We had a few stretches of very hot and humid weather, which limited my opportunities to play golf. I wanted to squeeze a round in before the next Deepwoods event, so I headed out to Paris Grand. The first shot of the day – a drive attempt through a chute of trees from an elevated tee – failed miserably. I pulled the shot left, smacking a large tree 50 yards ahead. I was fortunate that my fellow competitors found my ball right of the fairway at the base of the hill. Pitching wedge was required to clear some tall trees and get back to the fairway. From there, I did very well to salvage bogey on this par-5 hole.
Unfortunately, I couldn't salvage the same result on the next hole, finishing with a double. I smothered a 6-iron off the tee, then hooked a 3-iron 50 yards left of the green. A shot with the lob wedge was a tad short, coming to rest in a bunker. I got out of it in decent shape, but still needed two putts to hole out. And so continued my play for the remainder of the front nine. When I had a decent hole, all I could muster was a bogey, and on two occasions when things went badly, I took a double and a triple. One of these was an approach shot from 110 yards on hole #6. The ball popped up inexplicably, 20 yards short of the target. Worse was the fact that it found a bunker and I proceeded to play my patented clean pick straight over the green.
Holes #8 and #9 are back to back par-5 holes that are quite challenging. I played conservatively on the former, teeing off with a 6-iron, rather than trying to carry a hazard from 260 yards. I tried 6-iron again with my second shot, only to pull it left into the trees within the hazard. If I knew that was going to happen, I would have tried my luck carrying the hazard with the first shot. As it was, triple-bogey was the result.
On hole #9, I hit a gem of a drive, coaxing the ball down the middle of the fairway, overlooking the large ravine that must be carried with the second shot. I was only 210 yards from the green and in perfect position. Sure enough, I absolutely topped the ball, sending it dribbling 10 yards forward – just enough to trickle over the edge and into the ravine. After taking a penalty and a drop, I hit the shot as I should have the first time, finishing just left of the green. I got up and down to rescue a bogey.
Shooting 50 at the turn, I knew I had to make a few pars. Unfortunately, I began the back nine with a trio of double-bogeys. My drives were off and I was forced to hit some long irons. Some of these were good, while others were mediocre. Believe it or not, my chipping and putting was good. Otherwise, the damage would have been worse.
The pars finally came on holes #13 and #15. The former is a short par-4 running right beside the Grand River. I punched a low 3-iron off the tee, followed by a decent pitching wedge to the left edge of the putting surface. A solid lag and easy tap-in finished things off. The latter is a nice par-5, with danger along the entire left side. Despite a poor drive, I was flag high, just off the green in three shots. When my first chip rolled off the other side of the green, I responded by chipping the ball straight in the cup.
I should have had another par on hole #14, a par-3. Though I missed the green, I made a great chip, leaving just four feet for par. A hard lip-out ruined the previous stroke. A couple more bogeys finished the round, producing a score of 46 on the back nine and 96 overall. Considering that my ball striking was hit and miss, it's not a bad result. Clearly, my ball striking suffers when I play infrequently. Another positive was my putting.
Let's see what the next round brings!
Score: 96
Putts: 30
Fairways: 5
Greens: 1
Penalties: 4
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