On Sunday I played Cranberry Golf Course in Collingwood. Having grown up in Collingwood, I played Cranberry fairly regularly as a teenager, but just once over the past 10 years or so. I was playing with three high school buddies, one beginner, one on par with my game, and one who is a single digit handicap. Overall, I was very pleased with my game, having one of my best rounds ever, highlighted by hitting a 70-foot birdy putt just off the green of the par three 13th hole.
Putting: as mentioned above, the highlight of the round was clearly the 70-foot putt that I drained for birdy, however it was not my only good putt on the day. Having spent multiple days at the range putting over the past week, I was able to cut my three-putts down to 8 roles which while still high, is a significant improvement over the previous weekends rounds. I will continue to focus on putting in every other session at the range.
Chipping: I was quite pleased with both my flop and bump and run chips around the green, often getting them into one putt range which helped my score significantly. The one area where I struggled was on long chips of 30 to 50 yards which I often left short. I will make this a point of emphasis in this upcoming weeks range sessions.
Short irons (SW to 8): apart from a few GW’s hit long, I was happy with my short iron play on the day. I am getting a better feel for the distance of my new irons, and am becoming more consistent with how I hit them, which allows me to hit more greens in regulation. The one area where I’m still struggling with distance is between 20 and 100 yards. On the next day it rains, I’m going to go to a golf simulator and practice with my SW, GW, and PW so I can determine which club, with which swing I’ll be hitting at a given distance. Once determined, I can practice these shots at the range to improve my long chipping results.
Long irons (5 to 7): apart from off the tee, I was very consistent with my long irons. For some reason, when I’m hitting an iron off the tee, I tend to either pull the ball left out of play, or hit it off the toe of the club to the right. While this occasionally happens from the fairway (or rough) perhaps 10% of the time, my miss percentage off the tee has been near 40% over the past few rounds. I will practice at the range, however an easy potential solution is to stop teeing the ball up, and instead hit off the tee deck where I seem to have a much higher shot percentage.
Overall, I was very happy with the way that I played. After shooting a 110 in my last round, the goal coming into the weekend was to break 100 once, and I had assumed my best shot would be the second day at Marlwood, a shorter course that I’m familiar with. To shoot a 92 at Cranberry was a nice accomplishment, and is definitely the highlight of my golf season to date. I’m excited to get back out on the course when I play Marlwood with my dad.
Breaking Ninety 