My latest round of golf was at Mill Run Golf Club – a place I hadn't visited since 2009. I shot a 95 back then, playing the Grist and Wheel nines. This time around, I played the Grind / Grist combination. It's the same combination I played back in 2007, when I shot a ridiculous total of 112. That round featured a score of 69 on Grind – to this day, I believe that remains my worst ever score for nine holes of golf. I followed up with a very respectable 43 on Grist, in a true Jekyll and Hyde performance. This round featured a similar pattern, though the disparity between Grind and Grist was less pronounced.
I booked my tee time almost a week earlier, when the forecast was calling for cold weather all of this week. As it turned out, I got burned. It was indeed cold and windy when I played, but the updated forecast for the rest of the week now features some very nice temperatures.
I hit a pretty good drive on Grind #1, leaving just 105 yards to an elevated green. Unfortunately, I was just left of the fairway on the side of a mound. Adding to the poor lie / stance, was a cluster of trees pinching in on the left side. It was too much to contend with and I advanced the ball only 40 yards or so into a bunker. With 60 yards to the green, I tried to hit ball first, but caught a bit of sand and failed to reach the putting surface. Eventually, I did manage to finish with a nice putt for double-bogey.
Grind #2 is a par-5, with water protecting the green short and right. I hit three decent shots to reach a greenside bunker, left of the green. Unfortunately, my bunker problems reared their ugly head and I sculled one over the green. Again, double-bogey was the result. At this point, all of my trouble had come with wedges in my hand.
Grind #3 was my best hole of the day. This is a sharp dogleg left, with a bunker and large tree protecting the inside corner. I piped a drive deep and to the right of the tree, finishing in the middle of the fairway, 95 yards from the green. With the lob wedge, I placed the ball on the proper tier of the green. I had a good attempt at birdie, but just missed and settled for par.
At this point, my game collapsed. Two factors contributed to my demise. The first was an inability to hit an iron properly from the teeing ground on a par-3. I discussed this after my previous round and it bit me again on Grind #4. Protecting against a hook, I sculled one short and well right of target. The ball was in the woods, but I had an opening to the green. I was surprised how cleanly my ball came out, as it sailed right over the green, into more woods. This time, I had almost no backswing and could only get the ball a couple of yards off the green collar. I would finish the hole with a triple-bogey.
The second factor was wildness with the driver. After my round at The Country Club, I decided it was necessary to take more of a draw swing. I feared this might produce some mis-hits, but in fact, it worked very well at my subsequent round at Willodell. However, it caught up to me at this round, beginning with Grind #5. I sliced one deep into the woods on this short par-4. Even though I found the ball and successfully pitched back to the fairway, it set me on course for another triple-bogey.
On Grind 6, 8, and 9, I hit all my drives weakly off the heel of the club. I recovered on #6 to save bogey, but had no chance for recovery on the others. In both cases, the ball was lost and I had to hit my third from the tee. Another pair of triple-bogeys ensued. These were the only penalty strokes of the day, but they were costly, as I completed Grind and made the turn with an ugly score of 55.
I'm happy to say that I played much better on Grist. I still had some weak drives that were struck low on the club face and barely made it to 200 yards. At this point, I was “searching” with the driver for something that would work. It's a terrible feeling – like being thrown into the water when you don't know how to swim. Luckily, my last two drives of the day were good ones. I slowed myself down, practised the draw swing deliberately, and then took a committed shot.
I continued to struggle with par-3 tee shots, though. Mind you, the par-3 holes on Grist are nothing to sneeze at. There are three of them, measuring 212, 194, and 190 yards, respectively. My only good tee shot was on the last of these. The other ones were garbage, requiring good recovery shots. In the end, I scored 46 on Grist, with one par, five bogeys and three doubles.
Score: 101
Putts: 36
Fairways: 1
Greens: 2
Penalties: 2
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