Rained on and off all day. Wasn't planning to play but figured course wouldn't be busy at 4 pm. It wasn't. Decided to play nine. Started in rain. Rained on and off throughout. Finished in light rain. Could have gone on for another 9, but was just not in the mood. Played solo.
Worked on initiating downturn more with core. Was getting better distance. After putting practice session and ultimate revision to stroke last Friday, was curious to see if I could take the new change to the course and make it work as well as it did during the session. Surprisingly, it did. My distance control on longer putts was much better, and the roll was very consistent. Didn't blow one by the hole, and those that were short were tap-in short. Promising.
A few poor shots, some of which ran up the score with penanlties:
Tee shot on tough 3rd, pull hooked into trees. It fell straight down, but inside the hazard and was unplayable. PENALTY. Layup (3) 9i off the back green. Saved double with a nice 58* wide-open-faced short chip out of the rough, onto runaway downhill slope. Tricked to 2 feet and made the putt.
Loose drive on par 5 5th into tree area on right. Weakest drive I have hit in weeks. Had to punch out left to get back to fairway, under limbs and between two trees. Hit a nice low rocket with perfect trajectory under the limbs, but got it so well it made it through the fairway and on the last bounce, went further left, into fairway bunker, ending up close to front lip. More trouble. Left me no chance to use enough club to reach the green. So set up for the highest 6i I could hit and moved it up about 130 yards, just left of the right fairway bunker. Good shot, but still 95y to pin. A little light breeze in the face, rain, uphill, ball sitting down in rough all added up to my decision to take a 50* and swing 3/4, rather than take 54* SW and try to over swing. Unfortunately, I swung the 50* only about 1/2 instead of 3/4 and came up woefully short of green. (Needed FULL swing.) So now I am sitting 15 yards short of green in 4 on this par 5 thinking up and down to save bogey. I walked up the steep false front and picked my spot to land the chip and visualized how it would roll. On the walk back to my ball I knew I could save bogey and started to think, "Hell, I got this shot. I might even be able to hole it for par!" Hit my spot, got the roll I envisioned and BOOM! It's in the hole for par.
Pretty good drive on par 5 9th reached over the ridge, on fairway, but leaning up against the edge of the right rough. Had 203y, somewhat downhill, to the end of the fairway. Hit a flush 5i, slightly left. Still, thought I would find it at the end of the fairway somewhere, maybe a 50* wedge out. Unfortunately, that little bit of left meant it caught about a foot of rough and got hung up in it, 137 yards out...in a severe downhill lie. I hate that shot. Grabbed an 8 iron, set up with shoulders aligned with slope, weight forward, ball back. Everything necessary to get the club squarely on it. But, the rough around it had other ideas. Rough caught the face and slowed swing speed drastically. Didn't clear the hazard. PENALTY! Dropped another right there and hit it on green with no problem. 2 putt for a mulli-par, 7.
Even with the penalties and few bad shots, didn't feel like I played poorly overall.
