King City Catch Up

Lately I have just been using the Grint for scorekeeping so I don't have score cards, but:
Shot 50 for 9
96 for 18 Saturday, April 4th without benefit of a single par
46 on Sunday, April 5th with a single par

So Monday Dave wanted to get in a practice round. I decided to use the Nike Power Feel balls.

First hole I decided to unleash my driver. If I hit it well I would start strong, if I sliced...well, I can play for my slice. And unleash I did, hitting a towering shot almost 40 yards down the left side of the fairway.

Now, you might be saying, "he forgot a 2" or even a "1". Nope, 40 yards. Maybe 150 yards in the air, but only 40 yards horizontally.

So then I pulled out my 7 wood and landed it pin high just off the green about 5 yards. Then the old I am a horrible chipper bugaboo struck, and I was barely on in three. Still, a 2-putt gave me a bogey. Not a horrible hole after that brutal drive.

I then pulled my 7 wood left of the green off the tee, but pin high. A nice chip for a change to abou 4' from the cup, 1-putt for par. Doing well.

Now, when I play with Dave, Jim and/or John, I play their rules, and so we were playing with one mulligan each. Confidently I stepped up with the driver, aimed properly, had the face closed, swung pretty hard, watched it sail over the houses. Mulligan. He was almost ob himself. I then hit it long, straight...but pulled left OB over the houses. I gave up, grabbed the 7w and put it center of fairway. Unfortunately, that was 3 (the way we play, 5 technically). Shot four was a towering gap wedge that was pin high, left side of green. A 2-putt gave me "just" a double bogey.

I then rip my 7 wood well left of the hole, like 30 yards, on the par 3. But I stick my chip on the green. It is a long sidehill putt. I just try to get close but hit it dreadfully short. Then I miss long and below the hole. And am short coming back up...I just 4-putted for the first time this year, taking a 6 on what should have been a 4.

The next hole was playing 167. Dave sliced badly, but got a charitable bounce into the fairway, albeit short. I hit my 5 iron stiff, and...right, bouncing backwards. Grr-animal. Nothing a nice chip will not fix. I am just above the pin with a long putt, but I think I have the read. I just miss the putt and have a 2-foot tap in. I do not take it seriously and pay the price, yanking it. I make the next one but now have 7 putts in 2 holes.

I also have a triple and a double bogey back to back. Not good.

Especially with my demon hole coming up, the one I have no shot for.

I decide to go with the conservative 7 wood but pull it further left than I ever have and go well left of the trees, leaving myself a 95 yard weird angle shot. My gap wedge has gorgeous shape but flies the green but 20 yards. My first chip is 3 yards short of the green. I putt on to about 8' from the cup, miss that but finish with a double.

I have now gone double-triple-double-double. I am building toward a big number. Worse, I have lost all confidence in every club in my bag. My 7 wood is pull-a-potamus, my driver has gone 40 yards, ob right, and ob left. My chipping is somewhere between laughably pathetic and abominably bad.

Dave and I joke back and forth about club selection. I hit a 3/4 swing driver and it ends up 190ish yards down, right side of the fairway. I tell Dave I am going to lay up with my 150 yard 8 iron, and I hit a towering shot that gently moves a hair right. He thinks I am in the sand, I think I am long on the hill on the backside.

Turns out I am on the extreme right edge of the green and experienced backspin. The ball was seriously about 4" back towards me from the monstrous ballmark.

I leave my putt about 3' short but manage to just lip the next one in for birdie. Yes, I know it is only a 352 yard par 5, which really should be a 4...but I am a crap golfer, so I am going to count it.

Next hole is the widest fairway available, it is a plain, boring 284 yard par 4 with no real hazards. I swing hard with my driver but mostly get air, driving it about 200 yards and landing an inch from the cart path 15ish yards inside the 100 yard marker. I pull my gap wedge thinking it is the right club. It is not as I hit the tree on the backside of the green about 20' in the air, but I get a fortuitous bounce back toward the green. I chip to about 4' from the hole and hit the putt for a par.

I have had some titanic drives (for me) on the 9th. It is possible to aim well left, overswing, and let the fade hit the left side of the fairway or a slice the right side. And that is what I do. Except my slice goes into the first hole fairway. I am about 80 yards out. My sand wedge is 45-65 yards. I don't want to go long so I pull out the sand wedge and as it turns out I land pin high, about 6' from the cup.

Before my putt I look at Dave and announce, "I want this birdie so bad". And the ball rolls toward the hole...not enough on it...need one more rotation...it pauses on the very edge of the cup...and rolls in. BIRDIE.

For the second time in my life I have 2 sub-par holes.

With the mulligan it cards as a 42, without it a 44. 2 birdies, 2 pars. So much fun. Loved it.