Outside, the wind is howling. All but the most stubborn leaves have fallen off the trees. Winter approaches. Inside, I sit before the glow of my computer screen. A cup of coffee rests nearby, cooling faster than I'd like. It's been a month since my last round of golf, as autumn temperatures have not been conducive to playing. There were a couple of days when temperatures reached into double digits, but it wasn't enough to coax me onto the fairways and greens. The last of these days was Saturday. Instead of playing golf, I took advantage of the mild weather to put the winter tires on my car. It was a more productive use of the time, I figured.
2013 was a challenging year for my golf game, but then again, so were the two preceding seasons. I began the year hoping to return to the form I displayed in 2009-2010. Instead, I continued a downward trend that now sees me at the level I displayed when first taking up the game. I played 31 rounds this year, equalling my total from the previous season. It's a decent number, but not enough to keep my game sharp. When my game was better, I was playing about 50 rounds per year. Besides playing less, I also fail to practice on a regular basis. Living in the city, it's a trek just to reach a practice facility.
The year began well enough, with a series of scores that weren't good, but which moved in the right direction. I shot 116 in my first round, following a five month layoff without touching a club. It would be my worst round of the year. My next two scores were 108 and 101 respectively. I stalled abruptly near the century mark, with scores of 101 and 100 in my next two rounds. The illusion of progress came to an end with my next round, a blowup that produced a final tally of 110. I bounced back with a 93, which ended up being my best of the year. Unfortunately, this was followed by a season long stretch of terrible scores, mostly in the 100 – 106 range.
In fact, I managed to break 100 just five times during the whole season. The 93 that I mentioned earlier came at Willodell Golf Club of Niagara. Exactly one third into the season, I recorded a 96 at Willow Valley. A couple of rounds later, I squeaked out a 99 at Ussher's Creek. Another 99 came late in the season at Flamborough Hills. My penultimate round of the year, played at Lowville Golf Club, produced a decent score of 94. When I first took up golf, breaking 100 was something of an accomplishment. After a few years, it came to be expected. To break that level so few times this year is a colossal failure.
Delving deeper into my stats reveals more bad news. My average score this year was 103.5 – an embarrassment, really. On average, I collected 35.6 putts per round, along with 4.1 fairways in regulation, 2.8 greens in regulation, and 5.7 penalty strokes. The putting numbers, while not great, are not the problem. The scant figures for fairways and greens in regulation are more revealing. They show obvious inaccuracy off the tee, and indeed with all of my full shots. If my chipping and putting were better, I could get away with numbers like that. Alas, my short game is not good enough to bail me out of trouble.
5.7 penalty strokes per round? Holy smokes! I'm shaking my head in disgust right now.
With my game clearly suffering, I sought to keep the game interesting by playing some courses that were new to me. Courses that I visited for the first time in 2013 were: Sparrow Lakes, Willodell of Niagara, Wolf Run, Paris Grand, Muskoka Bay, Rockway Vineyards, The Country Club (East Course), and Flamborough Hills. Muskoka Bay Club was easily the best of the bunch. The others are not in the same league, but I really took a liking to Paris Grand. Wolf Run and Willodell were OK. Sparrow Lakes, Rockway Vineyards, and Flamborough Hills were not very good, but they did offer excellent value for the money.
Paris Grand was the first course I returned to for a second visit during the year. My first 26 rounds of the year were at 26 different golf courses. After round 27 at Paris Grand, I finished the season with return visits to Willow Valley, Century Pines, Lowville, and Hockley Valley. If nothing else, it was a season of variety in courses played. There are courses I didn't get out to that I would have enjoyed playing, but my choice of venue was often dictated by financial constraints. Even with additional travel costs, I often found it more economical to play away from Toronto. Hence, there were a lot of visits to the Niagara area, for example.
Lastly, there was the Deepwoods Golf Association championship. I had my worst season ever, finishing right near the bottom of the standings. My Deepwoods handicap (18) was earned on the basis of some good years, including a title in 2008 and a runner-up finish as late as 2010. For the last three years, I have simply failed to live up to that handicap. In fact, my real handicap factor has ballooned all the way to 25.8 – up from a personal best of 15.7 at one time. That fact, perhaps more than anything else, sums it all up.
No comments:
Post a Comment