Golf can be weird. Sometimes you play poorly and score relatively well. At other times, you play well and score poorly. My latest round at Hockley Valley Resort offers an example of the latter.
I teed off late in the afternoon and was paired with a couple of guys who turned out to be pretty good company. On the opening hole, a par 4 playing 386 yards, I hit a sweet drive 250 yards to the centre of the fairway. The swing was so smooth and the result so perfect, that I actually heard gasps of admiration from my playing partners.
I added a bit of wrist cock to the swing and that made all the difference. It allowed me to keep the backswing short, while feeling like I was fully coiled to unleash some fury on the ball. In the past, whenever I consciously added wrist cock to my swing, I would lose control. It resulted in topped balls, shots hit fat, shanks or smotherings. I think I would simply overdo it. The key is to make these adjustments in moderation. Only a slight wrist cock is necessary. It seems to help me keep the backswing short and, more importantly, on plane.
I followed up my opening shot with a pitching wedge that ended up a couple yards in front of the green. We had a lot of rain the day before and the fairway was still saturated with water. I sliced through it like butter. Conscious of the moisture, I didn't want to duff my chip attempt, so I caught the ball a bit thin and sent it well past the hole. I would have been happy with a 2-putt bogey, but after a decent lag, I missed a short putt, settling for double-bogey.
On the second hole, a par-4 measuring 397 yards, I hit another 250-yard beauty off the tee. The ball faded slightly, which is the ideal shape for this hole, coming to rest in the middle of the fairway at the 150-yard stick. With a sharp rise to the green that I wanted to carry, I opted for a 7-iron on my next shot. I trapped the ball nicely, hitting the very front of the green. Unfortunately, the ball released all the way to the back of the green. A very poor lag putt resulted in another 3-putt and bogey. My playing partners were rather excited about my first two shots, which felt good.
Hole # 3 was a 146-yard par-3, featuring a severely elevated tee, as do all but one of the par-3 holes at Hockley Valley. I hit a pitching wedge and it landed on the green like a dart. I was feeling the mojo at this point and relishing it. I finished up with a routine 2-putt for par.
I hit another fairway on hole #4, a challenging par-5. My approach to the green, which is blind, was caught thin and settled in the rough 20 yards short. I made the perfect pitch shot, flopping the ball past a mound to the very front of the green, but once again it released to the back. I 2-putt from there and walked away with bogey.
Bogey golf through the first four holes had me feeling pretty good. Unfortunately, I scored an 8 on the next hole, a 185-yard par-3. This illustrates how quickly things can go bad at Hockley Valley. When you miss a shot on this course, the consequences are extremely penal. There are many forced carries off the tee and anything off the fairways finds long fescue and vicious weeds. Balls in those areas are almost always lost. If you do manage to find your ball, it is almost always unplayable. Add to this the fact that wayward balls can disappear behind large mounds, so you can't even track their flight path. I hit my tee shot off the heel of the club, hooking it over a large mound on the left side. Two unplayable balls resulted in a pair of penalty strokes. It was truly an adventure getting to the green after the miscue on the tee.
As bad as the last hole was, I wasn't really perturbed. I made just one mistake off the tee, albeit an extremely costly one. The inflated score had more to do with the impossibility of recovering from a bad position on this course than it did with my ball striking ability. I bogeyed hole #6, a pretty par-5, and all seemed well again.
On hole #7, my tee shot was a few yards left of the fairway. Unfortunately, this put me up against some large vegetation, which interfered with my backswing. I took my medicine and hit a half-swing 8-iron to the 100-yard stick. From there, I hit a very pure sand wedge, but the ball didn't stay on the green. The green is angled, with the left side short and the right side long. The pin was right at the back. I was aiming for the centre of the green, which I nailed. However, the ball released off the back. Had I gone right at the pin, the result would have been perfect. With the green sloping away from me, I faced a delicate chip shot. I got too delicate and left the ball in the rough a few feet ahead of me. My second attempt rolled well past the hole, but I still managed a 2-putt. With the exception of the first chip attempt, I felt like I played the hole very well. Nevertheless, triple-bogey was the outcome.
I rounded out the front nine with a bogey and double-bogey. They bogey came after I was robbed on a par putt. The double came on hole #9, which I really don't like at all. In fact, I described it as a Mickey Mouse hole in an old post.
The back nine was a contrast in results. I made 3 pars and one bogey on the par-3 holes, but exploded for big scores on two out of three par-5 holes. If not for a missed short putt on hole #17, I would have made par on all of the par-3's. Some of my approaches on these holes were breathtaking. On hole #10, my pitching wedge helped me hit the back of the green like a dart. On hole #12, a beast of a hole measuring 201 yards with danger everywhere but the green, I hit a laser 3-iron into the wind. It ended up flag-high, 15 feet left of the pin. On hole #17, I hit another laser 180 yards right at the pin. I was surprised that the ball spun back a yard, as I was expecting it to release forward.
As I mentioned, success on th par-3 holes was tempered by difficulties on the par-5's. On hole #11, my tee shot was pulled slightly, ending up lost in fescue and weeds. En route to the green, I hit one shot fat and pulled another into the woods off a side hill lie. I finished that hole with two penalty strokes and a score of 10. On hole #16, I layed up to the top of a ridge with my second shot. My third, from 200 yards out, was a wicked pull into the woods. A subsequent approach from 100 yards was hit so pure that it trickled into more vegetation behind the green. The final damage on that hole was two more penalty strokes and a score of 9.
The last hole was played after sunset and it was difficult to see anything. We should have been done much earlier, but a tournament was being played and pace along the course was slow. Nevertheless, we played through the darkness and managed to complete the round in its entirety.
At the end of it all, I feel good about this round, but the score doesn't show it. The wrist cock adjustment helped my driving greatly, I hit some excellent irons from intimidating positions, as well as some excellent wedges. If there's a part of my game that let me down it was putting. I had too many 3-putts and missed too many short ones.
Score: 102
Putts: 37
Fairways: 4
Greens: 6
Penalties: 7
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