I played The Wheel / Grind combination at Mill Run and except for a couple of blowup holes, it was a rather good outing. Of course, a couple blowup holes is all it takes to ruin an otherwise good score. The blowups came on Wheel #1 and #9, a pair of par-5 holes ranked as the hardest handicaps.
A weak drive on the first hole nevertheless found the safety of the fairway. Next, I pumped a long iron deep, but was a few yards into the right rough – enough to be blocked out of the green by some trees ahead. A perfectly placed pitch shot got me back in the fairway, 100 yards from the green. So far, not too bad, but then I pulled the approach near a creek that runs left of the green. I had an opening, but the ground was so soft that I duffed one a few yards ahead. The new lie was no better and I plunked one in a bunker. My seventh shot barely made it out. This was followed by a chip shot and two putts for a nasty score of 10. Oh my word!
The next six holes were smooth sailing, as I went bogey, par, par, par, bogey, and bogey. That's three over for one third of a round, which ain't bad at all. If I could string together two more of those, the result would be a final score of nine over, or 81. Alas, we all know it doesn't work that way. Eighteen holes is a lot of golf and it's hard to stay out of trouble for very long. The three consecutive pars came thanks to three up and down plays. Who knows, if I could just hit some greens, maybe there would be some birdies thrown in there.
A bonehead shot on Wheel #8 led to a triple bogey, but worse was yet to come. My drive faded a bit right and I was forced to pitch sideways to get back to the fairway. Instead of a 40-yard pitch, I pulled off an 8-yard duff and now I faced a longer shot than necessary over water. On Wheel #9, I pulled my drive sharply into the woods just ahead of the teeing area. After a penalty stroke and drop, I topped a 5-wood into the same trees. I found that ball on a soft lie and tried to pitch back to the fairway, except I struck it so well that it crossed the fairway into the trees on the other side. I had to take an unplayable, but my drop still left me blocked out by trees. With my sixth shot, I was back in the fairway. After a 3-iron and 5-wood combination, I was short and right of the green. I pitched on and 2-putt for a lovely score of 11. Oh my word!
Thankfully, there were no more shenanigans for the rest of the round. I followed up the 53 on the Wheel with a score of 44 on The Grind. On hole #2 through #7, I went birdie, bogey, bogey, bogey, par, and bogey. That's another third of a round played just three over par. It goes to show how fine a line it is between scoring in the low eighties and the high nineties. The problem is, I'm always on the wrong side of that line! I can play six consecutive holes rather well. I can even do that twice in the same round. What I can't do is play 18 holes without a couple disasters that ruin everything.
The Grind is actually my favourite nine at Mill Run, so I was glad to have played well there. Overall, my driving of the ball is quite good. I'm hitting a pretty good number of fairways and when I miss one, it's usually just a slight miss. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for my irons. I'm just not hitting greens, even with wedges in my hand. These misses are often slight as well, but my short game is not good enough to make up for them. Sure, I had a few up and downs during this round, but it's usually the exception. I feel like I'm playing well enough to shoot in the mid eighties, but it's not happening. Mistakes come out of the blue, and when they do, scores inflate out of control.
Score: 97
Putts: 32
Fairways: 9
Greens: 2
Penalties: 2
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