Home on the Range

As I said in my last post, I went out on the course at Mohansic with a friend and felt as though I had a swing I could use. That turned out to be definitely true. What also became immediately obvious—no surprise here—was that while I may be at home on the range, I am not comfortable on the course.

The first hole exposed my inexperience. I hit a nice drive, right down the middle of the fairway, a dogleg left and a blind tee-shot, but not terribly long. Having no idea of my distances, I hit a lob wedge for my second shot, right at the pin but twenty yards or so short, which was OK with me, since I definitely wanted to avoid any encounter with the two bunkers on either side of the green. I chipped on and then prepared to putt. I could tell immediately that this was not like putting on the practice green behind the clubhouse. I felt stiff and nervous, and could not feel the clubhead at all. Luckily, I two-putted for bogey and was glad to have such an easy start.

Putting really became a problem on the next hole, where I found myself on the green in two, with a (let's say, since I didn't pace it off) 40 foot putt. The first putt went about two-thirds of the way, and I missed the second. Three putts for a bogey. Whatever comfort zone I normally felt on the practice green was gone on the course.

On the next hole, a slightly downhill lie exposed my range habits. Even though I knew the lie was downhill, I still didn't align myself correctly and with a pitching wedge hit the ball way fat. Another bogey. The rest of the front nine was pretty similar. No good putts, but I was doing OK from tee to green. In with a 45. The back nine was a different story.

The first blow-up happened on ten, where I pulled my tee shot left into the trees. When I found it, the ball was lying on top of three rotten pine cones, and the best I could do was to chip out with a seven-iron. From the rough, I pulled a hybrid and lost that ball. I dropped a ball and hit a pitching wedge left of the green, across the cart path, into some thick rough. About three strokes later, I was finally on the green and probably two- or three-putted (I can't remember because by that time I was keeping track any more).

On the eleventh, I hit probably the best shot of the round. After a drive right down the middle and just short of the barber shop pole at about 200 yards out, I hit a three-metal right at the green. I bounced a few times and rolled on, pin high on the left. Naturally, I left the first putt short and took two more putts to get down. Another bogey.

The round basically continued in this way. A few decent shots balanced by a few pulled shots and no putting. I ended the round by pulling a five-iron left of the eighteenth green and losing that ball. then pitching into the sand trap (I needed the bunker practice anyway), and several more putts.

Total for the round was probably somewhere around 110. And this is for somebody who now has a golf swing. What do most people score? Or do they even bother? The round didn't discourage me, however. I felt I could hit some good shots, and once I settled down with my putting, I could save strokes. Now, I need to get out and play.