Breaking Ninety

“An interesting thing about Golf is that no matter how badly you play, it is always possible to get worse.”
– Anon

After my last three tee times getting rained out, today I finally got on the course for my first round of the season with my old man, one of his friends, and a walk on named Al. My dad lives on Marlwood golf course in Wasaga Beach, and several of his childhood buddies also reside on the course, providing them with a major home course advantage for all comers. As I work to improve my golf game this summer, Marlwood will be my unofficial home course and will likely be my best chance to score low.

The best rounds I’ve played to date have been at Marlwood, both due to its familiarity, and its layout. Marlwood is a short course with fairly tight fairways, but offers forgiveness for missing off the tee (generally just means your second shot is off an adjacent fairway). The greens are slow, and the course is generally in decent shape considering the low cost of $35 for a twilight round.

On the first day the spring showers mercifully relented after what seemed like a week straight of rain, I teed off at Marlwood at 2PM. Despite the soggy conditions on the course, it was a beautiful, sunny day with blue skies and a daytime high of 18 degrees. I teed off on the par 4 first, hitting a 5-iron to the right of the fairway, then an 8-iron to the right of the elevated green. From there, the wheels fell off as I did my best Happy Gilmore impersonation, knocking the ball back and forth across the green, beginning my game with a quadruple bogey; a sign of things to come. I finished the day at a +37 score of 108, far below my previous summers average score. Below I’ve provided a highlight of my game by area:

Putting: perhaps one of the few highlights of the day was my putting. Despite my score, I only three-putted two greens on the day, and though I two-putt 14 holes, I generally was coming in from 15+ feet out, and leaving my putts within tap-in distance. I have always had a good feel around the greens, and in my games current state, putting is likely my biggest strength on the course.

Chipping: after the previous days session on the range which included 30 minutes of dedicated chipping practice, I had high hopes going in. Where I traditionally would bump and run all of my chips with a pitching wedge (I didn’t get a 56-wedge until late last golf season), I had been practicing pitches with my 56 at the range the previous day, so I opted to chip with my 56 whenever the opportunity presented itself. While I was happy with the contact and trajectory I was getting on my chips (only blading one), I had a tough time judging distance both short and long. That said, I believe this is an area that can be quickly improved by spending more time at the range practicing my distance control. Like putting, I believe chipping can become a strength in my game.

Short irons (8-iron to wedges): as a result of the ineptitude on my long irons which I’ll detail below, I was consistently coming into the greens with an 8-iron or less. I was blading my short irons slightly which caused me to bounce off the green when on target, however more often than not, I was missing to the left or right when on distance. This is another area that can be practiced on the range, focusing on specific targets to better understand my distance for each club, and identify any trends with pulling or pushing specific clubs.

Long irons (5-iron to 7-iron): by far the biggest weakness in my game was my long irons. My 5-iron, which was my go-to club with my previous set, was by far my worst club on the day. Though an unfair sample size since I hit the majority of my drives with it (focusing on my irons for first half of season, woods in second half), all 7 of my penalty strokes came from pulling or hitting my 5-iron off the toe, which doesn’t speak to the number of times that I bladed the club along the ground without being charged a penalty stroke. My 6-iron and 7-iron weren’t far better, but it’s clear my 5-iron needs work. My long irons will be a focus at the range over the next few weeks.

Overall, it was a disappointing round from a scoring perspective, but it provided a good gauge of where my game is currently. Unfortunately I’m travelling for work next weekend, so my next round won’t be for two weeks, however in the interim, I know what I need to work on at the range. Learning to hit my long irons more consistently, specifically my 5-iron, will help me get into better approach areas and reduce penalty strokes. The second focus will be chipping, learning distance control from within 30 yards. While my putting and short irons have lots of room for improvement, they will be on the backburner until my next round as I work to improve my long irons and chipping. The goal this week will be to get to the range three times, then next week two more range sessions before I next test myself on the course come May 20th.