The season is quickly winding down and I had the opportunity to play Battlefield at Legends on The Niagara. The temperature was cool, but comfortable, and the course was in surprisingly good shape. I couldn't believe how fast the greens were. I had a trio of 3-putts on the front nine, and 4 of them overall. It took me a while to make the proper adjustment.
My score of 49 on the front nine wasn't great, mostly because of the 3-putts, but also because I couldn't drive the ball. It's been a problem over the second half of the season. My natural swing has always been outside-in. I've been trying to swing more from the inside, just to straighten my ball flight a bit and perhaps gain distance. In fact, it has resulted in less distance, as the ball comes out with a very low trajectory. Sometimes I smother the ball completely. When this happens, it fails to get airborne at all, and I'm lucky just to reach the fairway.
Because of my poor drives, I was hitting a lot of longer clubs for my second shot. One exception was hole 5, a short par-4. After a 230-yard drive to the right fairway, I had 90 yards remaining to the green. I nailed it with the lob wedge but then 3-putt for bogey. The birdie putt actually burned the edge of the hole, but with the slick greens, I finished well past and then missed the comebacker. This was my only bogey of the front nine, to go along with a couple of pars and six double-bogeys. Sheesh!
On the back nine, the putting got better and I managed a score of 43, including four pars, three bogeys, and two doubles. The first couple of pars came back-to-back on holes 13 and 14. On the former, a perfect 5-wood off the tee was followed by a pitching wedge that came up short of the green. A lovely pitch shot left a mere 18 inches for the par. On the latter, a gap wedge off the tee set up a 2-putt on this par-3. The next couple of pars were also back-to-back on holes 17 and 18. The first of these is a 166-yard par-3 that's all carry over water. I found the fringe flag high and then 2-putt. The final hole is a par-5. I sculled my third shot a bit from 90 yards, but the ball stopped at the back of the green. I made an amazing 2-putt from there to finish my round.
My driving was also a bit better on the back nine, as I abandoned my effort to swing more from the inside. I just accepted that I would be swinging slightly outside-in. It's not the ideal thing to do, but I've always played that way and I can at least manage my way around when I do so. I actually hit fewer fairways on the back nine (4) than I did on the front (5), but many of those on the front nine were low runners that barely reached the short grass.
As for my final score, well, it was absolutely typical of my season. The bogey golfer special!
Score: 92
Putts: 36
Fairways: 9
Greens: 4
Penalties: 1
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