Monday, January 11, 2010

Momentum Shift

What a difference a week makes. Last Monday on Buenaventura I hit the ball so well that had I been playing stroke play instead of best ball with my dad, I may have broken 80. Today, with my driver having abandoned me to the extent that I repeatedly dubbed drives that dribbled only 50 and 70 yards, I came back down to the pedestrian game I regularly play. Although in the first 18 holes (I walked 36, something I have never done and something I will likely regret tomorrow) I only hit four or five bad shots, I did not hit many fairways and found myself in jail most of the round, missing short putt after short putt and lipping out on 5 of the first 7 holes, shooting a 90 from the whites.

The second time around I also struggled horribly from the tee, found myself in the woods nearly every par four and par five hole, then ran out of gas (five protein bars are not enough to sustain me through 36 holes, I learned) about the 14th, carding consecutive sevens, on my way to a 92 from the blues. I did, however, make my second birdie of the day on 14 and felt better for a few shots, including a solid drive on 15.

But the day can best be summed up by my 36th hole: A dubbed drive off the tee (on a hole that last week I birdied twice by cutting the corner and driving the ball over trees, and I birdied this morning by drilling a great eight iron third shot to the back finge, then making the 15-foot putt), a drive that didn't even reach the fairway, followed by a blasted seven iron over two trees, which left me needing simply to hit the same seven iron again. I almost did, but hit it a touch less well, missed clearing the greenside bunker by three inches, and plugged. I actually didn't see the ball for more than 30 seconds searching the bunker. It had almost completely buried. Three inches higher and I would have been putting for birdie. As it was, however, I made yet another double.

All in all, though, an excellent day. Even though my game was not nearly what I had hoped it would be, THE game is great fun, and the foursomes were filled today with interesting, fun guys, one of whom shot a 71, having hit 17 greens in regulation before chunking a 20-yard chip on the last hole. Of course, he realized that he was about to be on in regulation for all 18 holes, so this fantastic golfer then chunked it. That's golf, as they say.


18 Below

No comments:

Post a Comment