It was a comfortable late summer day at TPC Toronto, which I spent playing alone on the original Heathlands course. My play on the front nine was mediocre, beginning with a bogey on the opening par-5 hole. It got momentarily better with a birdie on hole 2, a 343-yard par-4. My drive was to the left rough, so I took an extra club (7-iron) to reach the green. I stuck the shot to about 10 feet, then drained a little downhill putt. The next two holes were not so good, resulting in double and triple-bogey. I wasted a perfect drive on hole 3 by pulling my approach shot into a hazard. Hole 4 began with two consecutive duffs, though the remaining shots were actually pretty good.
The remainder of the front nine was a little shaky. I bogeyed hole 5, a par-3, and made a fabulous up and down for par on hole 6, a 405-yard par-4. However, I made the turn after three consecutive double-bogeys. In all cases, I collected a penalty stroke. On hole 7, my drive barely entered the fescue left of the fairway. Though I found the ball, there is no playing out of that stuff and I was forced to take an unplayable. Hole 8 was the most disappointing. It's a par-3 that was playing just 111 yards. I hit my sand wedge fat and failed to clear the water between me and the green. On hole 8, a par-5, a weak drive left me further back than I should have been after my second shot. I tried to go for the green with a 5-wood, but splashed into the corner of a pond on the right side. My score after nine holes was 48.
The back nine was satisfying, especially the tail end. Before that, I was chugging along much like I had on the front nine. Double-bogey, bogey, bogey, and double were my scores over the first four holes. I pulled an iron off the tee on hole 10, losing it in the fescue. My drive on hole 13 found a fairway bunker with a high lip. I could only get out without advancing the ball very much. In between these two holes, the bogeys were fairly standard, with nothing unusual about how I played them.
Then the brilliance began, ironically, with a pushed drive into the fescue on hole 14, a par-5. This time, the ball stayed up on top, allowing me to get a club on it. I hit a pitching wedge back to the fairway, still 225 yards from the green. The shot suited my eye, so I took dead aim with the 5-wood. Oh what a thing of brilliance! Beautiful launch, beautiful flight, and it was headed straight to the target. When I approached the green, the ball was 12 feet below the hole at the back of the green. I just missed the birdie putt, tapping in for par. The star of the hole was that 5-wood though. I hadn't hit one of those in a long time.
But that was just a warmup for what came next. Hole 15 is a 367-yard par-4. Large bunkers protect the right side of the fairway. I aimed to the left edge of the bunkers and launched a big drive high into the air. It sailed over the corner of the bunkers and came to rest in the left fairway, 115 yards from the green. Gap wedge got me safely on the green, but I was far from the hole, maybe 30 feet. I studied the long downhill breaker and made my stroke. Genius! Oh what a read and perfect execution! Birdie baby! Second of the day.
Moving on to hole 16, a 150-yard par-3, I opted for 8-iron off the tee. The flag was in the right portion, which can be problematic because I tend to hook my irons when they don't go straight. No problem this time, as I launched the ball right on the line I wanted and it never wavered. It stopped nicely, leaving 15 feet for the birdie. Once again, I studied the putt carefully, accounting for every subtle slope. Boom! I drained it for my second consecutive birdie and third of the day!
I bogeyed the second last hole of the day and sadly, made triple-bogey on hole 18. With a bogey there, I would have broken 90. That's okay, I really enjoyed those birdies!
Score: 91
Putts: 31
Fairways: 6
Greens: 4
Penalties: 6
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