The first round of the Deepwoods Golf Association championship was played at its traditional location, Copetown Woods. I hadn't played in a while, owing to some strange weather that befell the area during the preceding week. On the driving range, I was pleasantly surprised with my ball striking. I took some very nice divots, launching the ball high and straight. On the course, I was a different golfer, hitting many balls thin off the tee. This is especially damaging at Copetown, where fescue covers the ground ahead of many teeing areas. The fescue itself was not especially thick, but the ground underneath the fescue was extremely lumpy, making it difficult to extricate balls.
I made par on the opening par-5 hole, thanks to a decent drive and a good 2-putt. In between, I thinned a 5-iron to 50 yards from the green and got on with a solid wedge. Overall, I played the par-5 holes rather well. On #10, which at just 439 yards is very reachable, I rode a strong tailwind, driving the ball 320 yards to the centre fairway. My approach with the gap wedge drifted right into a bunker, but I made a good out and 2-putt for par. On #14 and #16, which are also par-5 holes, I took a more circuitous route to the greens, but still managed a couple of bogeys. I hit a nice 3-wood on one of those holes, along with a good bunker shot on the other, so I was relatively pleased. Those have been tough shots for me over the past few years.
With the exception of hole #4, I kept things together on the par-3 holes. I pushed my tee shot into the fescue on #4, and was only able to hack out to the rough left of the hole. A decent chip left me a shot at bogey, but I missed the putt and took a double. I made bogey on the remaining par-3 holes. On hole #11, the bogey was well earned, as I had to recover from a tee shot that found a water hazard. On hole #17, I did what I wasn't able to do on #4; that is, emerge from the fescue with my second shot to salvage bogey.
What really killed me were the par-4 holes. There wasn't anything particularly different about the par-4 holes. I just happened to make my worst shots in that situation. On hole #2, I caught the ball low on the driver club face, sending it into the fescue just ahead of the tee. With terrible lies, it took two shots to get out of there. The same thing happened on hole #8, albeit with a 4-iron off the tee. I also found the fescue fronting the tee area on hole #15. In all cases, I emerged with a triple-bogey.
It's hard to say what changed from the practice range to the course. I might have been lifting up on my shots, perhaps even doing a bit of a reverse pivot. I certainly wasn't hitting down and digging the ball out as I was on the range. Having said that, at least I was happy with my chipping and putting. I chipped in from off the green to save bogey on hole #5, which helped me keep my putt total to just 32.
I made a very nice par on hole #18 to keep my score at 101, same as my last round. As far as my scores are concerned, I can still say that I'm moving in the right direction in the early part of this season. In terms of the Deepwoods championship, this will have to be my throwaway round if I'm to have any chance at the title.
Score: 101
Putts: 32
Fairways: 5
Greens: 4
Penalties: 3
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