Last time, I let you know about my first tournament win of the year and my lowest score differential ever. Today, I’m going to tell you about the very next time I played golf which was roughly three days after the tourney.

I took off a Tuesday from work to play with a friend from work that is now retired. He has a regular game on Tuesday mornings at the club where he is a member and I am in the rotation of friends he calls to play.

Unfortunately, my friend texted me the night before and said he had some pain from his hip rehab (yes, we’re old), but that he would find a fourth and our group could play. Fine by me. Two of the other players were guys I’d worked with that were now retired, so it would be a bit of a reunion.

I decided to do the same thing I did the previous Saturday and worked out prior to the round. I also did not warm up at the range. I figured I would employ the same safe strategy that I had used on Saturday: Use irons off the tee, keep it in the short stuff, and minimize mistakes.

I did not bring my rolling cart, so I ended up splurging and getting a golf cart for myself. One of life’s little pleasures is having your own golf cart. When I grow up, I may buy one.

The first hole is a long Par 4 that’s fairly straight. I hit my 1 iron right down the middle of the fairway although not very long. That was the theme for the hole. I kept it straight, but short and finally chipped onto the green on my 4th shot. Two putts and I had started with a 6. Not bad.

The second followed a similar pattern as did the third. I started the Devil’s Way and headed to the Park 5 Fourth thinking I wasn’t doing too badly since it has been two Par 4s and one Par 5.

The 1 iron went straight from the tee and from the fairway on the second shot. The 6 iron went a bit left of the green and I fucked up the chip. That little extra gave me a 7.

I made up for that on the Par 4 Fifth even though I missed the fairway on the tee shot. I scored a bogey 5 and followed it up with a textbook par on the Par 4 Sixth.

The first of two straight Par 3s gave me a chance at a birdie when I hit it within 12 feet of the cup. Alas, I triple putted to get a bogey. I also triple putted the Eight but that was after a chip off the green, so I scored a 5 there.

The Ninth was a dogleg left with water all along the left side. It is the hardest hole on the course. I again kept it on the fairway with the 1 iron, followed it up with a solid second 1 iron, and chipped it into the green. A 2 putt and I had escaped with a bogey and, to my bigger surprise, a 48 on the Front!

The second straight Front 48!

The Tenth is a longish Par 3 that has a green-side bunker shaped like a dick. I had previously pointed this out to my friend and he had told me I’ve ruined that hole for him. He never saw it before and now he can’t unsee it.

I hit my 4 iron within 15 feet of the cup and this time I drained the birdie putt! Holy crap!

As happened last time, the consequences to me touching myself reappeared. A Snowman on the Par 5 Eleventh stopped the momentum. This was particularly frustrating because I had hit the fairway perfectly on the tee shot. The second shot went slightly right and I never found the ball on the tall grass.

I was still slightly pissed off about the lost ball when I got to the Twelfth tee. My tee shot went OB to the right and I was hitting three off the tee before I knew it. At that point, I checked myself and realized I was going to fuck up the round if I stayed pissed off. I took a deep breath and got the next ball straight down the middle. The next shot hit the green and I two putted and I finished that with a 6 after the penalty.

I was happy that I’d played the hole well after the deep breath. The next hole was a Par 4 and I got a 6 on it. This was followed by a decent 5 on a tough Par 3 Fourteenth and bogey 6 on the tougher Par 5 Fifteenth.

The Sixteenth is a tricky Par 4 with a second shot into a green that is 3/4 surrounded by water. I hit my first shot on the fairway but very short. I decided to split up the rest of the distance into two shots to make the approach easier. My third shot hit the middle of the green perfectly but then kept rolling. And rolling. And rolling. Until it rolled off the green and into the water. A penalty stroke resulted in a 7.

The 17th was a Par 3 in which I was hoping to make up for the misadventure on the 16th. Instead, I hit the ball way left, pitched back across the green, fucked up the next chip, and finished with a 6.

As I headed to the 18th, I was curious as to where I stood. One of the pieces of advice I’ve taken is to not look at my score during the course of the game. I had a feeling I was close to 100, but I didn’t know how close.

I had to know.

I added up my scores on the Back. Turns out, I had a 46 going into the Par 4 Eighteenth. Which, by the way, is Stroke Index 4. The fourth hardest hole on the course.

I could afford a bogey to get a 99. Fuck it, let’s see what we can do.

I hit my 1 iron on the fairway slightly on the left. The hole is a dogleg right, so that left me in perfect position for the approach to the green. My second shot was also the 1 iron and I struck it well. Unfortunately, it went left into the rough.

I drove quickly to my ball to see how bad it was. It was not buried, but the grass was about halfway up the ball. I also had a tree to my right that had overhanging branches. I could not go too high with it but I also couldn’t go too low as it could run across the green.

I grabbed my pitching wedge and made several strokes to gauge it just right. Once I felt I had it right, I moved forward and hit the ball. It barely missed the branches above, landed on the green, and rolled about 17 feet from the pin.

I was elated.

All I needed to do was two putt from there and I would have my second straight score in the 90s!

I calculated my distance, figured out my line, and hit the ball. I swear my only goal was to get the ball so close to the hole that it would be a tap-in bogey. The damn ball went in!

That resulted in a 50 in the back and a total of 98 for the round. Back to back in the 90s! Since this golf course is tougher than the one from my tournament, however, that meant this 98 was better than the 95 on the other course and this was now my NEW best differential ever! WHOOHOO!!

PROS

I am loving my new clubs. I am also using my 1 iron on almost every hole. I’m fact, I did not hit Driver or any Wood the entire round.

I could not avoid trouble during the round, but I minimized the damage with only one Snowman and two 7s.

I hit 69% (9 of 13, nice!) fairways and averaged 2.05 putts the entire round.

CONS

I got three penalty strokes, as I like to say in Spanish, “a lo tonto”. Better concentration on those strikes would have saved me.

OVERALL RATING:

I have mentioned before that my goal this year is to lower my Handicap Index to something in the 20s. Thanks to this performance, combined with the tourney, my Handicap Index is now at 31.0! I also said that I want to shoot consistently in the 90s. This is now two straight rounds in the 90s!

Things are looking good.

Holy crap, guys! BEST ROUND EVER AGAIN!!

See you next time.