In Ontario, like in most other Canadian provinces, the Active Handicap Season for posting golf scores ends October 31st. On the last official day of the season, I headed out to Hidden Lake Golf Club to see if I could drop my handicap factor by a few tenths of a point. Psychologically, this has a great effect, as the factor will remain unchanged until at least April 15th of next year. That is, unless one travels to and plays in a different geography over the winter months.
It was a cool day as we teed off on the Old Course, back nine first. Cold weather golf is nothing at all like warm weather golf, so I was not expecting greatness. My drives early on were hit and miss. On hole #10, I hit a perfect one to the right centre of the fairway. On hole #11, I was unlucky not to clear a hazard that crosses the fairway. On hole #12, I was right back in the fairway with a nice one. And so it proceeded for most of the round. On a couple of occasions, I pulled my tee shots badly, but ended up in an opposite fairway where I was able to recover.
Early on, I was also hooking a lot of short iron and wedge shots. I am able to draw the ball when I want to, but the draw was getting exaggerated and I was lacking control. I dialed it back a bit and the results became quite a bit better. Putting was consistent, though not spectacular. It looked as though the greens had been aerated a few weeks ago and they were starting to smooth over again. Still, the putting surfaces were a little soft and slow. One can't expect conditions at this time of year to be as good as they are during the prime season.
In the end, I shot a score of 90, which I was satisfied with. I had one blowup hole (a quadruple bogey on hole #17) but aside from that, it was mostly bogeys with a sprinkling of pars. As for my handicap, it dropped by two tenths of a point to 17.6. I have bounced between 17 and 18 all year, so you can say no real progress has been made. On the other hand, I had a lot of scores this year in the 90 - 93 range, so there is an argument to be made that I became more consistent. Either way, I will be looking for dramatic improvement next year.
There may still be a few rounds to play this year. We shall see.
Score: 90
Putts: 36
Fairways: 3
Greens: 5
Penalties: 2
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