Spring is Sprung

DATE: 25 Feb 2012
VENUE: Beckenham Place Park
ACTIVITY: 18 holes of Golf

The weather was way too nice not to get out there. Sunny, calm, warm. How could I not?

I was playing alone but was joined by Corey (not sure of the correct spelling) for holes 3, 4 and 5. He was about 10 years old and was one of a group of kids who seem to have had lessons that morning (there were two groups of three in front of me, but all had gone by the time I’d played the 5th). He was a bit quiet but friendly and polite enough and played some good shots.

I scored 115, so not exactly great but there were some good moments. I scored two pars for instance:

• On the par 3 4th, my 8 iron tee shot fell short and right. My first chip was horrid, really horridly fat but the second was struck sweetly and it rolled calmly in to the hole, much to our delight.
• On the par 3 10th, again I was right and short (with the driver this time) and found my ball in longish grass with a few twigs and leaves around. Still, it was a good lie and it had to be as a chip was out of the question thanks to a bunker in the way. Out came my nine iron and a nice gently lob later and my ball was about 3 feet from the hole.

So why the big score? Well, there wasn’t any one thing wrong with my game, except for consistency. Just three fairways hit on the front nine (and didn’t hit another until the 13th), and even then my driver shots felt really heavy, not sure where that means I was hitting the ball on the club face.

Fairways shots were very good sometimes and I certainly avoided repeated fat shots like I’d had in my previous round but I think I tended to miss the crucial ones.

My short game was fairly good except for on the 15th (the hardest hole on the course) where a good tee shot and a good fairway shot were spoilt by four attempts to get the ball on to the raised green. In fact my 5th shot was further way from the green than my 3rd and 4th. (This is one of those holes where your head will only get above the green when you’re about 10 feet away, so if you don’t get your pitch/chip/lob on to the green then the chances are it’ll roll back down the hill – believe me, I know!)

Putting was mixed. Actually, looking at my scorecard again it was generally good, but marred by three threes and a four. Make those all two putts and my score becomes 110. It’s a big deal to make no more than two-putts!

Consistency is the key then. Consistency means I wouldn’t have scored two 8s, a 9 and a 10!

Still, I enjoyed the round and came away feeling surprisingly optimistic for my next round which is on Tuesday, at a course we’ve never played before: Addington Court Championship Course.