Deepwoods Field Destroyed at Oakridge

The greens were hard, dry, and much too fast as the Deepwoods Tour paid a visit to Oakridge Golf Club, located in Port Perry, Ontario. When you hit a sand wedge high into a green, you expect the ball to stick, maybe even spin back. On this day, those approaches were bouncing off the back of the green, with nary a ball mark to be found. With the greens in this condition, you expect the pin placements to be a little forgiving. No such luck. Many of the pins were on ridges or severe slopes. It all added up to nasty scores for most competitors.

My problems came on the first four holes. Only one of these involved a 3-putt, and surprisingly that was the one that produced the best result - a double-bogey. It was the third hole, a par-4 measuring 377 yards. I hit a 3-wood from the elevated tee, just clearing a bunker on the left side of the fairway. When I approached the landing zone, I was surprised not to find my ball in the rough. It must have bounced in the fairway, since I found it up about 40 yards, just inside a hazard on the right side of the fairway. I was forced to take a drop. From 100 yards out, my approach shot bounced twice in front of the green and amazingly continued to roll all the way to the back of it. It was that kind of day.

Problems at the start of the round were numerous. I topped a couple of attempted shots with the 3-wood. I caught a couple of bunker shots extremely thin, picking the ball clean when I wanted to catch all sand. Both of these errors may have been caused by shifting or lifting my head before impact. I also had a horrible hook to many of my iron shots. This is a new phenomenon for me, so it caught me off guard. I think the problem is one of tempo, when I get too quick on the downswing. Even after I reminded myself to swing fluidly and easily, I often came down too fast on the downswing. On three or four occasions, I solved the tempo problem and the results were much better. I also got quick with the driver a couple of times, which resulted in a straight pull.

With the exception of one hole, I averaged bogey golf on the back nine. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late. I did manage to get closest to the pin on hole #13, a par-3 measuring 144 yards, so at least I won a consolation prize. Nobody on the tour scored well at this round, so I'm still in the hunt for the championship, which will be decided at Willow Valley Golf Club in early September.

Bring it on!

Score: 109
Par: 71
Putts: 41
Fairways: 4
Greens: 5