Starting Out at Granite Ridge

I started the 2018 season in the last week of April, with a visit to the Cobalt Course at Granite Ridge. Over the winter, I picked up a Callaway XR16 Pro driver with a Fujikura Pro Green 62 shaft, and I was eager to see what I could do with it. I scrubbed the ground in front of the ball with it on hole 1 and pushed one well right on hole 4. On the other hand, I hit lasers with it on holes 2, 8 and 9. I liked the feel, and the ball was travelling straight, with virtually no side spin.

In fact, the driver was my best club off the tee. I tried 5-wood on holes 6 and 7, with disastrous results. Hole 6 is a short par-4 with out of bounds along the entire left side. I hit a strong pull that had no chance of avoiding OB. On hole 7, I hit another straight pull, but this one never got more than five feet off the ground. A group of players near the 16th tee was lucky to escape alive. Two of them were standing about eight feet apart and my shot passed right between them, about chest high.

On the back nine, I used the driver on all but the par-3 16th. On holes 10 and 11, it produced a straight blast that barely trickled into the right rough. Then I rattled off three drives in a row that absolutely split the fairways. Straight, straight, and straight. It was a thing of beauty. On hole 15, I was playing away from OB on the right side and pulled the ball ever so slightly into a water hazard. On hole 17, I hit a bit of a stronger pull that found another water hazard. However, I finished strong, with a laser to the right centre of the fairway on hole 18.

While my driving was fine, the same could not be said about my irons. I thinned a gap wedge on hole 2 and pulled a 7-iron OB on hole 3. I topped a pitching wedge badly on hole 4 just trying to get back to the fairway. I eventually realized I was coming out of my iron shots, or lifting up on the down swing. I was not maintaining my spine angle, so the club was bottoming out too high. I also made some bad decisions, trying to curve balls around trees or advance the ball too much when I had no back swing.

When I stayed down on my iron shots and started managing the game better, the results improved. I was 8 over par for an eight hole stretch ending with hole 15. A greenside bunker and water hazards on the next two holes put an end to that, but at least I found a little groove. My putting was okay most of the day, but I did collect a trio of 3-putts. The final score was bad, but the season is just beginning.

Score: 102
Putts: 37
Fairways: 7
Greens: 2
Penalties: 6