Six rounds of golf in 2009 and I still have not broken 100. That's pretty alarming, considering that I began 2008 shooting 100 or better in eight of my first nine rounds. In the first round of 2009, I had no distance control with my irons and my chipping was bad. By the second round, I solved the distance problem, but chipping was still bad, as was sand play. These problems persisted in the third round and I also struggled with putting. In the fourth round, I greatly improved my chipping, but I was no match for some slick greens, so my putting numbers were still bad. In the fifth round, my putting was better, but I had a heck of a time getting out of bunkers. In the sixth round, inconsistency crept into my iron play. Looking at the whole season, the bulk of my problems have been with the short game. The greatest problem has been sand play, followed by putting and then chipping.
I headed out to Lowville Golf Club to see what the next round would bring. Things started well with a par on the first hole, a par-5 measuring 480 yards. As is usually the case with pars, there is not much to tell. I hit three trouble-free shots to reach the green, then made a solid lag putt and a tap-in. I double-bogeyed the second hole, but the real trouble came on hole #3 and hole #4. Measuring 181 yards, the third hole is a fairly non-descript par-3. My tee shot was pin-high in a bunker left of the green. Well, it took me four shots to get out of the bunker and three putts to hole out. My sand play has been bad all year, but not that bad! On the fourth hole, another par-5, I pulled my second shot and it bounced about a yard out of bounds, leading to a triple-bogey.
I'm glad to say that I scored no worse than double-bogey for the remainder of the round. In fact, there were only two double bogeys in the rest of the round, thanks to some 3-putts, along with eight bogeys and four pars. I was hitting a decent number of fairways, but I was also hitting an unusually high number of greens, including five straight beginning on hole #6. It seemed I was always going at the green with the gap wedge in hand, resulting in a high, soft approach shot. These successful approach shots gave me confidence on each subsequent attempt. Every part of the game was suddenly working, except for putting. A pair of 3-putts spoiled certain pars on hole #6 and hole #7. Two bogeys were the result. I did make three consecutive pars beginning with hole #8, which felt good. However, three more 3-putts would take some of the shine off the back nine.
On hole #16, a par-5 measuring 489 yards, I hit my best drive of the day, leaving just 149 yards to the centre of the green. The drive was good, but I don't think it was 340 yards, so the tees must have been playing up that day. With thoughts of eagle on my mind, I pulled my approach shot near a hazard left of the green. It took two chips to get on and two putts to hole out for bogey. A squandered eagle chance is always disappointing.
Overall, I was happy with all aspects of my game, except for sand play and putting. Since my approach shots were excellent, poor sand play did not hurt my score too much. However, thee is no denying that putting cost me the chance of breaking 90.
Score: 94
Par: 72
Putts: 42
Fairways: 5
Greens: 8
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