Prior to this visit, I played Silver Lakes five times and only broke 100 once. That was a score of 98 on my second visit to the course, which took place in 2009. Silver Lakes is a flat course, but almost every hole is tree lined. If you spray the ball at all, there's a good chance of collecting lost balls and penalty strokes. I was glad to break 100 again, and to do so comfortably with a final score of 92. I was actually a little disappointed not to break 90, as I played very consistently for long stretches of this round. Despite feeling like I played really well, my differential for the round was not good enough to contribute to my handicap factor, which actually increased over half a point. Go figure.
The front nine was really quite remarkable, featuring a lone par on hole 7, along with eight bogeys. I made a small mistake on almost every hole, but only one per hole, and they weren't disastrous. I pulled a 3-wood off the tee on hole 1, but after coming close to the green with my second shot, I chipped on and 2-putt. I hit a perfect 5-wood off the tee on hole 2. My approach with sand wedge was thin and went through the green. I once again chipped on and 2-putt. I hit a perfect pitching wedge off the tee on hole 3, a par-3, though I went on to 3-putt. I pulled 5-wood off the tee on hole 4, but trees kept the ball from going too deep. I chipped sideways and nailed the green from 140 yards with my third shot. A 2-putt followed. Hole 5, a par-5, was the first time I used driver and it was terrible. I hit it way fat and it found the trees right. After a great punch and couple of shots to find the green, I collected another bogey.
The last half of the front nine was more remarkable than the first. 3-wood off the tee on hole 6 went directly into the woods left. After a penalty, I hit 3-iron down the fairway, leaving 50 yards to the flag. This set up a fabulous up and down. Nice! Hole 7 is the one I made par on. After a mediocre chip, I drained a fairly lengthy putt. Hole 8 is a par-5 that began with a perfect 5-wood off the tee. A layup drifted right, forcing me to punch through some trees. My fourth shot trickled off the edge of the green, setting up a delicate up and down. Finally, on hole 9, my drive barely leaked right of the fairway. I had tree trouble and had to punch out to about 70 yards. My third shot landed in a bunker, but I made a fabulous sand shot and a 3-foot putt. It was my fourth 1-putt in a row!
My consistency ended on hole 11, a 150-yard par-3. Conscious of not hooking the 8-iron, I did something weid with my swing and duffed the ball only to the forward tee. The worst part was that I was now on a severe downslope in front of the teeing ground. This caused me to pull the ball into a lateral hazard left of the green. After a penalty, I pitched one on and 2-putt for a triple-bogey. Dang! On a positive note, I followed up immediately with my best hole of the day. Hole 12 is a 400-yard par-4. I pumped a drive 260 yards to the very centre of the fairway. This was followed by a pitching wedge that finished on the green, flag high. I had a good try at birdie, but just missed, settling for par.
The last part of the round was back to some level of consistency, though I collected two double-bogeys, along with four other bogeys. One of the doubles was on hole 13, after a 7-iron off the tee mirrored the 8-iron I hit on hole 11. I wanted to be sure I didn't hook the ball and I didn't. The only problem was that the club slid under the ball and it travelled a whole 40 yards. The other double was on hole 15. A large, lone tree sits on the left edge of the fairway, and it was interfering with my second shot. I tried to get too much out of the situation and wasted a shot. I should have just pitched sideways and tried to save bogey.
I did a couple of things differently in this round. I used driver sparingly, in favour of either 3-wood or 5-wood. I've used 5-wood a lot all year, but 3-wood has been completely out of play. It was nice to use it again, not only off the tee, but on other occasions as well. One was on my second shot of the final hole, a par-5. After a 265-yard drive to the centre of the fairway, I had 230 left to the green. I actually went a little left into some trees, but contact was crisp and I was cutting the ball anyway. It wasn't a huge miss. The other thing I did differently was driving itself. Recently, I had fallen into a pattern of swinging too easily. The goal was to gain more control, especially at the start of the downswing, but I had taken it too far. My good drives were going 230 yards and sometimes they were smothered and barely went 100 yards. I went back to a closed stance, with my right foot back. I still tried to make the start of the downswing gradual, but then accelerated much more to get that speed needed at the moment of impact. It seemed to work, as my drives were back in the 250-260 yard range.
Score: 92
Putts: 32
Fairways: 6
Greens: 2
Penalties: 2
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