I've spent all year trying to get my handicap factor back into the teens. Progress was steady, but I stalled precisely when my handicap hit 20.0 after a round at Glen Eagle Golf Club. Six rounds later, it has now inched back up to 21.0, thanks to a series of mediocre results. Consider my last four rounds: 101 at The Country Club, 99 at Willodell, 101 at Mill Run, and 99 at Hidden Lake. The vast majority of my scores this year have been between 89 and 101; I'm not going to improve my handicap by testing the upper end of this range.
Things started out fairly promising on the Old Course at Hidden Lake. I bogeyed the opening hole, after finding the fairway with my drive and a greenside bunker with my approach. I made a decent out on my only bunker shot of the day, and almost saved par. My first actual par of the day was on hole #5, a par-5 that was playing 519 yards. At that point, I was 6 over through five holes. My second par of the day came on hole #9, after I split the fairway with my drive and nailed the green with my approach. I shot 46 on the front nine, or 11 over.
A similar pace on the back nine would get me to the low nineties, but I opened the back side with three consecutive double-bogeys. I felt like I was just hanging on, and sure enough, disaster finally struck. Beginning with hole #13, I made a triple-bogey, double, and triple to effectively ruin any chance of a good score. I actually did well to finish the last three holes at bogey pace and salvage a sub-100 round.
So what went wrong? To start with, I gave away too many strokes with the lob wedge in my hand. On six occasions, I failed to pitch the ball anywhere near my target. On four of these, I made decent swings, but the club face slid right under the ball. A couple of these were from tight lies in the fairway! How does that happen? On one occasion, I didn't follow through on my swing, while on another, I straight up shanked one. All I can think of, is that I may have played most of those shots with the club face too open.
When I made triple-bogey on hole #13, I also got unlucky. My drive was a weak slice that missed the fairway right, but stayed in bounds. I tried punching a 4-iron under some tree branches toward the green, and I made great contact, but I smacked one of the lower branches and the ball came backwards, albeit to the other side of the fairway. Another 4-iron punch ensued, and that too, struck a branch and came backwards, back to the right side. With trees still in my way, I kept the next shot really, really low and rolled one to the fairway, 50 yards from the green. I hacked a lot of trees on that hole, but the punishment was more severe than I really deserved.
My other triple was on hole #15, and it was all due to a horrific tee shot. This hole does not set up well for me at all. The drive is through a chute to a fairway that slopes sharply from left to right. The right side is a lateral hazard, although there is a waste bunker that catches most balls before they cross the red stakes. The trees left and just forward of the teeing ground are so close that right handed players cannot hit a cut or fade. You must hit a draw. I had too many thoughts and tried to do too much, catching the ball on the heel of the club and smacking the dreaded “Vince trees” dead on. It was simply unfortunate that I got into a troublesome period just before playing this hole.
I really need a sub-90 round to get back on track, but the season is coming to a close quickly.
Score: 99
Putts: 33
Fairways: 4
Greens: 2
Penalties: 3
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