Curses, humbed again

Well, I have been on a roll lately. My last five rounds have been as follows: 77, 76, 77, 82 or so (I stopped counting) and 77. The 82 was the day after I played Oak Hill (77) and I could have cared less what I shot and it showed. I was pretty useless. That round aside, I have played very well in the past few weeks.

Sunday I shot 77 with a really dumb double bogey on an easy par 5 finishing hole.

We headed out to play Ontario Golf Club on Monday with some old family friends. This course has some of the most evil greens around. They roll at about 75 on the old stimp meter and are severly slanted front to back to the point of ridiculous on some holes. Never, I mean NEVER be above the hole on this course. My old family friend is a guy that is 76 years old, shot his age twice this summer and still carries about a 10 handicap, he chuckles quietly as people fumble their way around these greens. Anyways, the rating and slope from the blue tees at Ontario is higher than Oak Hill from the whites and it is clear as to why. Miss the fairway, make bogey or worse. And I missed a lot of fairways.

After hitting trees on my first three shots on the very first hole and carding a solid triple bogey eight I moved on to lick my wounds on the rest of the front nine. I parred the ninth for a very mediocre 46 on the front. I finally got it together and was one over on the back after three whacking the 17th hole. I hit another tree on my second shot on 18 and proceded to card another triple for a 40 on the back. I was not too happy about that. I had almost been able to salvage my dignity on the back and post a respectable score.

As of late, I have been having trouble finishing rounds. I must get complacent. Unfortunately, I am totally aware of what I am shooting and somehow manage to come unglued and have a blowup hole down the stretch. This is something I have to work on next season.

As for the rest of this season, I will play as much as mother nature will allow. I have played a lot of golf over the years in the late fall as temperatures drop. I can dress warm, but not dry enough. So, if the weather is decent and it is not raining off I go. There comes a time when I have to stash the clubs and wait until Spring, but hopefully I will get out a few more times.