With the forecast for the rest of April looking suspect, I decided to play again four days after my season debut. The scene for this round was Oliver's Nest, just west of Lindsay, Ontario. It's about as far from downtown Toronto as Niagara Falls, but takes longer to reach due to lower speed limits along the route. I like trying new courses every once in a while, and I had never been to Oliver's Nest, so I didn't mind making the trek.
The course itself, a Graham Cooke design, is pretty decent. It has plenty of length and a good variety of holes. I found the back nine to be more interesting than the front, as it features more doglegs and better use of hazards. By comparison, the holes on the front nine are fairly straight and open. Elevation changes are very subtle, but enough to factor into things like club selection. The greens have a good amount of undulation, but nothing ridiculous.
It was overcast when I teed off at noon, and the course was a little wet from some rain that passed through in the early morning hours. It was also quite cool, as I played the whole round wearing a pullover. It may be a little unfair to critique the course since the weather was less than ideal. I'm pretty sure it would be more enjoyable under sunny skies after the leaves have grown in. If I lived closer, I would play the course again, but it's hard to justify making a long trip to play there.
In my first round of the year, I played pretty well on the front nine (44) and poorly on the back (55). This round was the complete opposite. I shot a very shaky 51 on the front nine, before settling down for a nice 42 on the back. My troubles began off the tee, where I was having difficulty controlling the driver. I sliced a few attempts badly, while catching others very low on the club face. A few of these didn't even get airborne, requiring an extra shot just to get near the green.
Of course, my typical outside-in swing was the culprit. I was trying to straighten it out with my practice swings, but it seems I couldn't trust the movement when it came time to hit the ball. The only good drive came on hole #6, a 480-yard par-5. My ball travelled 260 yards to the left centre of the fairway. The swing was better with the irons – the best coming with a pitching wedge in hand off the tee on hole #3, a 135-yard par-3. My ball flew right over the flag, leaving a 12-foot birdie putt. I didn't make it, but par was easy.
On the back nine, I really only had one bad hole. That was #13, a 400-yard par-4 with a dogleg left. Once again, it was an outside-in move with the driver that caught the ball on the heel of the club, sending it left and to the old, dry fescue just ahead of the teeing ground. I hit a good 5-wood out of there, followed by a good 6-iron to just in front of the green. Unfortunately, my chip shot came up way short and I 3-putt for triple-bogey.
In fact, my short game was pretty weak for the entire round. On the front nine, it compounded problems I was having with my driver. On the back nine, when my driver was mostly good, it was the sole reason I didn't score even lower. Consider the final five holes, which resulted in three pars and a pair of bogeys. Both bogeys were the result of 3-putts after terribly short lag putts. I mean massively short, like six or seven feet. If my putting was just average over that stretch, I would have finished with five consecutive pars.
Oh well, the putting will come. I don't expect it to be good after five months off. What concerns me right now is the up and down nature of my driving. It was way off at Oliver's Nest. What encourages me is my iron play. I hit some nice ones coming down the stretch and those shots that challenge the greens are among the most fun in golf.
Score: 93
Putts: 38
Fairways: 5
Greens: 6
Penalties: 0
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