Bernie, Mark and I took a nice little day trip today to this really nice course in So. PA. We all really enjoyed it. I don't know what happened to my driver swing, but I could not stop hooking them. I only hit, literally, one good driver today, but the rest of my game was just fine. Loved the quality of the greens. Speed was fast, but not superfast and they rolled very true. I forgot what putting on greens without huge undulations and steep slopes was like. Figure these out early and went on to putt lights out. Thankfully I had my chipping and putting A-game all round, because I got myself in a lot of trouble off the tee limiting by ability to go for the green on many occasions. I had THREE penalties on the round, two of which were as a result of not knowing the course.
On one par 5, I decided to go over trees to cut the corner of a dog leg. From my position, I saw the ball fly over the trees and bounce up once upon landing right about where I was aiming. However, what I had no idea of was that there was a pond over there. I never saw it. My ball bounced in. Shit! A little familiarity with the course and I would never have attempted that route. Penalty/drop, then hit my 95 yards approach to 6 feet and made the par saver. Shoulda been a birdie!
On another hole, I went left into some trees. They were sparse, so getting back to the fairway was possible. Bernie and Mark also went left with their drives. All three of us had windows back to the fairway. They both caught trees. I got greedy. I saw a small window to hit mine through that might allow me to go for the green. The pin was 190 yards away. I said to Bernie, "I'm gonna go for it through these trees. Keep an eye on this in case it hits something." I pulled out a 4 iron. The ball was on the side of a slope with the ball below my feet. There were tree branches overhanging my desired flight path about 10 yards ahead of me and 15' off the ground. I would have to keep it under those branches to have any hope, yet have it rise up enough after passing those overhanging branches to get over one smaller tree about 50 yards ahead. I hit the 4i dead nuts. It flew under the overhanging limbs, then over the tree in the distance and landed on the green about 185 yards away....then trickled off the side. It was truly a memorable shot I, Bernie or Mark will never forget.
Then we see two carts pull up to the green and four guys get out. I quickly head over there and on my way I realize that I hit that fantastic shot to the wrong green! By this time, so too did Bernie and Mark. The four guys playing the green could not figure out why there were five balls there until I drove up and claimed the fifth. No surprise, I had one of my other penalties on that hole trying to get back from the incorrect green. All was a result of never having played the course.
In the end, I feel I can easily shoot 74-75 there when I figure out whatever is going on with my driver all of a sudden. That is, if the rest of the game I had today shows up. Funny thing is, the slope and rating at this place was listed near what Worthington's is. Difficult. Yet, frankly, I thought it was much easier than WM.
