One For The Road

As the golf season creeps into the late fall, I wasn't sure how much longer I would be able to hit the links again before the window closed, the calendar switched to '10 and the ground thawed a little. With that in mind, I wanted to get one last round in before winter came calling, so I was determined to get out and play one more time before I cleaned the clubs and packed them up for the winter. Given the way that I played last time I was there, I headed back to Willowdale, because I wanted to see if I could shatter my personal best round of 49 on the course. I was convinced that I could go lower if I concentrated. I had a score of 45 in my mind.

It had rained for much of the day before, so the greens were extremely slow. You would assume that I would have taken that into account before I headed out for the morning, but as I was forced to three putt on the first two holes because I was way off with the speed it was clear that I am a slow learner. Also, my slice was in full effect, as a tree was the only thing that prevented my drive off of the fifth tee from landing in the fourth fairway. Overall, it was not the best round for me as those wet greens slowed me down considerably. I was forced to repeatedly three-putt time after time as I couldn't figure out the speeds. I ended up with a 52 for the day, though I could at least take some consolation in the fact that my tee to green play was better than at the start of the season.

So, the end of my second season of golf did not end on the high note that I expected, but I am light-years ahead of where I was at this time last year. I still need to invest in a new driver, but I feel like an entire new set of clubs would be overkill. I think the best thing is to stick with my current clubs and work on swinging more consistently. Either way I think a little time away from my slice would be very good for me mentally. Unless I can book a trip to a warmer climate for some golf, in which case forget rest, get me a tee time.

I Saw That Going Different In My Head

Ever since I started playing golf last summer, I've been trying to get my dad to hit the links with me. He used to play, but hadn't picked up his clubs in years. On top of that, last December he had knee replacement surgery and he's still a little iffy on his other knee. So, he was reluctant to commit to the full swing over that many holes. I got him to go to the range a couple weeks ago and he was able to swing without pain, so I finally badgered him enough to go to Lost Brook, which is the closest course, and play a half-round. What I didn't see happening was that my father is a damn good putter.

We got a cart and headed out. While my dad might have had some reservations about the full swing he would need to get from tee to green, once he was on the putting surface he was killing me. I'm three putting from 10 feet, he's nailing 25 footers. Also, as it turns out his knee was also a bit of an advantage. Because he was hesitant to put a full-body swing behind his drives he swung with little-to-no movement below the waist. The result was less power, but more accuracy. So while he may have only been hitting it 140 yards and I may have been hitting it 160 yards, he was in the fairway while I was in the woods. I knew he was having a good time (winning will do that) because as we were on the 16th tee my dad said, "Wait, we only have three holes left? This round is flying by."

I'm not going to pretend that this was a duel on par with Watson vs. Nicklaus from Turnberry, but it was close. In the end my erratic driving and sub-par putting was not enough to save me and my dad ended his 20-year golf retirement with a 49-52 victory. Beaten by a guy who hadn't swung a club in two decades... yeah, that should to wonders for my ego.