Rained all morning and the wind kicked up strong by lunchtime. Everyone went home. I showed up with the place to myself. Walked the back nine. Temps got into the high 50s, but wind was howling. 20 mph with higher gusts. It was crazy out there, but I really wanted to see what I could do in it. After a rough start on 10th after hitting my initial drive of the round into the right fairway bunker, then from there only getting out and forward another 70 yards, I put my approach into the left greenside bunker and it ended up plugged in a downhill lie. Somehow got it out and to the front of the green with the pond staring me in the face on the other side of the green. 2 putts for a double bogey start. It seemed like the wind increased at that point.
On 11th I was dead into the wind with my drive. Actually hit it well, but landed well short of where I normally play from. Under normal conditions I am typically hitting a wedge approach. From where I was today, combined with the strong wind, I hit 5i! Started it left of green, as the wind had a very strong left to right component in it. Pin was right side of green. Hit the ball well. It ended up right of the green. There was no slice in it. It was all wind that pushed it that far right. It had to be gusting close to 25 mph when I hit it. Got up and down with a chip to a foot.
Not surprisingly, I bogeyed 12. There was no way to reach in two in that wind. I tried anyway, but came up well short even though I hit it good. It ended up down the steep hill to the left of the green. Had a blind shot from there up to the pin and got it in the neighborhood, but it trickled off. Chipped another to about a foot to save bogey. After that, I played some real good golf in some real tough conditions. I made a very strong effort to swing easy on every shot and was well rewarded with many of them.
On par 5 18th, pushed my drive right adding another 40 yards to the distance home. Hit a good 3W and was still a long way out. Still had 175 to pin, but with the wind quartering against me, hit a 5W. Just cleared the huge bunker in front and rolled out to 10 feet from the pin. Then sunk the 10 footer for a nice finishing bird. The last six hole were some really good ones. If today was my last round of the year, it was a great ending. Still possible to get out tomorrow, depending on wind 45 degrees forecast. After tomorrow it's not supposed to be playable before the New Year.
