A little over three years ago, I made my debut at Lakeridge Links Golf Club. I enjoyed the course, but haven't had the opportunity to go back, until now. I headed out there on a beautiful October day for a mid morning tee time. Unfortunately, traffic was terrible. I needed gas, which diverted me from the route I would normally take. Getting to the highway from the gas station was painful. Closer to the course, the main road was undergoing construction. Not only was it slow, but all the road signs had been pulled out of the ground, so I drove past the road where I should have turned. I arrived at the course exactly at my tee time.
I hate rushing to the golf course, as it usually takes a few holes for your mind to slow down. Without any practice putting, you have no idea of the green speeds. It's a bad combination for scoring well. Despite all that, I did reasonably well over the first three holes, collecting a bogey, double-bogey, and par. A nice drive to the left fairway started things off on the opening par-4. A mid-iron approach was well short of the green, but I pitched on and 2-putt. I duffed a 5-iron off the tee on hole 2, a dogleg par-4 to an elevated green. That mistake aside, it played out like a typical bogey hole. Hole 3, which produced the par, is a 174-yard par-3. My 6-iron shot landed short of the flag and rolled just a few inches to the side of the flag stick, before stopping 12 feet behind the hole. My birdie putt was two feet short, unfortunately.
The next eight holes were not much fun. Some bad shots, combined with some bad luck, produced elevated scores. In fact, I was 14 over par for those eight holes, including one par, one bogey, five double-bogeys, and one triple! The par was on hole 7 – a par-3 with a forced carry over a naturalized area to a green surrounded by woods and fronted by a creek. I hit a sweet 8-iron flag high, then lagged one close and tapped in to finish. If only the rest of that stretch had been as smooth!
I 3-putt hole 4, a challenging par-5, leading to double-bogey. I pulled my drive on hole 5 ever so slightly, but ended up with a spruce tree blocking my backswing. Even when I got the ball out of there, my path to the green was blocked by another spruce. Again, double-bogey was the result. That hole frustrated me, and I ended up making a mess of my drive on hole 6. I hit the heel of the club and the ball went maybe 70 yards. I don't know for sure, because the ball was lost. With the penalty, I notched my third consecutive double-bogey.
It didn't help that I was in a twosome, playing behind a foursome. Even if the foursome plays at the proper pace, you're going to be waiting a lot in that situation. We were waiting on every single shot. I'm not even one of those guys who complains about pace of play, but truthfully, it was impossible to get into a rhythm. My frustration peaked on holes 9 and 10. I topped my second shot on hole 9, then 3-putt on the green for yet another double-bogey. Hole 10 was the worst, as I had been hoping the foursome would let us through at the turn. No such luck. I smothered another shot off the heel of the driver that went nowhere. To make matters worse, I had almost no backswing available to pitch back to the fairway. My fourth shot on this par-5 was just right of the green. I then chipped on and 2-putt for triple-bogey.
It was only after hole 11 that the frustration wore off. I guess I accepted that we would be waiting on all shots for the remainder of the round. My playing partner and I had a lot of time to talk, so that probably was a helpful distraction. I ended up going 5 over par for the last seven holes, including a birdie and six bogeys. The birdie was on hole 17, a 160-yard par-3 over a pond to a wide but shallow green, set against a hillside. I hit 7-iron with a little baby draw, directly at the flag on the right side of the green. I followed that up with a perfect putt from about 10 feet away. Golf like it should be!
The rest of the final stretch was not perfect, but good enough to keep me happy. On hole 12, I just missed the fairway, then just missed the green, needing a chip and two putts for the bogey. I can live with that. On hole 13, my drive was perfect, but my approach from 150 yards was pulled slightly left of the green. Again, a pitch and 2-putts finished things off for bogey. Hole 14 is the hardest hole on the course. After my drive missed just right of the fairway, I wisely played a 90 yard shot to the 150-yard stick. A valley and creek protect the front of the green, so that was a no-brainer. I hit a good 8-iron on my third shot, then 2-putt for the bogey.
Hole 15 features the most intimidating tee shot on the course, as it's a long carry over the creek that crosses the fairway. The creek is angled, so it's a longer carry over the right side. Of course, I hit my drive to the right and just failed to carry the creek. After a penalty and drop, I hit a beautiful iron to the green and followed with an easy 2-putt. The approach shot saved the bogey for me. On hole 16, a par-5, my third shot was thinned over the green. A chip and two putts finished up the typical bogey. Finally, on hole 18, a perfect drive was followed by a slight miss with a long iron, requiring a familiar pitch and two putts to card the last bogey of the day.
I can live with bogey golf – it means you're close to challenging the golf course as it should be played. Your shots are in the general vicinity of your targets, which makes the game fun. It's the complete miss hits that take some of the fun out of the game. These are wasted shots nowhere near your target that lead to double-bogey or worse. Mind you, I've been limiting a lot of bad holes to double-bogey recently, which is much better than triple-bogey or worse. On this day, I just strung together too many of those doubles.
Score: 94
Putts: 35
Fairways: 6
Greens: 3
Penalties: 2
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