Back to St. Andrew's Valley?

A day after playing the Legends course at Lionhead, I played my first ever round at St. Andrew's Valley - or so I thought.

Things went terribly wrong from the opening tee shot. I made excellent contact with the 5-wood, but pulled the ball toward a lone tree on the left side of the fairway. The ball was lost and I collected the first of many penalty strokes on the day. On the second hole, I duffed an iron shot off the tee and promptly followed it up with a shot into a water hazard. Four of the first six holes resulted in triple-bogey or worse. The only relief came in the form of a pair of par-3 holes - the 153-yard fourth hole and the 179-yard sixth. In both cases, I hit the green with a good tee shot, followed by two putts for par. I closed out the front nine with a bogey and a pair of double-bogeys. I deserved a better result on hole #9, a par-5 that bends around a creek and then forces players to carry the ball directly over it. I made good decisions, but simply failed to execute my tee shot.

On the back nine, I had better results, with the exception of hole #14 and hole #18. My 3-wood off the tee on #14 drifted a tiny bit right, taking the first bounce off the cart path, which directed the ball into a water hazard. From that point onward, I actually played the hole very well. My second shot on #18 came up short of the green, landing in some thick fescue near the margin of another water hazard. It took a couple of hacks to get the ball out, which led to a triple-bogey. Apart from those two holes, I was reasonably satisfied with my game on the back nine. Sure, there were a couple of 3-putts and a few wayward shots, but there were some very good shots mixed in with the bad. It appears I am as inconsistent as I ever have been, but my good shots now are better than they ever have been.

The unusual thing about the round was my walk up the 18th fairway. As I approached my ball following my tee shot, the green came into view, neatly tucked beside a pond with the clubhouse perched in behind. At that moment, I realized I had in fact played the course once before. Nothing about the previous seventeen holes had jogged my memory. I guess the course is just not a memorable one. No offense.

Score: 104
Par: 72
Putts: 37
Fairways: 3
Greens: 5