This past weekend I participated in my first ever golf trip. A group of 20 of us went to Bellemere Winds near Peterborough to stay in cabins and play 18 holes on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. My immediate takeaway is that I want to improve my golf game so I can participate in a lot more golf trips. I’ll write a separate post on my thoughts about the trip in a future post.
For the first round, we played pairs ‘Texas Scramble’ which I learned meant me and my partner play best ball on our first shot, then play our own ball and keep score the rest of the way out. While using my irons off the tee generally keeps me away from penalty strokes, it also leaves me 50+ yards behind other players on my second shot. The benefit of Texas Scramble is that my teammate was consistently 250+ yards off the tee, allowing me to consistently hit a wedge or short iron into the green as opposed to long irons, making it easier to hit the greens in regulation.
Putting: usually a strength of mine, my putting was poor on Friday and it didn’t get better all weekend. I had a difficult time reading the greens, and left a ton of putts short. In this round, I three-putted 8 greens which is simply unacceptable. Admittedly, playing in my first competitive round of golf, I missed several putts that normally would have been scored as ‘gimmies’ in my friendly rounds which I’m guessing added at least 5 strokes to my score. Putting will now become a focus in my range sessions, alternating chipping and putting each session.
Chipping: my chipping fortunately was a strength in this round. Playing short wedges into the green on most holes, I often found myself greenside and able to use a mix of the flop and bump and run chips that I’ve been practicing for the past month. Though I still tend to hit my chips long, I’m a lot more confident than I have been in the past when getting out my SW or PW to chip the ball onto the green. This improved confidence has resulted in way fewer blades across the green or chips that never leave the rough, and the focus now must be getting my chips to stick on the green with regularity.
Short irons (9 to SW): my short irons were used far more often in this round due to my partners distance off the tee, and for the most part, was happy with the way I was hitting my short irons. Though I missed left or right often, I was making good contact with the ball and producing great flight paths. I tended to pull the ball left more often than right, something I believe was due to alignment as opposed to ball flight.
Long irons (5 to 8): my long irons were used far less often than usual, especially because I was pulling driver on most holes as opposed to my 5-iron knowing that my partner already had a ball in play much further than I could ever hit my 5-iron. I was happy with the improvement I saw from the previous two range sessions where I struggled with my long irons.
Driver: for the first time this summer, I hit my driver 10+ times. Though there were a few toed balls, snap hooks, and slices into the woods, I did manage to hit the ball hard more often than not, often hitting the ball close to 250 yards with little-to-non slice. Once I am hitting my irons with 75%+ consistency, I will begin to focus on using a driver off the tee, likely after investing in a new driver (mine is 15+ years old).
Overall, I was happy with the way I played. I must also disclose there was far more drinking than a standard round, having put down 5 shots before the round even started, drinking beers the rest of the way. I would like to report that future rounds had less drinking, however Saturday actually proved a more aggressive drinking pace. More on that tomorrow.
Breaking Ninety 