Beautiful weather. Mid 70s. A bit of a breeze, but easily playable. Driver was all over the place today, but hit it solidly, for the most part. Just missed a lot of fairways and got myself in trouble a number of times.
On first ended up just below the left fairway bunker on the side hill. Made a good shot to get on and par the hole from there.
On 2nd, hit my best drive of the day. A perfect baby draw that landed past the fairway bunker and rolled to 80 yards out from the pin. About a 270 yard drive. My approach was 10 feet left of the pin, pin high, but a foot into the rough. Left myself short sided. Made a decent chip, but got it about 4 feet above the hole and missed the slippery downhiller coming back.
Then on third, blasted a drive, but with a bit of a pull draw to it. It hit in the left rough 15 yards inside the lateral hazard area, but the draw spin had it moving at too much pace and it bounced 1 foot into the high grass. Found it, but had no way to get a club on it with overhanging limbs hindering any possible swing. Took the penalty drop and ended with a double.
On fourth, Tees were waaaay back on the Black tee box. Lost it right into the dry pond, but it went further than I expected from that far back. Only had 6 iron in. Or so I thought. Hit it well, but had no sightline to the pin. Must hve gone right past as I found it 15 yards past the pin and through the green and 3 yards into the rough behind it. Made a great downhill chip to 2 feet to save par.
On par 5 fifth, AGAIN the blue tees were all the way back on the black tee box. Now I'm getting pissed. On top of that, Ralph is mowing rough around the tee box right next to me. He stops and cuts his engine 10 yards away from me and waits for me to hit, staring me down. I didn't need any extra pressure. The blues on the black tee box 25 yards further back than normal was pressure enough. Surprisingly, I hit an awesome drive in the fairway only a bit shorter than my normal landing area. It was probably about 250 yards with no roll. A 3W 2nd shot was just okay, leaving me
100 yds to the pin, but from an uphill lie. I knew it would go high and lose distance, so took and extra club. A PW. I think I babied it, afraid to go long and as a result came up short. But, again, for the third time in 5 holes got up and down for my fourth par.
Bogeied 6 and 7. Wah waaaah.
A great 2-putt on par three 8th. Pin on the left, hit hybrid from BLACK tee box onto right side of green, 20 yards away. First putt was up a hill, over a ridge and back down a hill to 4 feet past. Made the up-hiller for par.
Hooked drive on par 5 ninth up under pine trees and had to take a penalty/drop. Hit a 9i appoach to 6 feet past and had a good chance to save the par, but the downhill putt went 3 feet past. Another bogey.
GIR par on 10, then hit drive on 11 left of fairway, onto cartpath where it bounced into left lateral hazard. Twosome in front saw it go in and were able to show me exactly where. Found it and took another penalty, the third of the round, and saved bogey.
Nearly birdied par 5 13th. a 180 lip-out to 1 inch.
Played well the rest of the way, but caught a tree on the left side of 16 with my drive leaving me a long way home.Still ended up with a good chance to save par with a 10 foot putt that I missed by 4 inches, just right of cup.
Three penalties hurt score, yet no major complaints with the way I'm hitting the ball. However, left shoulder is not doing well. Iced and will use TENS unit later. Match with Bernie tomorrow. He's been out for a few weeks with a slight muscle pull.
