Winning Duffer at Delightful King's Forest

I had the lowest net score in round seven of the Duffer's Dream Tour, which was held at King's Forest Golf Club. This was my second victory on the tour. More later.

It was my first visit ever to King's Forest and I thoroughly enjoyed the course. I'm a bit of a sucker for older parkland style courses, as they seem to arouse a certain degree of nostalgia. I can imagine players enjoying these types of courses in simpler times, when the golf industry wasn't quite the behemoth it is today.

I opened the round with a par on the first hole, a 432-yard par-4. I found out later that no one else in the field managed to score par on this particular hole. My drive from the elevated tee came to rest a few feet into the right rough. From there, I hit a pure 6-iron that landed softly on the green, pin-high. I made a nice lag putt and a tap-in for the textbook par.

Criss crossing over the rushing river, I played the next three holes fairly well. I did extremely well to save bogey on the third hole, after starting with a pulled 3-wood of the tee and a punch shot that bounded right across the width of the fairway. A strongly pulled 4-iron on the fifth hole, a 203-yard par-3, was responsible for a triple-bogey. Fortunately, this was the only triple of the day. I closed out the front nine with four consecutive bogeys, as I hit decent drives, approach shots, chips and putts. Bogey golf seems so easy when one can avoid major mistakes.

I got unlucky on the tenth hole, as I striped my drive down the middle of the fairway, but ended up with a bad lie for my second shot. The fairway slopes quite severely from right to left. My second shot hit a pine cone on the left side of the fairway and deflected into the rough. All of this led to a double bogey. No worries however, as I settled into another groove where I played bogey golf for the next seven holes. This included a par on hole #17, a par-3 measuring 168 yards. My tee shot landed on the green and I had a very good run at the birdie opportunity. Unfortunately, the ball was one rotation short of going in the cup.

I played the par-5 eighteenth hole quite well, hitting a solid drive and advancing the ball with my second shot to the 150-yard marker. I caught my approach shot a tiny bit fat, which worked out poorly because of the soggy condition of the fairway. It seemed I was headed toward par, but I had to settle for a double bogey.

Still, it was enough to collect the low net score and walk away with victory.

Score: 95
Par: 72
Putts: 36
Fairways: 5
Greens: 4