Clive
Full Metal Jacket
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Played Yesterday
« on: June 08, 2007, 09:17:03 AM » |
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Yeah, I don't get out much -- three nines and one eighteen this year (and the weather lets me play year-round).
Anyway, yesterday's outing was at Skybrook Golf Course (photos available in prokrop's FGI thread), front nine. Really well maintained course, and I had it all to myself on a sunny 94* Thursday afternoon.
I had a decent warm-up in which I hit a few scabby shots (chunky or McBealish), but most went serviceably where I'd aimed them and about the right distance, too. These days, I really don't have the game to score birdies -- can't remember when I had my last one -- and even pars are a rarity, so I decided to play carefully, try for bogeys and maybe a lucky par, and hope the handicap strokes helped me out for the GHRC round.
Nine holes summarized, I hit the ball surprisingly well. Only had one GIR, of course (PW into a par-5 I'd laid up on), which bit -- irons are usually my mainstay, but I just don't seem to have it these days. Either hole-high but off-line, or dead on-line but long/short. Oddly, I was LONG with everything. First hole has an elevated tee (but not unduly so), 220 to carry the bunkers left, 250 to reach the bunkers right. Planning for my draw and also the slope of the hillside left that feeds balls back to the fairway, I aim for the right bunkers and hit a solid 4-iron. Moment of nervous reaction when I see my ball heading straight for the bunker, but I reminded myself it was cool, I can't get there with 4-iron. Ball ended up three yards shy of the edge of the bunker! The approach had me between clubs, I took the shorter one ... and airmailed the green. A day like that.
Oh yeah, the course had just aerated the tee boxes and greens two days earlier. Grrr. (They did inform me when I called to make the tee time, though.) Putting was OK in view of the aeration, although I got jobbed on a ~6-foot par putt that tracked straight to the hole until about 3" shy, when it jumped hard left and didn't even threaten the lip as it passed by.
The gross score was all bogeys with a double on 3, the number-one handicap hole (and a par-4) and a double on the closing hole. On the latter, I hit my 5-wood down the right side, allowing for the draw again, which didn't come. Bounced high and right, went over the cart path, and into the grass on the other side. And then I notice the skinny white stakes over there amongst the dune grass clumps and little trees. Hit a provisional (striped it an actual 268, landing area is a gentle upslope -- those steroids are really starting to pay dividends), went looking, and sure enough, I was OB by about two strides. Playing my provisional, I airmailed the green again, despite clubbing down because the hole was up front. Left myself about ten feet off the back and around 80 feet from the hole. Out comes the Triad, in part because the lie permitted it and in part because I suck at chipping. Good read, good line, misses the hole by a couple inches and runs six feet by. Not too bad from there. Then I drained the six-footer (for double bogey). Turns out the guys hanging out on the clubhouse veranda were watching, and I got complimented on the long-ass chip-putt when I came up to get a drink. So I had that going for me, which was nice.
Thirteen months after I quit playing, this outing has actually made me open to the idea of golf again.
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