When you can make regular contact with the golf ball, sending it airborne and roughly the expected distance, golf is a wonderful game. With decent contact, players are challenged by obstacles that have been chosen by the course designer – a forced carry over a naturalized area, a water hazard protecting a dogleg, bunkers framing a green, etc. Thus, the game becomes a competition between golfers and the landscape itself. Sports that take place on standardized fields, or any other standardized environment, lack this relationship completely.
Unfortunately, when you cannot make regular contact with the golf ball, the carefully designed features of the golf course become completely meaningless. With poor contact, players are not actually challenged by the course itself; instead, they are challenged just to hit the ball. When the challenge degrades to one of simply hitting the ball, it may as well take place on a flat, open field. Players may as well hit balls on the practice range, since they won't experience additional fun by moving to the course.
For this reason, I'm not even sure if I enjoy the game any more. Over the last two seasons and in the early part of 2013, I've seen my scores balloon, along with my handicap factor. Worse than that is the fact that I've hit a greater percentage of terrible shots. These are not merely poor shots, they're frankly horrific. In short, they're the kind of shots that take course features totally out of play, and in the process, sap the fun from the game. With very few exceptions, it has been a chore to complete rounds. The fun is gone.
Such was the experience of my most recent round at Sparrow Lakes Golf Club, located in Welland, Ontario. It was my first ever visit to the club, where I played the championship length Heron course. It was a hot day, and the course provides almost no shade from the sun, as mature trees are few and far between. There had been rain in the days prior to my round, which left most of the rough and a couple of fairway sections very soggy. Combined with the lengthy drive to reach the course, it all resulted in a tiring round. Mid way through, I was just looking for a way to make it to the end. That was about all I managed to accomplish.
I hit the fairway with a good drive on the opening par-5, only to follow up with a weak 7-iron that travelled half of my regular distance. I stuck the ensuing 3-iron into the turf, jamming my left wrist in the process. I played the remainder of the round nursing the wrist to avoid further damage. I found myself almost releasing the left grip before impact on every shot. As a result, I hit a lot of push shots to the right side. I also hit a lot of shots off the toe, taking a huge amount of distance off what I would normally expect.
The only par I made was on hole #2, a par-3 playing 148 yards. I hit a 9-iron over the flag, 10 feet from the hole. I made a decent attempt at birdie, but lipped out and settled for a tap-in par. After that, it was double bogeys or worse for much of the round. Sparrow Lakes features a tonne of small ponds, and they come into play on almost every hole. Every time I hit a ball near a pond, it went in. Most of the time, the ball was directed toward the water by embankments, but even when there was no embankment, my ball manged to get wet. This added up to 11 penalty strokes on the day.
My short game was not bad at all, and I managed to putt the ball very well once again. However, that is little consolation when your ball striking is so atrocious. More alarming though, was the realization that the fun has disappeared from the game.
Score: 110
Putts: 34
Fairways: 3
Greens: 1
Penalties: 11
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