My third event on the GTA Amateur Tour took place at Wildfire Golf Club, a lovely Tom McBroom design in the Kawartha region. It was overcast and windy when I teed off in the late afternoon with the last group of the day.
I tallied six bogeys and a par on the front nine, but that doesn't tell the whole story. The driver never came out of my bag, as I opted for the 3-wood on the relatively short holes. On the second hole, I topped my tee shot. On the fourth hole, I hit my tee shot very thin. Fortunately, the ball skipped over a creek and carried well along the fairway. I hit some good tee shots as well, but it was a very mixed bag.
Similarly, my irons varied from spectacular to outright disgusting - even on the same hole! After a solid tee shot on hole #7, a par-5 measuring 486 yards, I completely messed up my second shot with a 7-iron. This left me with a 195-yard approach to the green, which I nailed with a fantastic 4-iron. Overall, there were far too many worm-burners resulting from my iron shots. They didn't hurt the score tremendously because the ball still advanced, but they were ugly. On a couple iron shots I opened the club face far too much, with predictable results.
Bunker play, chipping and putting were all good on the front nine.
On the back nine there were a couple moments of brilliance amidst a sea of errors. I birdied hole #11, a par-3 measuring 140 yards. After hitting the green in regulation, I sank a long putt from about 25 feet. On the next hole, a par-5, I hit two perfect shots to lay up in front of a pond guarding the green. From 135 yards out, I mis-hit the approach ever so slightly and the ball came down a yard short of crossing the water. I proceeded to hit two more balls into the water, catching the ball fat on both occasions.
After that disastrous hole, I felt I was still mentally in the game, but my scores tell another story. On one hole, I lost a ball in the woods after hitting a 7-iron with the club face way too open again. I duffed a 6-iron off the tee on a short par-4. I picked a ball clean out of a greenside bunker, launching it out of bounds. I even pulled a drive left of the fairway into the woods. They were the kind of errors that involve penalty strokes, so my score got terribly inflated.
On hole #17, a par-3 measuring 142 yards, I hit my tee shot into a bunker guarding the left side of the green. With lots of green to work with, I hit a perfect sand shot, rolling the ball to about five feet from the cup. Finally, I made the straight uphill putt to save par.
Chipping and putting remained solid on the back nine.
Right now, my game is all over the place. It seems each round I fix one problem, only to have a new one emerge. My handicap is inching up instead of going down. It's frustrating to say the least. Patience, I guess. Patience.
Score: 111
Par: 72
Putts: 35
Fairways: 8
Greens: 2
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