On a gorgeous late August afternoon, I headed out to Hockley Valley Resort. This is the kind of course that can be very penal if you're not striking the ball well. Keep it straight and you'll get around in reasonable comfort. Start spraying the ball or generally miss hitting, and you'll lose a lot of balls and take a lot of penalty strokes.
I started out with a great drive to the right fairway on the opening par-4. Unfortunately, I followed up with an 8-iron that hooked terribly into a wooded area left of the green. Chalk up my first penalty stroke of the day and a double-bogey. The pattern persisted, as I double-bogeyed three of the next four holes. The only hole I didn't double bogey was a par-5 that produced a score of 10. Oh my goodness! I hit some acceptable shots, but I pushed a couple of irons into the woods and therefore amassed a lot of penalties.
After five holes, I accepted the fact that I wasn't going to score well for the round. From that point on, I just tried to hit one good shot at a time, letting the chips fall where they may. Results were a bit better for the remainder of the front nine, except for a triple bogey on hole #7, when my drive inexplicably bounced into the woods right of the fairway. It was a high shot that appeared to land softly, with plenty of room to spare. Oh well, I guess not. I completed the turn with a score of 57.
The back nine was much better. I basically bogeyed everything, except for a satisfying birdie on hole #14, a 169-yard par-3. Like many of the par-3 holes at Hockley Valley, this one features a huge elevation change. Teeing off from well above the green makes club choice critical. I chose an 8-iron, which turned out to be perfect. The ball finished 6 feet from the cup and I made the putt look easy.
I wish I had the same luck with some of my other putts on the day. I counted four missed putts that I absolutely should have made. All were short and uphill. All looked to be straight, but they all broke sharply to my astonishment. The greens were not even particularly fast, but I guess the hole locations were not that easy.
I really regretted the missed putts after I tallied my final score. I took a quadruple bogey on hole #18, thanks to a bad tee shot and a duffed approach shot that went for a swim. I was surprised to see that my final score was 101. I thought I would be much higher than that. Had I known I could break 100, perhaps I would have played the last hole with more caution. Even with the quad, those putts I missed earlier could have gotten me under the century mark.
Oh well, that's the way it goes. Whether I shoot 99 or 101 doesn't really matter. The final stretch of the season is approaching, so I'm only looking forward. My goal is to get my handicap factor back into the teens, as I'm less than a point away, even with this mini setback at Hockley.
Score: 101
Putts: 34
Fairways: 2
Greens: 2
Penalties: 9
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