the ninth hole, measuring 141 yards. I managed a rare birdie there, for a 48 after nine holes.
Good play continued for the first six holes of the Hillside nine, which I played at six over par. Unfortunately, the seventh and ninth holes killed me. Both resulted in triple-bogeys. On the seventh, I pulled my second shot and it found water. After dropping a ball nearby, I launched a sand wedge over the back of the green. My chip was no good and it was followed by three putts. Yuck! Similar stupidity followed on the last hole of the day.
Score: 97
Par: 71
Putts: 34
Fairways: 1
Greens: 1
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