A couple weeks ago while in Albuquerque with Teresa, I played a round of golf at Santa Ana Golf Club while she had an all-day job interview. I was happy to see that the course had a set of pretty long tees, with the scorecard showing 7298 yards. The par 5's have lengths of 600, 599, 633, and 534. :-o
Despite not playing in a couple months, I was doing really well. I was hitting a ton of greens, and I was pretty solid with the putter from 10 feet and in, for the most part.
The front nine was relatively uneventful. One 3-putt, a couple shots in the sand, and I finished with a 3-over 39. Good start!
Back nine started well, but I just couldn't hit a birdie putt. Starting on the 8th hole I had a string of eight greens-in-regulation in a row, and I didn't make a single birdie. That's terrible. Still, I didn't 3-putt any of those, so there I was through 16 holes sitting at +3.
Then one of the guys playing with me did something incredibly stupid: he says "so you're what, about 3 over?"
He probably didn't know any better, but he totally jinxed my round, and I knew it. Letting myself think about it was surely a mental error on my part. I proceeded to hit my worst drive of the day off the tee, and long story short, I make a 9 on a par 4. :-( Now I have to go -1 on the last two holes just to shoot a 79, and they're both par 5s.
The first is the 633 yard hole, and there's a big crosswind blowing now. I hit a long drive, but it goes off to the right considerably. I catch my 3 wood pretty solid and the ball makes it back to the fairway, leaving me about 100 yards out. I knock my wedge to about 4 feet - perfect! Then I miss the putt. :-(
Last hole is the 534 yard par 5, but now it's going straight into a really strong wind, and there's a lake right in front of the green. I hit a good drive, nice and low and right down the middle. I have to clear about 220 yards to get over the water, and if I don't make a birdie there's no 79, so I go for it. The shot went straight, but I caught it just a little fat. While that wouldn't normally have been a problem, in this case it popped the ball up in the air, the wind caught it, and right into the water it went. :-(
So my would-be 75 turned into an 81. Still a great round given how little I've played lately, but the things it could have been...
Posted by Ben at March 25, 2007 9:34 PMThanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)