I was eager to erase the memory of my last round, so I headed out to Lowville Golf Club. It was a beautiful day and I was playing by myself. The course was not busy, so I had the luxury of taking my time. I was in a good mind frame as I teed up a ball on the first hole. I hit it off the heel and didn't even reach the fairway. Not a good start. I recovered with a nice 5-wood and eventually made bogey on this uphill par-5. Okay, everything was still fine.
Now facing a downhill drive on hole #2, I pulled the ball terribly, smacking a lone tree on the opposite side of a water hazard. If I managed to avoid the tree, I might have been in the opposite fairway, but the ball would have travelled another 100 yards, giving me a chance to approach the green. As it was, the ball came to rest just in front of the water hazard and I had long weeds impeding my backswing. It was a terrible position and all I could manage on the hole was a double-bogey.
Fortunately, I straightened things out over the remainder of the front nine. By straightening out, I don't mean that I was hitting the ball straight. I mean that I managed to score five bogeys and a couple of pars. I did hit fairways on holes #7 and #9, but the final green was the only one found in regulation. The good part was that I managed to get up and down on three separate occasions. One of these, on hole #5, required a fairly lengthy putt. Incidentally, I hit a beautiful iron off the tee on this 177-yard par-3, but it rolled off the back of the green. My chip shot was weak, but the putt saved a precious par.
The back nine started as the front nine did, with a bogey and double-bogey. I hit a great drive on hole #10 and as I was walking up to my ball, I took note of a water hazard to my right. It caught my eye because it was a lot more thick and lush than I ever remember it being. Perhaps it was bad karma, as I drove my ball into that hazard while playing the next hole. It resulted in my first penalty stroke of the day and second double-bogey.
I recovered for a very nice par on hole #12, despite a wickedly pulled drive to an opposite fairway. The trusty 5-wood got me back in the heart of the fairway on this par-5, just 30 yards from the green. I pitched long, but chipped on and made another great putt. Too bad I didn't do the same on hole #13, which is ranked the easiest hole on the course. It's a 151-yard par-3 with OB along the entire right side, but there is plenty of room to bail out to the left. That's exactly what I did. All I needed was a pitch and two putts for bogey, but I duffed the first pitch and made a mediocre second. This was followed by my only 3-putt of the day for a disastrous triple-bogey.
When my drive on hole #14 sliced right into a lateral hazard, it could have been the beginning of the end. After taking a penalty and drop, I hit a weak pitching wedge short of the green. No problem, as I managed another key up and down to save bogey. There was a final up and down on hole #16, a very tough uphill par-4. Though I finished the hole well, it came after a bunch of poor shots, including an approach shot that trickled into the hazard left of the green. Double-bogey was the result.
The remaining holes all produced bogeys, with nothing remarkable to say about them. My final score was a respectable 91, but aside from my up and down percentages, I don't really feel like I played well. Golf is strange that way. I've had rounds of 91 where I feel like I played amazingly. Score does not always reflect how you play.
Score: 91
Putts: 30
Fairways: 3
Greens: 1
Penalties: 3
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