Balls Magazine Year 2, Volume 7 (28 overall)

This round happened a little before the “Casino” tournament in Palm Springs that my retired friend is putting on. Coincidentally, he was the one that set up the tee time and got the other two in the foursome for this round.

This game was also on a work day because 1) Stupid work makes me take vacation days every month or else I lose them, 2) I had no major meetings scheduled, and 3) My retired friend had secured a tee time at his local course here in LA.

The tee time was at 10:20 AM, so I actually went to work in the morning dressed in my golf clothes. I didn’t go too outrageous but my pastel blue pants (yes, I know, but shorts in the office are still frowned upon) were a hit!

I was feeling good after hitting a few practice balls and getting some practice putts in. I stepped up to the first tee and promptly topped it. It rolled about 130 yards.

I should mention at this time that I just recently invested in a GPS watch. I got myself the Shot Scope V5 and I paid a little less than $200 for it due to a sale that was going on at the time.

It does a lot of really cool things like telling me the distances to the front, middle, and back of greens, distances to hazards, and showing me hole maps. It also tracks my shots and the clubs I use and keeps stats for me. After the round, I can review how I did and pinpoint areas for improvement.

The best part is that it gives me maps like this one that help me relive my misadventures on the course:

You can really tell where I fucked up a shot. For example, how about that 52 degree wedge? On the bright side, I kept it in play the whole way?

The second hole didn’t go much better.

That 21 yard 3 Wood didn’t really help, did it?

Uf! An Abominable Snowman right off the bat! He was to be followed by his life partner on the third hole as I hit my tee shot into the water. A 7, 8, 8 start was not what I had envisioned when I started the day!

At that point, I took a deep breath and told myself that there was plenty of golf left. I could rescue this round if I just focused on keeping the ball in play and not trying to hit the shit out of it.

Things got back on track as I managed to score a Bogey 6 on the Par 5 Fourth. This was followed by another 6, this time on the Par 4 Fifth. That one was fun because I hit the tee shot right in the middle of the fairway. Not my fairway, mind you, but it was in the middle!

I then hit a very nice 5 Wood that ended up okay even though I aimed for the wrong green. You can see on the map that I aimed for the green on the right even though my hole’s green was on the left. It’s a good thing I mis-hit it.

My third shot went into the sand. Luckily, I got it out in one and somehow managed to two-putt for the 6.

That was, weirdly enough, the turning point.

I got a 5 on the Par 4 Sixth which really could have been a 4 and followed that up with a beautiful par on the Par 3 Seventh.

A Bogey 4 on the Par 3 Eighth was followed by a 6 on the Par 4 Ninth and I was done with the Front Nine with a not-so-bad 53. I didn’t know it at the time because I promised myself not to count my score until the end of the day.

The Tenth is the hole where I’ve told you in the past that I’ve ruined the hole for my buddy as I pointed out that the green-side bunker looks like a dick. Am I wrong here?

As you can tell, I didn’t really do well on that one. A six on a par 3 is not how you want to start the Back.

I didn’t do much better on the Eleventh. I hit the first two shots perfectly but then overshot the green on the third shot and put it in the water. A third Snowman on the day made a recovery seem far away.

But I persevered and kept a positive attitude.

I got a Bogey 5 on the Par 4 Twelfth. This was followed by a regrettable Double Bogey 6 on the Par 4 Thirteenth but then I got hot and scored Bogeys on 14, 15, and 16.

I hit the tee shot just left of the fringe on the Par 3 Seventeenth and fucked up the pitch. Amazingly, I drained a 30 foot left to right downhill putt to earn myself a Par.

I finished the round with a respectable 6 on the Stroke Index 4 Par 4 Eighteenth to get a 49 on The Back and a total of 102 for the day! This was quite the recovery considering the rough start and ended up being my second best score on this course!

It gave me a score differential of 30.5, which lowered my handicap Index to 30.2! I am inching ever closer to being in the 20s!

PROS

I was not at work on a weekday.

I recovered from a pretty poor start and kept a positive mental attitude.

I continue to strike my new irons well and I’m using my new watch to get valuable information while playing.

CONS

I started off poorly as I was trying to hit the ball too hard and my form was horrible.

I lost a couple of balls.

OVERALL RATING:

I am very proud of how I stayed mentally tough and did not give up on the round. I did have a third Snowman on the Back, but I did not let that affect the comeback I was building.

I am really loving my new watch. It helps during the round with distances and stuff, but I’m having a lot of fun analyzing the round afterwards and seeing where I fucked up and where I need to improve.

Palm Springs tourney is next weekend. I can’t wait!

See you next time.