It was a beautiful Sunday in October and I wanted to make full use of the pleasant weather. I couldn't get a tee time anywhere, so I headed out to the driving range, primarily to work on my driver. I've played relatively well this year, but I feel like it has been despite the driver. I haven't been hitting it long, and at times, I've struggled to get the ball airborne. I took my old driver along for comparison.
A few hits with the old driver confirmed what I was feeling. I was hitting deep, high fades, and it was effortless. I used that club for many years, so it was a pretty good fit for my swing. By comparison, the new driver was forcing me to alter my swing too much. I added one degree of loft to it and went from a neutral setting to a draw. Immediately, I was hitting drives that looked a lot like those of the old driver. With the driver figured out, I spent a little time hitting irons and the rest of my time working on putting.
The next day, I had a tee time at Rebel Creek Golf Club, near Kitchener. It was only my second ever visit to the course, since it's pretty far from home. I striped my opening drive down the fairway, en route to a first hole par. I went on to hit 11 of 14 fairways, all but two of which were with the driver. That's almost double the number of fairways that I normally hit. The driver was working well, as was the 3-iron, which I used on two occasions.
On the front nine, the driver put me in trouble just once. Hole 6 is a 352-yard par-4. I pulled my drive into some spruce trees short and left. My ball finished under a spruce, forcing me to take an unplayable. After taking a drop, I hit a beautiful 5-wood from the rough that very nearly made the green 200 yards away. A ridge on the right side is the only thing that prevented the ball from settling on the green. I pitched on and 2-putt for double-bogey. I had two more doubles on the front nine, but irons were the culprits on those occasions.
Besides the first hole, I also made par on holes 4, 5, and 9. The first two are par-4 holes that began by finding the fairway. On hole 4, I then found the green with my approach shot, followed by a 2-putt. On hole 5, I missed the green to the right with my approach, but was flag high. After a perfect chip shot, I tapped in a short putt. Hole 9 is a 464-yard par-5, but severely uphill, which makes it play a lot longer. After a perfect drive and 4-iron, I was just below the ridge at the front of the green. I chipped toward the back pin location, but still needed two putts to hole out. My score at the turn was 44.
The back nine was a brilliant stretch of golf that included a birdie, two pars, and six bogeys. I love putting together stretches of golf where no hole is worse than bogey. Being able to avoid double-bogeys, or worse, is crucial to scoring well. Throwing a birdie in there also helps. My score on the back nine was 41, giving me a final score of 85 for the day. That's not quite my best of the year – I shot 84 on three separate occasions – but I'll take it, especially late in the year.
The birdie came on hole 12, a 352-yard par-4. I hit a nice drive to the left edge of the fairway, taking the first bounce on a slope that propelled the ball forward and to the centre of the short grass. Total yardage was about 300, as I then faced a 55-yard pitch to reach the flag on the opposite side of a creek. My approach was precise, finishing six feet below the hole. I was able to putt aggressively and drained it. Three perfect shots in a row!
On a couple of occasions, my approach shots missed the green, even though I was attacking from the middle of the fairway after perfect drives. One of these misses was with the gap wedge and another was with the pitching wedge. Both times, a decent chip was followed up by two putts for a bogey. I need to either hone those approach shots or get up and down from beside the green more often. I think fixing the approach shots might be the easier option, considering that these are wedge shots I'm talking about.
Two holes demonstrate that I'm at least capable of both these things. On hole 16, a 147-yard par-3, I hit a laser 8-iron into the wind. The ball did not deviate an inch from its line – it was pretty to watch. It finished 10 feet below the hole, setting up a good birdie chance. I missed and tapped in for par. On hole 17, a 350-yard par-4, my approach with the gap wedge found a front left bunker. I am terrible at bunker shots, but I managed to get on the green this time. Facing a 15-foot putt with a little bit of break, I lined it up and drained it for a terrific up and down.
Score: 85
Putts: 32
Fairways: 3
Greens: 11
Penalties: 4
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