King's Forest is becoming my new nemesis. I've played there ten times and the best result (only a 95) came in my first visit. It was also nine years ago! How do you explain that? Familiarity with a course is supposed to help you score better, isn't it? The course is no slouch, but my problems there have been my own doing entirely.
The first hole is really not very difficult. Par may not be straightforward, but bogey should be a guarantee, every time out. You tee off from an elevated tee to a generous fairway. You can miss on both sides and still be okay. There is especially a lot of room on the right side. However, everything slopes down from right to left. From the right side, the ball will be above your feet (for right handers) on the second shot, not to mention that you will be coming out of the rough. A small cluster of spruce trees up ahead will block your path to the green.
If you choose a lofted club to get out of the rough and fly over the trees, you will likely not reach the green and will enter the trees from above. If you choose a less lofted club for more distance, you risk hitting the trees with a line drive. I've tried both approaches and end up in the spruce trees, either way. These trees are the kind where the lowest branches touch the ground, so it's impossible to get out of there with a shot toward the green.
If you take your medicine and lay up left of the trees, roughly 40 yards short of the green, the line you need to take is directly at a creek on the left side of the hole. It's difficult to judge the exact distance. Whenever I've tried this, I hit the ball too far and bounced it into the creek. So much for playing safe. The fact that you have a pull lie to contend with increases the likelihood of this happening.
This time, I wasn't going to fall victim to the scenarios outlined above. I aimed for the left side of the fairway, content to miss to the left side, for once. That's exactly what happened; I was about 8 yards into the rough and 200 yards from the green centre. From this angle, I had an unobstructed path to the green. My lie was good, too. Well, I proceeded to push a long iron – directly into the dreaded spruce trees on the right side! Seriously? What do I have to do to avoid those things?
I could only punch out to the extreme left edge of the green, as the rest was blocked out. Too far left would put me in a green side bunker. Too far right and I would smack the branches directly in front of me. The lie looked muddy, so I thought it might be difficult to get good contact. Well, I contacted it so perfectly that the ball rocketed out of there. The line was perfect, but the ball bounced on the visible sliver of green and went right into the creek! Sigh.
This is where it gets ugly. The bank of the creek is like a shelf and it's covered in long grasses. My ball stopped on the shelf and was dry, but the grass was knee high, at least. One hack moved the ball three feet. Another one moved it another foot. A third hack got it up to the upper edge of the hazard. My seventh shot was a pitch to the green and I 2-putt for a score of 9 on this par-4. Lovely.
That was pretty much the end of the round. I won't describe any more, because it was a write off from that point forward. You get all hyped up for a round and then throw it away on the very first hole. It's demoralizing. And what makes it worse is that this scenario has played itself out almost every time I've played this course. After the fourth hole, I dismissed my playing partners, advising them that if they wanted to enjoy the round, they were better off going ahead and leaving me alone.
Ironically, I played well on the part of the course that usually gives me the most trouble (holes #10 through #13). It didn't matter, as I already had triples, quads and quints on my scorecard. I would add more in the closing holes, thanks to great shots that were nevertheless punished and some patterns that repeated themselves like clockwork on a couple of holes.
Absolute garbage.
Score: 113
Putts: 39
Fairways: 1
Greens: 1
Penalties: 4
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