With golf season rapidly coming to a close, I planned a series of rounds in quick succession. The first of these was at Century Pines. Weather was good, and I was fortunate to get paired with a good partner. He was friendly, but not too chatty. More importantly, he moved along the course efficiently. We played as a twosome, which certainly helped. It was a pleasant day, and I was able to focus completely on my game.
During my last couple of rounds, I was experimenting with a particular swing adjustment. I set up with the club face open to the target line, but in line with my left arm. Picture a straight line starting from my left shoulder and extending through my left arm and the shaft of the club. The club face at address would be in line with that. On the backswing, I maintained that open club face. On the downswing, I rotated (or rolled) the wrists to square the club face at impact, then continued to roll over to a closed club face position in the follow through. I thought of nothing else during the swing but that rotation.
At Century Pines, I employed this move consistently, and the results were good. In previous visits to the course, I struggled with the opening tee shot, which features trees and out of bounds left. I often bailed to the opposite fairway on the right side. This time, I used that move to stripe one down the middle of the fairway, with just a hint of draw action. I continued to do the same with the driver for the rest of the round. The results weren't always as great as they were on the first hole, but they were consistently good.
My second shot on hole #1, which is a lengthy par-5, came with the 4-iron. The move I described earlier can be applied to irons, just as with the driver. In this particular case, I failed to close the club face enough during the downswing. At impact, it was still open, resulting in a ball pushed to the right. It landed in a pond and I was forced to take a penalty stroke. I immediately adjusted, and the next shot was a fabulous high 6-iron that sailed across the pond and over a huge tree protecting the right side of the green.
For the remainder of the round, I used that rotating move with my irons to great effect. It produced an excellent approach shot on hole #2, along with a great tee shot on hole #4. I paired it up with a half swing on hole #9 to lay up in front of a creek with my second shot on the par-5. On the back nine, I cracked a wicked 5-iron off the tee on hole #10. The best one may have been a 7-iron off the tee on hole #13, a 150-yard par-3 over water to a pin at the back of the green. On the odd occasion when I missed, it was a slight miss to the right due to the club face not closing quickly enough.
I shot 46 on the front nine, with two pars, four bogeys, and three doubles. A pair of consecutive 3-putts to open the back nine contributed to three double bogeys in a row. I followed with pars on hole #13 and hole #14. Two bad chips near the green on hole #16 led to triple bogey – the only one on the day. I finished the back nine with a score of 49, which was good enough for 95 overall.
Score: 95
Putts: 34
Fairways: 4
Greens: 1
Penalties: 2
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