Sunday, April 10, 2016

A Round of Bad Golf

Today I shot the worst round of golf in five years.

There were signs that today wasn’t going to be my day.  First sign came when I woke up tired because I didn’t sleep well.  Second sign was the windy day with 47 F temperature at noon.  The third sign came on the first tee box minutes after I met up with my three friends.



Algonkian golf course's hole 1 is a dogleg-left, 335 yards, par 4.  There is no reason to hit the driver off the tee.  I proceeded to hit my 5 iron into the pond 20 yards left of the fairway, not once, not twice, but three times in a row!  That’s right, I hit three identical shots off the 1st tee three times into the water.  I don’t think I’ve ever done that before in the 13 years I’ve been playing golf.  The fourth sign came when we got to the first green.  It was plugged (aerated), and so were the other 17.  I only hit on satisfying shot with my driver.  Most of the holes had trees running down both sides of the fairway.  It was my first time playing this course.

When you put all this together, you get a Sunday special good for +40 over par for a single round of golf!  Three years ago was the last time I shot over 100.  That tells you how bad it was today.  In March, I shot 83, 90, and 86 on three separate par 72 courses.  That means, I was +43 after three rounds of golf but almost matched it today after 18 holes.


Typically, a bad start, like today, would have ruined my day but I was aware of all the signs so it didn’t surprise me or upset me.  It happens to the best of them, Jordan Spieth was +4 on a par 3 at the Masters today.


I leave you with a photo I took after my best shot today.  I pushed my drive to the right behind some trees next to the fairway.  I hit my 6 iron over the trees and over a bunker onto the green (if you look closely you can see the ball near the flagstick).