GTA Amateur Tour Visits Coppinwood

My second stop on the GTA Amateur Tour was at Coppinwood, a Tom Fazio design featuring ribbons of lush fairway and white sand bunkers against rolling terrain and dramatic fescue. Unhappy with my chipping and putting at the previous stop on the tour, I arrived at the club early to practice my short game.

The practice worked wonders and I must say, I was very happy with the way I chipped during the entire round. Unfortunately, I was simply no match for the slick greens at Coppinwood. Time after time, I executed chip shots exactly as I envisioned, only to have the ball travel well past the hole and almost off the green. In almost every case, I bounced the ball barely on the green or even in the fringe, but it didn't matter. Up and down at Coppinwood is tough, especially when you find yourself on the high side of the green. I actually made a few up and downs when my putting was good, but these were offset by a bunch of 3-putts when my putting was off.

The first five holes were a mix of bogeys and double-bogeys, the latter coming thanks to the tricky greens. On the sixth hole, a par-5 measuring 484 yards from the blue tees, a pair of fairway bunkers between 80 and 100 yards from the green spelled disaster. When I finally got to the green, a 4-putt resulted in a score of 10 for that hole alone. On the eighth hole, a fairway bunker with a massive lip once again got the best of me. In retrospect, I should have played a sideways shot to take the high lip out of play. I tried a more heroic shot and the result was a triple-bogey.

And so it continued pretty much through hole #14. Lacking confidence, I mis-hit a few iron shots here and there, including a couple that resulted in penalty strokes on holes ten and eleven. It was only on hole #15 that I settled back into something resembling my usual game. A great drive, followed by a good second shot and a medium range pitch shot set me up for a bogey on the par-5 test. Two more bogeys and a par (the only one of the day) rounded out the day. The best shot of the day may have been my approach shot on hole #18, a picturesque 7-iron that was hit flag-high from the fescue well right of the fairway. The guys on the patio overlooking the 18th green must have thought I could really play. Little did they know how terrible the previous 17 holes had been.

Needless to say, I was disappointed with my overall score. I tried to stay positive by convincing myself it was just another learning experience.

Score: 112
Par: 72
Putts: 42
Fairways: 4
Greens: 2