Played with Bernie. Beautiful day.
Game continues to be strong, but had some trouble not knowing the course and with the massive amounts of water off the tee on the left (my typical miss area). Had a couple/few penalties on the back as a result.
Unfortunately, the most painful penalty came early, on the very first hole, after my first drive of the day. I hit, what both Bernie and I thought was a fantastic drive. However, it is a blind tee shot up over a ridge (if you hit it far enough), then down a long hill to the end of the fairway. I flew it miles over that ridge, right on line with the left side of the fairway. Bernie expected it to be about 30 or 40 yards past his. I thought more like 60. When we drive over the ridge I am surprised to see the end of the fairway much closer than I expected. Bernie's ball was in the center of the fairway about 1/2 way down the hill. Mine was nowhere to be found. 100 yards ahead of Bernie's, is a creek that runs across in front of the green. There in the middle of that creek, we found my yellow AVX, about 40 yards from the pin, right on line with the path it had taken over the ridge. PENALTY on one of the longest and straightest drives I have hit yet. Purely the result of having no idea where the trouble was ahead of me.
After that, a few other issues came up that could have been avoided with a little course knowledge....or a GPS unit. My rangefinder was not helpful for the blind shots. Next time I'll bring a GPS too.
My swing is really working right now. The changes I've been working on are taking hold and beginning to feel more natural. I think Bernie is secretly uncomfortable with my added distance. I used to be 10-20 yards longer than him off the tee. Now, it's sometimes more like 30-40. I'm enjoying this newfound distance. Feel like I can keep up with the younger guys easier. You know, those young 55 year old whippersnappers!
On the par 3, 12th, Bernie shot the pin with his rangefinder and said, "135." Front pin, literally all of it over water. Front of green was only a yard or two from the back edge of the pond. Plenty of room behind. Bernie wanted to make sure he cleared, so took out a 7 iron. Didn't make it over. Took a second. Didn't make it over. Third, terrible. Wet too. I hit 8 iron and thought I flew it over the green, I hit it so well. But, it landed next to the front pin. Huh? So I shot the pin again with my rangefinder because what we both just experienced didn't make sense. It was actually set at 150 yards! Bernie misread his first sighting. He paid the price. Good thing I got all of that 8 iron.
The back nine gave me some headaches. There was a lot of water closely bordering the fairways on the left and I put 3 or 4 shots in it over about a 6 hole stretch. Partially because my long drives were angled towards the left side of the fairway. I would hit the fairway and just keep rolling through the 5 yard wide rough, and into the hazard. Rethinking it now, I should have been hitting 3W. Next time.
Overall, it was a good day. Score wasn't great, but game is strong right now. Links at Gettysburg was certainly worth the $35 fee and yesterday's round at Westminster Nat'l was great for $30. Two good courses for 65 bucks. It was good to get away from WM two days in a row. But, aeration is complete and course will be back open today.
