I booked a round at King's Forest, only to find out at the last minute that part of the course was closed for maintenance and that I would have to play the same nine twice. Not only that, but my tee time would have to be pushed back by 45 minutes. I was given the option to cancel, which I did, but now I was left with nowhere to play. After a quick search, the only place I could get a tee time at was Scenic Woods. I had already played there twice this year and was content to leave it at that. This is despite the fact that I've had great success there. In my four visits to the course, I had four scores of 85. Alas, I had no other options, so off I went.
The starter had me join a threesome and that pretty much dictated how this round would play out. Two of the guys were quite friendly, while the third was more aloof. I estimate they were 15-20 years older than me, but they moved around the golf course like they were 40 years older. I'm not talking about their golfing ability – just about how they moved (or didn't move) around the course. I realized on the first hole that this was going to be a slow round. It was frustrating because there was absolutely nobody ahead of us. When I'm fretting about fellow competitors instead of my game, you know the result is going to be bad. There was no rhythm whatsoever to the round and the result was predictable.
I bogeyed the opening hole, then pulled my tee shot on hole #2 into the woods. Hitting my third from the tee, all I could muster was a triple-bogey. I made par on hole #3 to get back on track, but any satisfaction was short-lived. Hole #4 is a short par-4. You can drive one near the green, but there is substantial risk. The safer play is to hit something like 8-iron, then wedge into the putting surface. In previous visits, the aggressive approach worked for me, so I went with it again. On those occasions, however, I was able to focus. This time, my mind was elsewhere. A bad drive led to my second penalty stroke of the day and I finished with a double-bogey.
The penalty strokes continued over the next couple of holes. On hole #5, I hit a drive to the centre of the fairway, only to have my ball stop in a small, dry ditch. The ball was on the up-slope, which interfered with my stance, but otherwise seemed fine. I made great contact with a 6-iron, only to watch the ball curve inexplicably to some bushes on the left. Double-bogey was the result. On hole #6, I hit a weak 6-iron off the tee. My second shot was a low punch beneath a tree and over a creek. Unfortunately, I hit it so well that the ball ran into more bushes left of the green. This time, I finished with a triple-bogey.
I closed out the front nine with three bogeys, but even these were bad bogeys. On hole #8, I piped a 270-yard drive straight down the fairway. My lob wedge into the green flew over the flag, leaving a lengthy downhill putt for birdie. The greens were really slow and I left the first putt way short. This led to a dreaded 3-putt. On hole #9, a 168-yard par-3, I hit an absolutely marvellous tee shot. There was a really stiff crosswind from right to left, so I aimed well right of the flag. Contact was pure, the ball was high, and I rode the wind perfectly. The only negative was that I hit the ball further than I usually do. I was left with a lengthy downhill birdie putt and once again, I came up short, 3-putting to make the turn with a score of 49.
Holes #10 and #13 were disastrous triple-bogeys. A punch shot from beneath a tree smacked the trunk on #10, finishing unplayable in the weeds behind me. A 7-iron off the tee curled into a water hazard on #13, and then I duffed a shot from the drop area. In between, I managed a couple of decent bogeys. I was still hanging on at hole #15, but then my drive attempt hooked a bit into the fescue. At that point, I needed to play well just to secure a score in the high nineties, so I really lost interest. I began playing shots that I normally wouldn't, just to see if I could pull any of them off. I took three penalty strokes on hole #15 alone, leading to a score of 10.
There was a bright spot at the end of the round, on hole #18. This is a 451-yard par-5, with a large pond that runs on the right side from the mid-point up to the green. I was not playing for score, so I tried to hit driver as hard as I could. The funny thing is, the huge swing led to the shortest drive of the day – just 200 yards, finishing in the left rough. LOL. I was 250 yards from the green and decided to hit 5-wood to see how close I could get it. Well, contact was pure, and a tailwind carried the high shot right up to the green. It took one bounce before the putting surface and finished flag-high, 18 feet from the cup. What a great shot! The eagle attempt was very good, leaving less than a foot for the tap-in birdie.
As for the round overall, what a letdown coming on the heels of a 78.
Score: 103
Putts: 34
Fairways: 4
Greens: 3
Penalties: 9
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