Misty Day at Tangle Creek

It was overcast and a slight mist fell all day as I headed up to Tangle Creek. It was never bad enough to cause any trouble and the course was mostly empty, so it wasn't really that bad. I started on the back nine and never really got any strong momentum going. I had a few trouble holes, but contained the damage to no worse than double-bogey. A couple of those were due to poor tee shots – one with driver, one with 5-wood. A couple more were due to poor approach shots – one that found some fescue behind a green and another that landed in a greenside bunker.

The remainder of the front nine was fine, with four bogeys and a par. I had slight miscues on the holes that resulted in bogey, but limiting those errors to one per hole was key. The par came on hole #18, a dogleg right par-5. I hit a laser drive to the centre of the fairway, reaching the dogleg easily. Next, a good 3-wood finished in the fairway, 20 yards in front of the green. A good chip set up a legit birdie chance, but I burned the edge and settled for par and a score of 48 at the turn.

My back nine is where I heated up, especially holes #1 through #5, which produced four pars and a bogey. My drive on #1 was pulled terribly to an opposite fairway, but a smashing 5-wood carried back over the dunes, leaving 80 yards to the flag. I was unlucky to put my third flag-high, but a foot into the rough. No worries as I made a perfect chip and 6-inch tap-in. In fact, great chips also contributed to pars on holes #4 and #5. Chips are only as good as the subsequent putts and I nailed them. I had 5 1-putts and 14 putts total over my back nine.

Two more great up-and-downs occurred on holes #6 and #7, albeit to save a double-bogey and bogey, respectively. Still, those felt good. It's very common to struggle on a hole, only to lip out at the end to rub salt in the wound. That didn't happen this time. A couple of bogeys finished the round for a second nine score of 42 and 90 overall. Tangle Creek is a good test, so I'm happy with that result.

Score: 90
Putts: 32
Fairways: 6
Greens: 3
Penalties: 1