My latest round of golf at Mill Run produced a woeful score of 104. Officially, it's my worst result of the season and first time this year that I've reached the century mark. Mind you, I had a round at Hunters Pointe back in June when I was certain to surpass 100, but gave up keeping score.
I played the Wheel and Grind nines this time around, which was a little different. I had only played the Wheel once before and it was a long time ago. So long, in fact, that I couldn't remember any of the holes. All of my recent visits began with Grind and ended with the Grist nine.
Wheel #1 is a 545-yard par-5 with forest on both sides and a water hazard that crosses twice in front of the green. It's the #1 handicap hole on the course, which makes for a difficult start. I hugged the left side with my first two shots, leaving myself too far back to challenge the green with my third. I tried to lay up between the water hazards and got the distance right, but pushed the ball to the edge of the bushes on the right. I hacked a lob wedge clear across the green, as the ball came out much cleaner than I thought it would. After a chip and 3-putt, I walked away with a triple-bogey. What a terrible way to start a round!
I made double bogey on Wheel #2, followed by four consecutive bogeys and another double on Wheel #7. The double-bogeys were completely uncalled for. On hole #2, a par-4, I pitched my third shot a hair too long and finished a couple yards off the back of the green. With the green sloping away from me, I had to be delicate. As it turned out, I was too delicate and barely got the ball to the green. I did well to 2-putt from there. On hole #7, a short par-3, I pushed a pitching wedge into a hazard, picking up my first penalty stroke of the day. Pitching wedge!
There was a disastrous quadruple-bogey on Wheel #8, when I smothered the ball with a 7-iron from 160 yards. The ball was slightly above my feet, but the lie in the fairway was fine. I don't remember experiencing contact like that ever before. It was weird. It almost felt like a double hit, but wasn't. The ball ended up under some spruce trees and my subsequent punch shot crossed the fairway into a water hazard. It was terrible. Fortunately, I made a nice bogey on Wheel #9, which is the sister hole to #1 and ranked the #2 handicap hole.
Shooting 52 at the turn, I still had hopes of salvaging a score in the mid nineties. I started the Grind nine with bogey, bogey, and par, which gave me some encouragement. Unfortunately, I pulled my tee shot into the hazard on Grind #4, leading to a penalty stroke, 3-putt and ultimately a triple-bogey. A couple of bogeys ensued over the next few holes and by the time I reached the penultimate hole of the day, I knew I was in trouble. A bogey, bogey finish was needed just to score 99, but that went out the window with my drive attempt on Grind #8. The ball popped up and went way left into the forest. I had to hit my third from the tee and eventually tallied a score of 10 on this par-4. Man!
I couldn't hit fairways, find greens when I needed to, or putt with any consistency. In fact, a string of 3-putts on the Grind nine was probably my undoing. There's nothing to take away from this round except to call it a character builder and move on.
Score: 104
Putts: 39
Fairways: 2
Greens: 2
Penalties: 4
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