St. George is a little town just north of Brantford, Ontario. The local golf club, known as The Oaks of St. George, features 18 championship holes on 137 acres of rolling hills, forest and streams. The course is not particularly long, so I teed off from the tips (6,185 yards) on a recent visit. This was my second visit to the course – the first coming in 2008 on the old Duffer's Dream Tour. If you were expecting a story about St. George's Golf & Country Club, in Toronto, then you're out of luck. Ha ha, made you look!
This round was a lot like my last few outings. I played very good golf for a long stretch, but also had a mini stretch of very poor results. The trouble this time was the first four holes, or more specifically, holes #2 through #4. I rushed to join a threesome on the first tee after slogging through traffic to get to the course. They were up at the forward tees, while I was 90 yards back on the golds, still tying my shoelaces and rifling through my bag for a ball and tee. Almost miraculously, I piped a 260-yard drive to the centre of the fairway. Then I avoided a massive tree in front of the green to find the putting surface with an 8-iron. I blew my first putt well past the hole, leading to a 3-putt and bogey. Obviously, I didn't have time to do any practice putting, and the greens at the course were faster than I've been used to this season.
After a reasonably good opening hole, things went sour on the next three. On hole #2, my drive found a fairway bunker. I had no stance, resorting to playing with one foot inside the bunker and the other outside. The ball barely squirted back to the fairway with the off balance shot. My third shot into the par-4 was flag high, but one yard left of the green. A reasonable chip gave me a chance at bogey, but I didn't make it and took a double.
Hole #3 is a 140-yard par-3 over water. The teeing ground near the golds was horribly uneven and I struggled to find a level stance. Perhaps because of that nonsense, I duffed my shot right into the water. After taking a penalty and drop, I pushed an 80-yard wedge shot into a bunker on the right. I splashed out relatively well, but the ball carried downhill right off the green. Putting uphill from just off the green, I actually gave it a chance, but missed. Worse yet, I missed the comebacker and had to settle for a quadruple-bogey. The shortest hole on the front nine (and #15 handicap hole overall) ended up being my worst of the day.
Hole #4 is a 533-yard par-5 that I consider tricked up. There's nothing sneaky about the first two thirds of the hole – I hit a driver to the centre of the fairway, followed by an 8-iron to the centre of the fairway, leaving 138 yards to the green. The problem is a massive tree right in front of the green! Hole #1 had a similar tree, but it was slightly off centre. This one was smack dab in the middle! Going low is not an option – the green sits on a plateau, overlooking a rugged area that isn't a hazard, but looks like one. Going over the tree must be the play, I figured. I hit a high pitching wedge well, but still could not clear it. The tree must be 150 feet tall! My ball came to rest fifteen yards behind the tree and it was still in my way. Geez! My next shot smacked the trunk and deflected to the right. From there, at least I had an unobstructed path to the green. I pitched on and 2-putt for double-bogey.
I seem to spend most of this blog space describing the bad holes, even when they are the minority. I guess it's a way of explaining how poor results can occur easily. But here's the thing. I played the last 14 holes of the day in a score that was just 10 over par. Think about that. I was 9 over par for the first four holes and 10 over for the last 14. Unbelievable, except that this happens all the time! Over that stretch of good golf, I recorded five pars, eight bogeys, and one double. The double, by the way, was on the very last hole. Scoring at that rate felt effortless, even as I faced intimidating tee shots and unfamiliar terrain. In fact, I only bogeyed a couple of those holes because I 3-putted, otherwise there would have been more pars.
So the challenge is a familiar one: I have to extend those stretches of good golf to beyond 18 holes. It's not good enough to shoot 42 on the front nine, if I follow it up with 50 on the back. It's not good enough to play well for 14 or 15 holes, if the remaining three or four are disasters. I know I can do it. If I'm able to extend the good play for longer periods, I should score in the 84-86 range much more frequently and even challenge my personal best (81) every now and then.
Score: 91
Putts: 38
Fairways: 10
Greens: 7
Penalties: 2
No comments:
Post a Comment