I played 18 with my buddy Ronnie this morning.  My goal was to break 95 today and I got close – shot 98 (47/51).  Other than the last hole (which I will get to), I played decent – better on the front 9 than on the back 9.  I had 5 pars along with a couple of putts which just lipped out but I also had 4 triple bogeys and 2 or 3 double bogeys.

As has been my problem the last couple of weeks, my wedge play just sucks.  I have a couple of Taylor-Made wedges (a 54 degree and a 58 degree) and I think I am going to go back to my stock Sand and Lob wedges and see if they help.  I think the heavier stock clubs would benefit me as it will be tougher to decelerate which is my real my nemsis.  Today on #17, a 500 yard par 5, I am 70 yards from the green in 2 and proceed to just miss my wedge shot leaving me 50 yards from the hole.  So I did it again, leaving it off the green by about 20 yards.  I decide to bump and run a 7 only to leave it on the fringe.  2 putt for a 7 – I effective took 5 shots from 70 yards out which is just abysmal.  I seem to do this on 2-3 holes each round and it just kills my score.  I did something similar on #7 where I was 130 out in the middle of the faiway and blocked it to the right of the green.  Then I bladed the chip shot across the green into the woods.  A punched 7 iron got me back across the green again where I 2 putted.  Triple bogey.  Bleh.

I didn’t l lose any balls today until #18 where I dumped it into the water.  #18 is a hole which just gets in my head.  It is long carry over water and if you tend to hit a fade (like me), it makes it even harder.  On the left is a picture of #18 but you can’t see the tee which is off to the left – you hit over the lake to a landing area to the right of bridge or the landing area in the middle of the picture.  From the blue tees, it is a 220+ carry to the landing area in the middle of the picture.  I have made that shot but not very many times.  Today I tried to take the conservative approach and go for the landing area near the bridge and just hooked it bad and it went in the water by the bridge.  So what do I do?  I hit my next shot from the drop area in the water too!  A nice Hybrid 3 got me to just off the green where I hit one of my better wedges of the day and two putter for another triple bogey.

Not sure when I will play next week, maybe Friday afternoon.

I like this time of the year when the days are getting longer.  Saturday evening I was able to go out and get a few holes in before it was dark.  I played #6-#9, #1, #5-#7 – 8 holes (#7 is behind my house).  I had planned on just playing #6-#8 and hitting a bunch of balls but of all the nerve, there was a late group coming up #6 when I was teeing off #7 so I just kept going.  Fortunately there is a quick bypass route from #1 to #5 which brings me back toward my house.  If there had been enough light I would have played #2-#4 but it was already questionable and by the time I got back to #7 it was for all practical purposes, already dark.

As I was the other day, I was up and down, a few good shots and some really bad ones.  On the positive side, my short game was better than it was the other day but there was no real pressure either.  I was hitting some of so-so balls I find in my yard so if I hit one in the woods, I didn’t even go look for it – just hit another one.  Lazy?  I guess so but the balls aren’t very good and they were in the woods or my yard when I found them.  I left 2 or 3 out on the course somewhere.  I finished with 3 out of 4 good holes (1, 5, and 7) with pars on all three of them.  I was really happy with #1 and #7 – on #1 I hit a wonderful hybrid 4 from about 185 out to about 20 feet from the pin.  On #7 I hit a great tee shot but it was a bit left and just clipped some branches which over hang the fairfay where it doglegs to the left knocking it down.  I was about 170 from the green and hit a beautiful drawing 5 iron to within 10 feet.  Of course I missed the birdie put but was still  happy with the approach.  It flew exactly as I hoped it would.

I am going to play 18 with my buddy Ronnie on Thursday, my goal is to break 95.  I need to hit my 3 wood off the tee more than I usually do – if I can do that I think I can keep it closer to the fairway.

It was supposed to be nice this morning so I set up a tee time for myself and my friend Ronnie.  With our club now offering 7:30 AM tee times (as opposed to 9:00 AM), it makes it a whole lot easier for me to get out and play on a weekday morning.  Working for a west coast based company means that it is usually pretty quiet until about 11:30 or 12:00 anyway.

We got off right at 7:30 and I started well, bogies on the first 3 holes but hitting the ball pretty well.  At #4 we had to wait for the mowers to cut the greens and this continued on every hole until #9.  This was kind of annoying and it really slowed us down and took me out of my rhythm.  From then on I played pogo golf, up and down, some good holes and some bad holes.  It started raining while we were on the #5 tee even though the weather forecast said no rain until later in the day.  Wow – the forecast was wrong again!  It wasn’t too bad so we continued on playing.  Had an awesome tee shot on the hole behind my house (#7) but missed a short putt for par.  Ended up with a 52 on the front.  Again, my wedge play is my downfall and I continue to compound mistakes with a bad shot usually leading to another one.

On the back 9 it was raining pretty solid for the first 4 holes but after that it wasn’t too bad.  I had even more of a pogo round as I pushed a number of tee shots way to the right but also parred a couple of holes, including a nice par on #17 after an awful second shot.  A great 6-iron to the green from about 170 out allowed me to 2 putt for par.  I dumped two in the water on #18 to finish with another 52 for a total of 104 – same as I shot a Pine Needles last Friday.  Ronnie crushed me, he played well and shot 88.

I was pretty wet by the time I was done but it could have been worse, I could have been at work!  All in all, a good day, it was nice to get out but I really need to work on my chipping.  I am a chronic decelerator!