Before my last round, I had only played Royal Niagara once and it was almost ten years ago. Needless to say, I couldn't remember any of the holes. Without any course knowledge, I would have to rely on whatever I could see from my vantage point as I worked my way along the course.
For the first seven holes, I played brilliantly, at least by my standards. I was one over par through four holes and four over par through seven. The nice stretch included a birdie on Escarpment #2 and par on #4. The first of these is a 352-yard par-4 and I went driver, lob wedge to stick one close. The other is a 492-yard par-5 that I attacked with the same clubs on my first and third shots. I was feeling good, to say the least.
Without warning, I tallied two consecutive triple bogeys to finish up the Escarpment nine with a score of 46. On both occasions, the lob wedge that served me so well earlier was the club that killed me. On #8, a 512-yard par-5, I started with a terrible pull way left of the fairway. I was lucky that the ball stayed out of the fescue and I was able to hit a pitching wedge over some tall trees back to the proper fairway. I was 210 yards from the green and decided to go for it. I hit 5-wood, but it was to the right and really high. The wind held it up and prevented it from diving into the fescue. I was about 70 yards from the flag with a decent lie, so I felt confident I could get on with the lob wedge. Somehow, my shot came up short and landed in a greenside bunker – my nemesis. I got out of the bunker with one shot, but just to the rough. After a chip and a putt that burned the edge, I collected the triple.
Escarpment #9 is a short par-4, measuring just 297 yards. My tee shot was slightly right of the fairway, near the cart path. I was just 60 yards from the flag, so out came the lob wedge again. My feet were on the cart path, but I elected not to take any relief. I proceeded to scull the shot well behind the green. It was a bad place for this to happen, as there is water behind the green, and my ball took a splash. After a penalty and drop, my fourth shot rolled to the front of the green. I made a poor uphill lag and ended up 3-putting as a result.
Moving to the Old Canal nine, the poor play continued. Not knowing the course was a problem on holes #2 and #3. The first of these is a par-5 featuring a chute of trees that you must navigate on your second shot. I pulled the ball slightly and found the woods on the left side. Later on, I saw that the proper play is to go right over the trees on the right. You just have to get the ball elevated and there is lots of fairway on that line. After taking a penalty and drop, I bounced one into more woods back and left of the green, en route to a triple-bogey.
The next hole is a pretty severe dogleg to the left. From the tee, I couldn't tell if there was room over the trees on the left. I also wasn't sure how much room there was to miss on the right side. I had too many thoughts and pulled one straight into the trees just ahead of the tee. After a penalty and drop, I hit two great shots to find the green and two nice putts. Lots of nice stuff there, but it was a double-bogey.
On Old Canal #6, I flared my drive attempt way right into an opposite fairway. I missed right a lot on the day. I was trying to keep my backswing short, but I was rushing the downswing, not allowing the club head to catch up to my hands. It was a case of something that had been working well for me going too far and now causing problems. After the drive, the angle back to the fairway was straight at a large pond on the other side and I was worried about going long. I favoured the right side and ended up hitting one into waist high fescue. Any ball into fescue was lost, as evidenced by the fact that I had seven penalty strokes. A lot of those were due to the hay. I ended up with another triple-bogey.
I limped in to the finish and actually was surprised that I came so close to the century mark. It felt like I played better than that. I did, but it was only over the first seven holes. Once again, 18 holes proved to be way too much for me to handle.
Score: 99
Putts: 36
Fairways: 1
Greens: 2
Penalties: 7
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