To say it has been a tough season would be an understatement. Nobody likes to see their game regress, but that's exactly what I have observed early this season. It's not as though my game has been a complete mess. I fixed some early trouble with my irons and have been largely satisfied with my short game and course management. On the other hand, driving has been a complete crapshoot all season. All it takes is a few wild drives each round to rack up the penalty strokes and some big scores.
Thankfully, I managed to keep the driver in check during my last round. It was just enough to register my first decent score of the season. It was Round 2 of the Deepwoods season at Peninsula Lakes, where I played a bit of a warmup just two weeks before. As luck would have it, Deepwoods members played the same 18 holes that I played during my prior visit. In previous years, Deepwoods had always played the Quarry and Hillside nines, but this time it was Orchard and Quarry, which suited me just fine.
I began with a par on Orchard #1, which was a good ice-breaker. My drive was two feet left of the fairway and my approach was the same distance short of the green. A great lag putt left a tap-in for the easy par. Hole #2, a par-3 measuring 136 yards from the white tees, resulted in a hard-earned bogey. I duffed my tee shot, sending it 70 yards to the closely mown area leading to the green. My pitch shot skidded over the green, forcing a chip shot next. I was left with a 10-foot putt that I drained to maintain some momentum.
Hole #3 was one of my problem holes on the day, producing a triple-bogey. Guarding against a pull shot off the tee, which would end up out of bounds, I hit a big fade right of the fairway. I was amidst the trees, but had a clear chute toward the green. Unfortunately, my ball was lying terribly in a hole. A lofted club would help extract the ball, but overhanging limbs meant I had to keep the ball low. I took a hack and advanced the ball a mere 40 yards or so. Now I was under a tree with branches impeding my backswing. All I could do was advance the ball another 40 yards to a fairway bunker. My approach from the bunker was hooked to some trees left of the green. From that position, I was pleased to hole out with just three more strokes.
I got right back in the groove with a par on the very next hole. I hit a perfect drive deep and straight. I followed up with a perfect 3-iron, leaving just a 50-yard pitch into this par-5 green. I actually messed up the pitch, coming up short of the green. It probably had something to do with the sucker pin at the very front of the putting surface. No worries however, as I two-putt from off the green. And so it was for the rest of the Orchard nine. I wasted some shots here and there, but usually followed up with a good streak that earned par or bogey. I finished Orchard with a satisfactory score of 46.
The Quarry nine is where my game really came together. I registered eight bogeys and one par, for a score of 43. I love looking at a scorecard where none of the holes are worse than bogey. More pars and a birdie would look even better, but I'm not greedy. A long stretch of bogeys or better speak to consistency and I know that over 18 holes that means a score below 90, which for me is an important watermark.
There were many highlights on the Quarry nine, including nice drives that found the fairway on holes #1, #4, #5 and #7. Irons were also working off the tee, including a 170-yard 6-iron on hole #6, which set me up nicely for a birdie attempt on this par-3. In fact, my irons seemed to be working from all distances, ranging from 100 to 200 yards. I even hit great bunker shots on holes #2 and #4. Imagine that! Putting was solid, though I didn't drain any putts of significant length.
When all was said and done, I finished with a score of 89, my best of this season so far. Let's hope this is the start of something good.
Score: 89
Putts: 33
Fairways: 4
Greens: 4
Penalties: 1
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