Khamelion
Tour Winner
Yesterday was the first stroke play comp of the season, on the long course and the course was in great nick, the greens are still a little bumpy, but they are green, no bald or barren patches.
Started off a little poor 6 on the first out of position with the drive and rather than go for it over the trees, I sensibly played back out onto the fairway, but the third was thinned onto the 7th green, eventually back onto the 1st green with the 4th then two putt.
Second hole, stonking drive down hill front of the green, 9 iron for a little chip and run, few feet short of hole, should have been a birdy but another two putt for par.
A 6 on the par 5 3rd was acceptable, then it all went wrong.
4th Hole par 3, tee shot into bunker left, 2nd, thinned it over the green behind a tall bush, chunked the third, chunked the 4th, on the green just of 5 and two put for 7.
Put it out of my mind as we waited on the 5th tee for the fairway to clear, another good drive a little more left than I would've like but it was on the fairway, albeit with a large tree to clear on the next shot, the group in front waved us through as one of them had lost his ball, I was in between clubs and wanted to play a short iron layup to take the tree out of play, but with the group behind already on the tee, the group in front waving us through I hit a hybrid and pulled it left into the tree I was wanting to avoid, so my third was a chip out sideways, with Kraxx having laid up some 70yds further forward, the group behind teed off and the group in front still waiting for me and Kraxx to play through, what should have been a nice 9 iron to the green, came off the toe and scuttled into the cabbage next to the path, down the bank on the 6th, so I was playing 5 out of the cabbage up hill to a blind pin, made decent contact but ball was landed in the bunker, 6th out of the bunker, was a feeble effort and barely made it out to the green, didn't want to thin as I had earlier, a decent putt got me down 7.
6th another cracking drive, but as the group in front, well two off them had already played, we waited for their 3rd member to tee off with us, the 5 of us walked to our balls where me and Kraxx would play on and through. Feeling pressured to hurry up chunked my 2nd and 3rd, thinned the 4th ended up with a 2 putt 6 on a par 4.
After that it didn't get any better, in fact it got worse, the 11th pulled the drive into trees, went to play the sensible shot out onto the fairway and an inch to the left and my shot would have been back on the short stuff, but I hit a tree and put the ball further into the trees3rd shot back onto the fairway, needless to say it got to the point where I wanted to walk off, I'd had enough, my game was shot, I wasn't thinking golf, I wasn't concentrating, and my head was all over the place, so on the 11th I carded 11.
The rest of the round was a case of cracking drives and rubbish there after I put my card in with a final 108, by far and away the worst I have played since I started playing again 3 and a bit years ago.
The positives I can take from the round are that I hit 13 out of 15 fairways from the tee on the par 4 and 5 holes.
The leader as we entered our score, was a 19 handicapper who shot a net 64(83)
Next week at the grove can't come soon enough, I need to find that zen place in my head when playing so as not to feel hurried, hopefully next Saturdays comp will be better.
Started off a little poor 6 on the first out of position with the drive and rather than go for it over the trees, I sensibly played back out onto the fairway, but the third was thinned onto the 7th green, eventually back onto the 1st green with the 4th then two putt.
Second hole, stonking drive down hill front of the green, 9 iron for a little chip and run, few feet short of hole, should have been a birdy but another two putt for par.
A 6 on the par 5 3rd was acceptable, then it all went wrong.
4th Hole par 3, tee shot into bunker left, 2nd, thinned it over the green behind a tall bush, chunked the third, chunked the 4th, on the green just of 5 and two put for 7.
Put it out of my mind as we waited on the 5th tee for the fairway to clear, another good drive a little more left than I would've like but it was on the fairway, albeit with a large tree to clear on the next shot, the group in front waved us through as one of them had lost his ball, I was in between clubs and wanted to play a short iron layup to take the tree out of play, but with the group behind already on the tee, the group in front waving us through I hit a hybrid and pulled it left into the tree I was wanting to avoid, so my third was a chip out sideways, with Kraxx having laid up some 70yds further forward, the group behind teed off and the group in front still waiting for me and Kraxx to play through, what should have been a nice 9 iron to the green, came off the toe and scuttled into the cabbage next to the path, down the bank on the 6th, so I was playing 5 out of the cabbage up hill to a blind pin, made decent contact but ball was landed in the bunker, 6th out of the bunker, was a feeble effort and barely made it out to the green, didn't want to thin as I had earlier, a decent putt got me down 7.
6th another cracking drive, but as the group in front, well two off them had already played, we waited for their 3rd member to tee off with us, the 5 of us walked to our balls where me and Kraxx would play on and through. Feeling pressured to hurry up chunked my 2nd and 3rd, thinned the 4th ended up with a 2 putt 6 on a par 4.
After that it didn't get any better, in fact it got worse, the 11th pulled the drive into trees, went to play the sensible shot out onto the fairway and an inch to the left and my shot would have been back on the short stuff, but I hit a tree and put the ball further into the trees3rd shot back onto the fairway, needless to say it got to the point where I wanted to walk off, I'd had enough, my game was shot, I wasn't thinking golf, I wasn't concentrating, and my head was all over the place, so on the 11th I carded 11.
The rest of the round was a case of cracking drives and rubbish there after I put my card in with a final 108, by far and away the worst I have played since I started playing again 3 and a bit years ago.
The positives I can take from the round are that I hit 13 out of 15 fairways from the tee on the par 4 and 5 holes.
The leader as we entered our score, was a 19 handicapper who shot a net 64(83)
Next week at the grove can't come soon enough, I need to find that zen place in my head when playing so as not to feel hurried, hopefully next Saturdays comp will be better.
