Hot and Cold at Woodington Lake

I played the Legend course at Woodington Lake and the round was up and down, as exemplified by the first two holes. I pulled a 5-wood off the tee on hole 1, losing the ball in the long grass under some pine trees. A 7-iron approach into the green also found trees right, leading to a quadruple-bogey. On hole 2, a par-5, I found the fairway with my drive and the green with my second shot, thanks to the 5-wood. Two putts finished up the hole for a birdie!

On holes 5 and 9, I once again exploded for big numbers, earning a pair of triple-bogeys. Again, the problem was off the tee. On the first of these, I hit the very top of the driver face, sending the ball high and left. A couple of attempted recovery shots just didn't work. On the latter, I once again pulled the 5-wood off the tee. Funny enough, I lost the ball in the same grass and trees that got me on hole 1.

As I hinted at, not all was bad. I made solid bogeys on holes 3, 4 and 6, plus very nice pars on holes 7 and 8. This continued with a trio of bogeys to begin the back nine. Tee shots were working on these occasions, whether I used the driver, 5-wood, or an iron. I got up and down near the greens on a couple of occasions. Unfortunately, another quadruple-bogey came out of nowhere on hole 13. A tee shot that drifted right caught a severe slope that pushed the ball into an environmental area.

Had that been the last blowup, I may have salvaged a respectable score. Alas, I made another triple-bogey on hole 17, a par-5. After a perfect drive to the centre of the fairway, I tried to go for the green with the 5-wood. I topped the ball, sending it to the left and into the woods. As bad as that was, I was proud of the way I regrouped on hole 18. A seemingly perfect drive went through the dogleg of this par-4, nestling a foot behind the trunk of a pine tree. Forced to chip sideways, I followed up with a beautiful gap wedge into the green surrounded by water. I almost made the par putt, but needed a tap-in to register bogey.

Score: 97
Putts: 34
Fairways: 6
Greens: 3
Penalties: 5