80, that is. The other day I shot a 79, the first time I’ve broken 80 in over 20 years since I was a kid playing 5+ times a week. Seems I’ve been stuck at 82/83/84, just never being able to toss 2 good nines together.
Shot 38 on the front. Then made the mistake of looking at the score care after 16, and saw that 2 5s would give me 78. I felt sick to my stomach over every shot on the last 2 holes. 3-putted 17 for a 6, completely chunked my drive on 18 (after striping them all day). Ended up having to get up and down for my 5. MAN, was that last 4-foot putt the toughest putt I’ve had in a while.
But now that I’ve done it, I guess the only thing to do is do it again, huh?
Jesus, if I could shoot an 80-anything I’d be proud of myself. I have yet to break out of the 90’s. Of course, I only play a few times a year, with crappy Walmart clubs, but it’s my drives that kill my game. I cannot hit it straight off the tee unless I dip down to a 5-wood. A one wood is anathema to me. I always slice it (or top it) and I can actually hit with the 1 wood pretty well at a driving range, but never on a real course.
My putting saves me. Somehow, I’m just innately good at it. Can’t figure out why.
I’ve been playing a lot the last couple of weeks, as in 5 times, twice on par 3 courses though. In the last 12 years or so of playing I’ve never broken 100 on a ‘normal’ course. I have on courses that are like par 68 or so. Then last weekend I had a great round and got a 98. Only I had one problem. I don’t like to cheat in any way, but on a par 5 I had a shot that went a bit left. Normally I would go find it, but the group in front of us wanted us to play through. I only spent a minute looking for my ball, couldn’t find it, went back 20-30 yards and then hit with my group. I ended up making a 4 without counting the lost ball. Everyone told me to just count the 4, but I fell odd counting it and then breaking 100.
I looked at my scorecard at the 18th as well. I shouldn’t have because I knew I needed an 8 or better to break 100. I of course put my drive way right in the trees. Which helped because the second shot would have been 200 yards over water and I don’t have a 200 yard shot so I was forced to hold back. I still don’t know if I can count it as under 100 or not.
We’re heading up N of Grand Rapids to play St Ives and Tullymore, then back down to GR to hit 1000 Oaks, then over to Kalamazoo for 1-2 rounds at Yarrow.
Breaking 80 is nice but golf keeps ahead of you. Once you break 80, then you think, I can do 75. Then you want to shoot par. Then you want to get in the 60s. Every step is huge. 75 is a long way from 80 and par is a big step from 75. It is all about mistakes . You don’t think of good shots when you finish, but where did you lost strokes.
I’ve heard good things about St. Ives and Tullymore. I haven’t been out to the pink side of the state, and especially not to play golf.
Next time, check out the up north courses. My favorite course is Elk Ridge in Atlanta, Michigan. The 10th hole is a short par 3 that’s very downhill. The sand trap in front of the green is shaped like a pig. The owner of the course is the owner of Honeybaked Ham.
There’s a picture of the sand trap on their website, under “Course Tour”.