I booked a round at Tangle Creek less than 24 hours before my tee time, making sure the weather would be nice before I did so. The forecast called for a mix of sun and cloud, with just a 30 percent chance of rain. When the chance of rain is 30 percent or lower, it almost always never rains. Well, this was the exception.
There was no sun at all for the entire day. The sky was completely overcast. When I teed off on the first hole, it was already drizzling, and it persisted for the entire front nine. In fact, it intensified. By the time I played the tenth hole, it turned into a steady rain. It went back to a drizzle by the end of the round, but no matter how you slice it, the weather was horrible.
To make matters worse, the club had very recently aerated its greens. Some clubs will roll and top dress their greens after aeration, making them a little nicer to putt on. I don't know what Tangle Creek did as part of their aeration process, but the greens were absolutely terrible. Balls would veer left and right on a single putt, which was even worse than bumping up and down as they rolled.
Despite the poor conditions, the first third of my round was great. I made five bogeys and a par over the first six holes. Two of the bogeys were disappointing because marvellous drives were followed by wedge shots that missed the greens short. The same thing happened on hole 5, but that time I got up and down for the par.
Hole 7 is a challenging par-5 and I messed it up early by failing to carry a naturalized area off the tee with my 5-wood. After taking a penalty stroke, I hit my third from the tee, followed by a good layup. Unfortunately, I messed up over the final 150 yards, finishing with a quadruple-bogey 9. One hole undid all the good I had done earlier.
The next nine holes produced six bogeys and three double-bogeys. Marvellous drives on holes 10 and 11 were wasted by subsequent wedge shots. The fairways were damp and soft, requiring shots to be picked or brushed clean. I tend to hit down on those shots, which works well under normal conditions. When the ground is soft, the divots get huge and these shots tend to come up short.
Beginning on hole 13, I got caught behind slower groups ahead of me. Some people got off the course when the rain intensified, while others paused and waited for the worst of the rain to pass. This threw off the spacing greatly. The two guys I played with on the front nine called it quits at the turn, so I played holes 10 through 12 quickly as a single. Hole 13, a par-5, took forever to play, as I was then behind a foursome. With all the waiting around, I pulled two shots into penalty areas and ended up making double-bogey.
Fortunately, the foursome let me play through on hole 14, and I made bogey. I caught the next foursome on the tee of hole 15, but they drove off without acknowledging me. As a result, this hole also took forever to play. I actually hit a fantastic drive on this 346-yard par-4, running a yard through the end of the fairway. I stood at my ball for ages as the foursome looked for balls just a few yards ahead of me in a creek. With the waiting and the soft ground, my wedge shot into the green came up short again and I made bogey.
The second group did let me through on hole 16, a par-3. Of course, with them all watching me tee off, I failed to carry the naturalized area covering most of the area between the teeing ground and the green. I was forced to take a penalty and ended up with double-bogey. Between the bad weather, the aerated greens, and all of the waiting, the focus just wasn't there. I finished the round with a triple-bogey and bogey.
I produced a lot of rounds in the 80s recently, and on the rare occasions when I didn't, I missed by only one or two strokes. This time, I shot a disappointing 96. It really was a wasted trip, I must say.
Score: 96
Putts: 33
Fairways: 6
Greens: 0
Penalties: 5
No comments:
Post a Comment