Joyride Ends at Century Pines

It was good while it lasted, which is a way of saying it didn't last very long at all. The joyride that followed my season best round at Willow Valley came to a screeching halt just four days later at Century Pines Golf Club. This round was supposed to provide retribution for the injustice that took place at the same course one week earlier. The intervening triumph at Willow Valley had emboldened me to seek revenge. As it turned out, I emerged with even more injustice, instead of the requital I so desperately sought.

My last visit to Century Pines produced a massive blowup on hole #1, which immediately ruined the entire round. I spent the drive to the course devising a strategy to prevent this from happening again. I was thrown for a loop, therefore, when the gentleman in the pro shop informed me that I would be playing the back nine first. I resolved to treat this as a positive, figuring I could warm up fully on the back nine before applying my strategy to hole #1.

I got off to a shaky start over the first three holes, but recovered remarkably well in each case to salvage a bogey. On hole #10, my 5-iron off the tee failed to reach the fairway. My next shot stopped short of a bunker fronting the green. I pitched on and 2-putt to finish. On hole #11, I hooked a 5-iron into the woods. I found the ball, but it was unplayable, so I took a penalty. Next, I hit a beautiful 7-iron very near the flag. Once again, I 2-putt to finish. On hole #12, I pulled a drive slightly left, ending up in a hazard. After another penalty, I hit a great 6-iron to the front edge of the green. Two putts later, I had my third bogey of the day.

Hole #13 was a disaster. This is a par-3 measuring 155 yards entirely over water. I added an extra club as the wind had picked up and was directly in my face. I should have added two clubs, as my tee shot hit the embankment on the other side of the water and rolled backwards into the drink. After a penalty stroke, I duffed a pitch attempt from a side-hill lie. A second pitch was required to reach the putting surface and two putts finished things up for a triple-bogey.

No sooner did things go bad, than they got right back on track. Hole #14 is a par-5 measuring 475 yards from the blue tees. The tee shot does not suit me because the fairway bends slightly to the left, with mature trees protecting the inside corner. Without a draw, it's very easy to hit those trees or run out of fairway on the right side. I hit a laser, skirting the edge of the protective trees and propelling down the fairway. In fact, I ran through the fairway, ending up a yard or two in the right rough, which was quite sparse. From 200 yards out, I hit a 3-iron down the fairway, ending up 20 yards short of the green. The next two shots were picture perfect. The first was a crafty pitch that utilized the slope of the green to funnel the ball near the hole. The second was a beautiful 8-foot putt for birdie!

At this point, I was playing bogey golf through the first five holes. A greenside bunker gave me some mild trouble on the next hole, resulting in a double-bogey. Still, one third of the way through the round, I was just one stroke off of bogey pace. Considering I had amassed three penalty strokes already, I was pretty happy.

Hole #16 put bogey pace in jeopardy with a triple-bogey, but it wasn't until hole #17 that those hopes were entirely extinguished. More on that in a moment. Sixteen is a killer hole, the hardest of the course in my opinion. Your tee shot has to be perfect in order to set up a chance at the green. A slight miss off the tee forces a pitch shot, just to get the ball in a position to go at the green. If your miss off the tee is more than slight, you may need two more shots just to reach the "go" zone. That's exactly what happened to me. With the green in your sights, you have to contend with a meandering creek in front, trees and other shrubs left, and water in back and to the right. My approach was hit thin, somehow finding the creek. After a penalty and successful approach, I made a single putt to earn a triple-bogey.

Now, the hole that ruined my round and was the cause of the injustice I spoke of earlier. Seventeen is a long par-4 at 440 yards, but that's not the problem. Much like hole #14, this one features a fairway that bends ever so gently to the left. The inside of this bend is protected by a single tree, not very large, which sits fifty yards in front of the teeing ground, on the edge of a pond. The tree has been dead, or close to dead, for as long as I can remember. A few branches, bereft of any leaves extend outward, just enough to make players think twice about aiming to the left side. After a bit of pondering, most players wouldn't feel too threatened by it. After all, this is really a miserable excuse for a tree. An arborist would get rid of it without hesitation. Yet there it stands, year after year, and visit after visit, it interferes with my game. It is truly a "Vince" tree (inside joke).

As I did the last time I stood before the miserable stump, I made great contact with the driver. When the ball flew off the tee, I immediately thought, "Wow, this is going to be a fantastic drive!" A fraction of a second later, the ball smacked one of those extending branches, a mere 2 inches in diameter. It could have been just a glancing blow, but against the odds it struck squarely, sending the ball backwards and into the pond. Aaaargh! That bloody tree is an uncanny force of nature. Anyway, this was just the start of a horrific hole.

I took a penalty and dropped behind the pond, right at the foot of the offensive freak. Next, I topped a 5-wood right into the pond again. One more penalty stroke and another attempt later, I hit the ball to a cluster of trees on the right side of the fairway. My sixth shot was a chip through the trees to get back to the fairway, but I defied all odds again by smacking a thin trunk squarely, sending the ball backwards. At this point, I was better off playing down the adjacent fairway. I hit to a location where there was a break in the trees. Unfortunately, the ball carried about five yards too far and a tree cluster was again blocking my advance. Again, I tried the punch through the trees, only to smack a thin trunk squarely, sending the ball backwards and to the left. The only good news was I now had an open path to the green, which I hit with my ninth shot. After a good lag, I missed a short putt, probably due to the mounting frustration. I finished with a 3-putt and score of 12.

I went into great detail describing that hole, because it was clearly the turning point for my round. I bogeyed hole #18 and made the turn with a score of 55. With a good back nine, I could still keep my score under 100. Things started out well on hole #1, the one I had planned with such great care. I hit my drive right into the adjacent fairway, which is far better than hitting it left and out of bounds. I hit a massive 5-wood into the wind, 10 yards in front of the 150-yard stick. Next, I hit a very poor 7-iron, hooking it left of the green to a chain link fence bounding the property. I had no stance or swing due to the fence, so I tried a one-handed swing with my back to the target. This is a useful shot sometimes, but I was too near the fence with a bad lie. Two attempts failed, before I smartened up and declared the ball unplayable. I made a nice chip after the penalty and tapped in for a triple-bogey. Obviously, the strategy wasn't to take a triple, but these were extenuating circumstances.

I made a beautiful par on the next hole, judging my approach to the green over a pond perfectly. My birdie putt, a slippery downhill type, stopped four inches short of the hole. That was the last hurrah. At this point, the wind picked up something fierce and I didn't have the focus to deal with it. I felt like the round was already lost, so I really just went through the motions. I made one more par on a medium length par-3 hole, but I also dropped some balls into hazards, leading to a pair of quadruple bogeys.

Overall, this was a frustrating round. The joy over my good play at Willow Valley was short-lived and I failed to get revenge on Century Pines. The "Vince" tree was the cause of it all, in my mind.

Score: 111
Putts: 36
Fairways: 3
Greens: 3
Penalties: 9