Piper's Spieth

I've played at Piper's Heath Golf Club a fair number of times, but not since 2010. It's a very nice course, so I was anxious to finally go back. Having watched Jordan Spieth repeat as champion at the John Deere Classic just a day earlier, I tried to envision myself as “Piper's Spieth” at the Milton area layout. Spieth and I have just about nothing in common, so that's a real stretch of the imagination, but a guy can dream, right?

I teed off in the early morning and the course was in fantastic condition. The only blemish on the course was the fact that they had just laid down some top dressing on the greens. They were still fast, but nobody likes putting through sand. Oh well, it was just bad timing. The weather was ideal. In previous visits to Piper's Heath, I have been pelted by rain and pushed around by massive wind gusts. On this occasion, there was nothing but sunshine and an occasional breeze.

I made par right out of the gate with a driver, 9-iron combo to the first green, along with two putts. This was followed by my worst hole of the day, a quadruple bogey. Conscious of a marsh on the left side of this par-4, I flared my drive to the right rough, behind a large mound. A good wedge got me right beside the 100-yard stick. Next, my sand wedge was pin high, but in a bunker right. I picked it clean (aargh), flying well past the green and now I was short sided, with the green falling away from me. My pitch shot landed near the flag, but the slope and quick green caused the ball to roll all the way into the bunker again. My sixth shot was a great out from the sand, leaving me 7 feet below the hole. Unfortunately, I burned the edge of the putt and carded an 8.

Another bunker gave me trouble on hole #3, but this was of the fairway variety. After two shots on this par-5, I was 65 yards from the green, but on the beach. I completely duffed the shot, just barely popping the ball out to the lip. With a huge side hill lie and poor stance, I propelled one up to a greenside bunker. I made a nice out, but my ball released on the fast green and rolled down to a collection area behind the green. Piper's Heath has a lot of raised greens, with closely mown areas around. You can try to putt from the low spots, but chipping might be better. This time, I tried the putter and it wasn't great. I finished with triple bogey.

The rest of the front nine was fine, as I played six holes in 5 over par. It would have been better if I had a better sense of the greens' speed. A 3-putt on hole #5 turned a certain bogey into a double. I just blew the ball past on my par attempt. Hole #6 produced par, though it should have been birdie. This was a 131-yard par 3 that began with a good gap wedge. My birdie putt was on a perfect line, but it had too much speed. The ball hit the back edge of the cup, dead centre, before popping over the other side. Hole #8 was another par-3 that I reached in regulation. Again, I rolled my first putt well past the hole, leading to a 3-putt and bogey. After a shaky couple of holes early, I was on track and made the turn with a score of 48.

The back nine was wonderful, except for two holes. I bogeyed #10, in spite of a 3-putt. I really should have put my third shot closer from just 70 yards. I also bogeyed #11, before an up and down par on hole #12. Then on hole #13, a par-3 over marsh land, I completely duffed a 6-iron, landing in the hazard. I finished with a triple-bogey, thanks to the two wasted strokes off the tee. Hole #14 provided some relief with a bogey, before nonsense ensued on hole #15. With marsh land pinching the fairway on the left side, I hit a nice safe shot to the right rough. With a great angle and perfect visibility, I hit 8-iron, trying to leave about 110 yards for my third. If my ball was 5 yards left or 5 yards shorter, I would have hit my target. Instead, I found a fairway bunker and we all know how I've been doing with bunker shots recently. I hit the lip of the bunker, but popped out to 60 yards. Hitting from a low spot on the fairway, I took a giant beaver pelt of a divot, leaving the ball 30 yards from the green. When I tried bouncing one into the mound just before the green, I carried just to the top of it, so the ball released all the way to the back of the green.  A 3-putt finished things up for triple-bogey. It's frustrating how a couple bad shots led to many more additional strokes.

After that, I was fine again, closing out with a par and two bogeys for a score of 95. When I replay the round in my head, it's the same old story; four or five bad shots lead to about 10 additional strokes. It's the reason I shoot mid nineties instead of mid eighties. I feel so close to being a mid eighties shooter, if I could just replace a handful of terrible shots with better ones – even mediocre shots would do the trick of lowering those scores significantly.

Score: 95
Putts: 35
Fairways: 7
Greens: 5
Penalties: 1