I saw the tee sheet was open at my club yesterday so I was hopeful I could fit in 18. I started off with a double, par, bogey, double and then had to pass the group I caught up with and I moved to 8. The rest was smooth sailing and I was able to complete the round before it got dark.

Along the way I had 4 minor/major emotional blow ups, which is comical when you play by yourself because if anyone is watching, they’d think you’re unhinged mentally. The best way I can explain playing alone is that you want to do your best, and you know you can put down whatever score you want to make you happy, but integrity should always prevail. In trying to score low, there are some spots where you can’t make mistakes and here were 4 of mine.

Don’t Do This

• Hole 10 – Par 4 – 350 yards – I’ve been working on hitting a fade off the tee and successfully put one deep in the right rough. I hit a sand wedge that tried to hop on the green but halted on a side hill fringe. I putt the ball up the hill and it is off to the left about a foot and stops next to the hole….then rolls back 7 feet. I missed the comeback for par and was pretty pissed. There are seriously slopes, and then there are downhills. A ball shouldn’t mini golf style come back on greens where you can’t even tell there’s a hill. Although mad, I didn’t do anything crazy.

• Hole 12- Par 4 – 415 yards – I hit a poor drive to the left that hit a tree. I was about 225 out and needed 175 to clear a hazard and decided to lay up. My bag was 50 yards ahead of me, because I couldn’t find the drive quick, and I only had an 8 iron in my hand. No biggie. I wanted to punch the ball 75 yards to the hazard. Instead I flubbed a ball that went 15 into the rough. I winged my club about 20 yards into a tree and fortunately it didn’t get stuck. I ended up hitting a 5 iron to the left green and then made an impressive up and down for bogey.

• Hole 7 – Par 4 – 325 yards – Sorry I’m going backwards but I 7, 8, 9 were my finishing holes. After pulling a 4 iron into a tree, I wanted to punch to the middle of the fairway. I had an A wedge and there were a few branches in front of me but I was supposedly going right of them. I hit the wedge and it hits the branch and drops. Instead of being in the fairway, I’m partially blocked again. I hit a miraculous save to 20 feet from 120 and then hit a putt to 3 feet above the hole. I miss the 3 footer and it rolls 6 feet past. For the sake of my emotional psyche, I made the comebacker for double. That could have gotten ugly.

• *Ultimate Blowup* – Hole 8 – Par 3 – 200 yards – A par would have got me an 85 which is a nice score at Woodcrest. I played well all day. 0 lost balls, 1 mishit (aside from the aforementioned pitch outs I had a drive where it went 20 yards), and good driving most of the day. I hit a 5 iron 200 yards to the right hand side of the green and I could already hear the golf announcer say that’s a tough spot to make par from. The ball looked ok lie wise and I attempted a flop shot that I bladed and it sailed over the green. In a horrible spot, I flop-hozzled one right into the sand. To avoid complete blow up, I elected to not blast and go ball first out of sand that had no lip, and hit it back in the sand on the other side. Next I hit a blasted sand shot back into the sand across. I hurled the club as far as it can go. Then I hit another sand shot over the green again back into the sand. Finally, I put one on the green and missed a 4 footer to get a 9. I was pissed.

I know most people don’t care about the golf posts but content is thin nowadays. I amazingly received two compliments to the blog from people who I wouldn’t think read which at least makes me continue on knowing that sometimes people read what I write. That’s honestly the only reason to do this, otherwise, it’s a terrible personal journal. Now it’s just a terrible blog. See you next post!