It's the middle of November and I haven't golfed in two months. I took advantage of some mild weather today to install winter tires on my car. That's as good a sign as any that the golf season is finished here in southern Ontario, so let's take a look back at how the year transpired.
It was a very different year, to say the least. To begin with, I played just 31 rounds, which is my lowest total since 2005, when I started taking golf more seriously and managed to tally 30 rounds. For comparison, consider that in the intervening years from 2006-2010, I played 44, 44, 45, 46, and 56 rounds respectively. I'm still averaging about 44 rounds over the last two years, but clearly there was a dip this season.
One reason for the dip was the fact that I played less competitive golf this year. In 2008, I played on the now defunct Duffer's Dream Tour, while the last couple of years I played about ten rounds per season on the GTA Amateur Tour. I had hoped to play at least a few times on the GTA Amateur Tour this season, but life got in the way, not to mention the fact that my game went south for much of the season. Unless I can be competitive on any given day, there really isn't much point to playing on the tour.
The only competitive golf I played this year was with the Deepwoods Golf Association. As the Deepwoods champion in 2008 and a runner-up in both 2007 and 2010, I felt like I knew how to compete in this league. Unfortunately, I got off to a poor start in the opening round at Copetown Woods. I fired an encouraging 89 in Round 2 at Peninsula Lakes, but faltered again in Round 3 at Oakridge. One can survive a bad round in Deepwoods, but two bad ones are enough to put you out of the running.
While I lost a chance to compete for the crown, Deepwoods was not a complete loss for me. In the final round of the season at Willow Valley, I shot a really nice score of 83, easily my best of the year. In fact, it was my best round of the last three seasons and only two strokes off my personal best. That saved my whole year, no question about it. The fact that it came after a woeful performance on the Deepwoods Tour at Dragon's Fire made it even more special. My round of 126 at Dragon's Fire was a real low point. It was the worst score I posted since starting this blog in 2006. It may even be my worst ever, but I don't have the records to verify that.
Every year, I like to seek out a few new courses to play. In 2011, I made my first ever visits to Turtle Creek, Turnberry, Westview, and Humber Valley. Turtle Creek and Turnberry are relatively new courses, so it's no surprise that I hadn't played them before. I probably won't be back to Turtle Creek, but I will definitely play at Turnberry again. Yes, it's a par-3 course, but from a design perspective it's as nice as almost any course out there.
Westview and Humber Valley are old courses, so it was somewhat surprising that I had never played there. Humber Valley was never on my list because of its short length, but it is a decent track. Westview is a championship calibre course with 54 holes. I'll be back for the right price.
Actually, Westview was the course I played most often this year. I played eight rounds there, including 3 rounds (or 54 holes) in a single day! That truly was a marathon and, I suppose, a highlight of the season. My next most-visited courses this year were King's Forest and Century Pines, where I played 3 rounds apiece. Hidden Lake and Peninsula Lakes were the only other courses I played more than once, each hosting a pair of visits.
Overall, I was disappointed with the season. Instead of improving, my game got worse. My handicap factor, which leveled off in 2010 after dropping steadily for a couple of seasons, shot back up to the high teens. I closed the season with a 17.4R factor, the R representing the fact that the factor is reduced due to some good tournament scores on my scoring record. Those happened late in 2010, so they will soon fall off my record and my factor will inch up a point or so.
It's hard to pinpoint why my game took a turn for the worse. Mostly, I was hooking irons and pulling my drives. I missed very few shots to the right side this year. I can't even remember a single sliced shot or one that was pushed to the right side. I know that my tendency is still to come over the top with my swing. In my early golf days, I would pair that over-the-top swing with an open club face, producing a consistent slice. These days, I am more likely to pair it with a closed face. There were times when I straightened things out, but I was battling this all season. Perhaps the best adjustment I made was to add some wrist cock to my backswing. I did this late in the year and it seemed to help me keep the club on plane. It allowed me to shorten the backswing while maintaining the same power. That will be my swing thought next year.
So, that's about it. Let's hope that 2012 turns out better than 2011.
Peace.
