Looking to play at least one more time before the next Deepwoods event, I opted for a round at Willodell Golf Club of Niagara. I played there for the first time last year and it was a decent enough track that I didn't mind making a return visit. The course offers a reasonable challenge, yet it's fairly forgiving. You can often recover from wayward shots, either by punching low under some tree branches, or by lofting the ball high over the tree canopies.
I played the back nine first, registering 2 pars, 6 bogeys and one triple, for a score of 45. I hugged the left side of hole #10, a par-5, all the way to the green. I actually hit a great shot from 150 yards to find the putting surface, but then had my first of two 3-putts on the day. The pars came on holes #11 and #13, thanks to some short game magic. I got up and down from left of the green on the first of these, while I chipped in from off the green on the second.
After laying up my tee shot on hole #14, I chunked a 9-iron into a hazard directly in front of me. I was forced to drop and take a penalty stroke, which turned out to be my only one of the day. The mistake led to triple bogey. Fortunately, I rattled off four consecutive bogeys before making the turn. The golf gods cooperated on hole #15, as my tee shot was slicing into the woods, but ricocheted off a tree and finished in the middle of the fairway. I wasn't so lucky after my tee shot on hole #17, finishing left of the fairway with a tree impeding my swing. Up and down near the green made up for the stroke I lost because of that predicament.
On the front nine, my game became a little less consistent. Although I shot 46, it consisted of 1 birdie, 2 pars, 1 bogey, and 5 doubles. The birdie came on hole #2, a par-5 that was playing into the wind. I pushed my tee shot just right of the fairway, where a couple of trees were impeding my progress. I tried to punch an easy 6-iron to the left side of the fairway, but the ball launched way further than I expected, smacking some big trees. To my astonishment, the ball bounced back to the fairway, 130 yards from the flag. From there, I hit a perfect pitching wedge to 4 feet and drained the straight, uphill putt.
It wasn't all great luck. After my second shot on hole #1, another par-5, I was stymied behind a lone tree trunk, 80 yards from the green. I had to chip the ball sideways just to get back to the fairway. It would have been fine had I pitched onto the green next, but I duffed my attempt en route to a double-bogey. A couple of par-3 holes also produced a pair of doubles. On both occasions, I hooked my iron shots, putting me in a bad situation. On hole #3, for example, I had to punch below a tree and roll through the rough to see if I could stop on the green. The punch worked well, but the stopping not so much, as the ground was dry and hard.
Despite getting a little loose later in the round, I finished with a strong par to score 91, which is my best of the season, so far. Come to think of it, it's my best of the last two seasons and equals my best of the last three seasons! It goes to show you how much I've struggled with my game over the last few years. The last time I went lower was when I scored 83 at Willow Valley in September 2011.
Score: 91
Putts: 30
Fairways: 5
Greens: 3
Penalties: 1
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