Today's Score: 76
Not exactly the start I was looking for, but I feel like I played better than what my score shows. Once again, my putting let me down and I wasn't able to get anything out of my round. I started out the way I wanted to. Four well executed holes lead to four straight pars. On the 5th hole, I missed the green slightly to the right from 150yards out and was unable to get up-and-down. First bogey of the day. The next hole is a relatively short par-5, but the tee shot doesn't allow enough room to hit driver so I hit 2-iron just to put the ball in play. Well, it was easily the worst swing I made all day because I blocked my tee shot pretty far right making the rest of the hole play much tougher than it should. I had a clear punch shot that would of put me back in play to hit the green in three, but my ball came to rest on top of a pine cone stem and the punch shot I attempted to play popped straight up and went maybe a total of 15yards. Now I'm in the fairway bunker that was right in front of me with basically the same punch shot. This time I executed the shot like I wanted to but my ball ran through the fairway just enough to reach the rough on the other side. I had 138yds left for my 4th shot but a poor lie lead to that shot coming up short right in the greenside bunker. Three more shots and I as in for a double-bogey (7). I closed out the front nine with 3 more pars and turned at +3 over (38). So basically if I could of hit the green with a 9-iron and the fairway with a 2-iron I feel like at worst I make the turn at even par. But, I didn't and now I'm +3 over.
On the back, I had my first 3-putt of the day right away on the 10th hole. It was a semi long putt, but still should of been able to convert the 4 footer for par. I almost got that stroke back on the very next hole when a chip shot hung on the lip just short. Solid par on the #12 and a great 5-iron into the par-3 13th. Unfortunately, with the firmness of the greens my ball came to rest just off the edge but close enough to make the option of putting a no-brainer. Well, little did I know that my ball would take flight just at the edge where the fringe and green meet and cause my birdie attempt to come up 10ft short. 3-putt #2 and another bogey. I found my first birdie of the day on the par-5 14th after hitting a wedge to about 5ft. But again, I gave it right back after my third 3-putt of the day on the very next hole. It was a tough 2-putt, but I left myself a simple right-edge 5 footer for par that I'd like to think I could make with my eyes closed. Not today. I was unable to get up-and-down for birdie on the par-5 16th and missed two routine uphill right-to-left 10 footers on #17 and #18 for birdie as well.
Sounds like a broken record, but I feel like I'm at least hitting solid putts. When I look up, the majority of the time I'm putting the ball on the line I want. Problem is, it's the wrong line. The greens are in absolutely perfect condition so there's no blame to be put there. It's all on me. Apart of me is holding back a little because of how fast the greens are, but I think that's only normal. When you're not used to the speed it's easy to want to protect a little bit and not get too aggressive. Ironically, all the 3-putts I had were after I ran the first putt by....but all the short putts I missed were mostly due to a lack of speed. Fun game huh!
A good round tomorrow will get me through to the weekend. I feel like I'm swinging well enough to shoot a good score, but the only way to get there is to hole a few putts. What the heck, I got nothing to lose so I might as well fight off the nerves as much as possible and somehow make the ball go in. If anyone's got a tip as to how to do that let me know. My tee time tomorrow is 12:00 off #10.
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