Halloween golf, 10/30/06

Yesterday promised 55 degree temps and lots of sunshine. When I got to work I made the decision to take the afternoon off to hit the links for some bonus Fall golf. The weather here has been terrible and this past weekend we had 50 mph winds and lots of rain. I figured that with the wind the leaves would have been taken care of and some of the surface water would be gone as well. The course was quite playable dispite the recent weather.

I met up with a guy named Chris who had the same idea as I did and off we went on the South Course at Victor Hills. I thought that I had hooked up with a solid stick when after the first three holes we were both even. I was putting up a storm, in fact I one putted the first four holes, all for pars, but one putts none the less. I bogied the par 5 sixth hole and then finished birdie, par, birdie to make the turn at 1-under.

I had heard a tip on the TV about keeping good rhythm during all shots to ensure a smooth swing and I was trying to incorporate that in this late season round and it seemed to be working.

I killed my drive on #10 and was just short with my 3 wood and narrowly missed another birdie. Again I nearly birdied the par 3 11th and then made a stupid bogie on both 12 and 13. Solid pars on 14, 15 and 16 left at one over par for the day.

My driver had been very kind to me all day. I had only missed 2 fairways so far. So naturally, I tried to kill my drive on the 17th only to pull it behind a big tree. This left me with a punch out to about 215 from the green on the par 5. I hit five wood and should have hit 3 as I left it short of the green. After a two putt bogie I trudged on to the 203 yard par three 18th.

Lately, I have hit 4 iron, 3 iron, 5 and 3 woods into this down hill finishing hole. I failed to recognize how much wind there was and how mild it was and airmailed the green into the pond behind the green. The shot was a slight draw and was heading right at the pin. When I did not see it land on the green I knew that I had flown the green. Sure enough I could not find the ball and dropped a fresh one and then canned a 6 footer for bogie.

35 / 40 = 75 in my book. That was about the best round I had played all year and certainly the best one as of late. I missed 3 fairways and only had 29 putts.

My playing partner played well on the front, but could not make a putt to save his life. I think he had about 10 three putts. He blew up on the back and probably shot close to 90. He had a great swing but began hitting it way right just about the time that he told me he had been hitting it way right a lot as of late. I think that once he mentioned it and did it the first time he simple forgot how well he hit it for the first several holes.