Beautiful March day. 68 degrees. Light breeze. Course was surprisingly quiet. What a difference it was to play in warmer conditions. Hit a great drive off the 1st tee 269 yards. Haven't seen a drive like that since last October when the temps were similar. Then hit a 6i to 30 ft past pin. Long putt was a side-hiller and I nearly holed it. Good speed, near perfect line, but just nipped edge and rolled out 15 ft, down hill. Again made a great putt, but missed by an inch or two, so three-putted for bogey. On the 2nd tee, pulled drive a little and caught a branch, but it still rolled out to 226 yards and ended up just off the fairway. Then hit a perfect 4H (tried the Adams a7 out again to check distances against the Nike CPR3 4H) onto the green to 12 feet, from 180 out. Missed the putt for bird but made par. A good start so far. In the bunker, but pin high on the 3rd. Nice 56* out, to 2'. Another par, up & down sand save. Hit a nice drive on 4, but pretty long. Landed further down fairway than expected and took a funny bounce off the back side of a downslope which sent it right, and behind a tree. Had to do a short punch to the only safe area by the green. Stopped just short of green, but chipped short, 12 ft from pin. 2 putt for bogey.After a somewhat popped up drive on 5, hit 2 very nice 5Ws, but still ended up just left of green. Pitched long. 2-putted for bogey. Parred 6 with a 9i, then 41 ft. putt to 1 ft. Bogeyed 7 and 8, but birdied 9 with a 23 ft. 1-putt. Out in 40. Parred 11, 12, 14,16, and 18 for a 39 coming in. Only bad hole was 17. Missed a 6i. Hit it way right. Settled right up against and behind a tree. Had to chip it out back-handed, then pitched over the bunker, but it rolled out to the other side of green, 32' from pin. Hit a great putt, another steep side-hiller and nearly sunk the damn thing. But, no luck. It rolled out to about 6 feet below the hole. I sunk that one for double, the only one on the card today. Good round, particularly for March.
Hope to sneak out again this week.
