Tweet
Teed off under clear skies, though the wind would steadily pick up across the day.
Despite opening with a regulation par 4 and 3 points on the first hole, the day seemed destined for mediocrity. Poor tee shots, duffed chips and missed short putts across the next 5 holes saw me arrive at the 7th tee having added only another 8 points.
Don't know why I did it, but, I took driver out on the par 5 7th, hadn't taken it out previously because I'd "sort of" resolved that morning to leave it in the bag for the day.
Well, it turned out to be a good call, smoked one rifle straight and long down the left hand side of the fairway. Leaving myself only a 7 or a 6 iron across the dogleg.
Chose 6 iron and swung easily into it, almost lazily, almost thoughtlessly and contact was sweet. You know that "no sensation" sensation you get when you've hit one pure. It flew straight on my intended target and looked good.
Because the shot was blind, I looked to my playing partners further up the fairway, but they both shrugged their shoulders indicating they hadn't seen it finish. I was confident it was good and momentarily thought about a provisional, but ultimately decided against it and wandered off toward the green to find my ball.
On arriving at the green, there was one ball sitting there, about 25 feet from the pin and a couple just off, pin high left. I went towards the ones off the surface and was happy when one of my playing partners yelled over to me that the ball on the green was mine.
Had a look at the putt, committed to my chosen line and settled over the eagle putt. Made a nice stroke and the ball rolled on its way, tracking nicely. Thought maybe I'd left it short, but, it got to the hole and dropped.
So it was eagle 3 and 5 points and happiness was again with me.
From there, the mediocrity would return.
Finished the day signing for 34 points with 6 1 point holes and 2 wipes. With 38 points winning the day, I wasn't that far away. Positives in the gloom, Craig, there are always positives from the wreckage...
Again it was my short game that let me down. Duffed a couple of short chips, 3 putted 4 or 5 times and each time the 2nd putt was just jabbed at in some frustration following the first miss.
So it was another mixed bag for me and now more than ever, the realisation that I need to spend time on the practice putting green has really hit home.
We have our pennant season coming up in a month or so and I'd like to be better on the greens by then.
As always, thanks for reading.
Cheers