Oh, Lordy! This will be a brief summary. After a Saturday afternoon round in Niagara Falls that was delayed by thunder and lightning, I got back to Toronto pretty late. I returned to the Niagara area the following afternoon for a Deepwoods event. Once again, the round was delayed by thunder and lightning, and we barely finished by sunset. Between the long drives fighting traffic and the weather delays, it was a tough slog. I played terribly, which only made things worse.
I began the Quarry nine at Peninsula Lakes with a pretty good bogey. I split the fairway with my drive, but shanked a 7-iron into the trees right. Fortunately, I finished with a great up and down. On hole #2, a par-3, I hit a lovely 8-iron off the tee. It was so lovely that it bounced into a back bunker. Across the green from me was a pond, so I was not going to play a regular bunker shot. With my propensity to unwittingly pick those shots clean, it was a recipe for disaster. Instead, I took a small swing and tried to pick it clean intentionally. I got out of the bunker, but stayed in the rough. A chip was followed by a great putt that lipped out, producing a double-bogey.
I made another double on hole #3, and was keenly aware that I was letting points slip away. That hole started with a duffed 5-wood off the tee. I duffed another one off the tee with driver on hole #4, but followed up with a monstrous 5-wood that stopped 15 yards in front of the green. A great up and down saved par and earned back one of those lost points. I was still in the game. On the next hole, I hit driver, 5-iron to the green fringe. My long lag putt was pretty good and so was my par attempt, but it lipped out disappointingly. In Deepwoods competitions, I feel like I really need those ones. Inevitably, there will be blowup holes, so I need to maximize points when things are going well.
Quarry #6 is a 181-yard par-3 that I don't like at all. It's not poorly designed – it just seems to kill me every time. The entire left side is out of bounds, while the right side is protected by a pond. With steep embankments around the pond, it plays much larger than it is. There is no bail out, unless you want to hit a 90-yard shot off the tee. I hit 6-iron and pulled it out of bounds. Hitting my third from the tee, I avoided some bunkers left of the green. A weak chip got me on the green, but a 3-putt finished things off for a quadruple-bogey.
Snap! That was the end of it. I had no hope of making up the lost points, so the rest of the round was a write-off. I checked out mentally and just went through the motions. I didn't care about my score – I knew I wouldn't earn the points needed to get back in the Deepwoods race, so it didn't really matter. I started swinging as hard as I could on my drives. I tried about six of these “berserk” swings and not one of them worked well. Sometimes, I pull off a berserk swing and it does wonders to relieve frustration and stress. Not this time.
I shot a woeful 104, but like I said, the score is irrelevant. The first third of this round was the only part that mattered and once I made a mess of that, the rest was pointless.
Score: 104
Putts: 37
Fairways: 4
Greens: 2
Penalties: 5
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