Posted by Dexter Francois
| Posted in
Golf Course Reviews,
Golf Courses,
Mental Game,
My Rounds,
Swing Mechanics
| Posted on Thursday, September 29, 2011
I have to thank The Doctor for the title of this post. We played at The Crowne Plaza San Marcos Golf Resort and after I told him my scores for my front and back nine's, he aptly stated, "when back nine's attack."
I had a great front nine, shooting a three over 39. I had two doubles on the front but I was able to get a couple back as I birdied the par 5 fifth hole as well as the par 5 ninth. The only other blemish was a bogey to begin the round on the first. The other four holes resulted in pars.
On pace for a round in the 70's, everything went haywire, and my round quickly went south. The major problem was with my tee shots. I only hit one of seven fairways which led to lots of approach shots from the rough.
San Marcos is more of a traditional course as opposed to the desert courses I had become accustomed to playing. The rough on a desert course and the rough at San Marcos are completely different. On desert courses, everything is perfectly manicured. If you find yourself in the rough, in many instances, you will still have a good chance to get up and down.
The rough at San Marcos however is unforgiving. I lost a couple of balls because the grass was so tall and gnarly. On top of everything else, the crew had just finished mowing and there were clumps of loose grass everywhere(See picture on the right). There were a few times when I was hitting a ball, I could barely see.
So back to the back nine. I began with a double, quadruple, double bogey, and bogey through the first four holes. From three over to twelve over just like that. The quadruple came as a result of a bone head decision on my part. I drove it into the opposite fairway and had a tall tree between myself and the green. I was only an 8-iron away but the tree was tall and the sensible play would have been to pitch it back into my fairway and play for par and at worse bogey.
Instead I went for it and hit the ball fat because I wanted to see where the ball was going to end up. I then hit a poor pitch back into my fairway and had a shot over a bunker to get to the flag. It wasn't a tough shot, but I was still thinking about had just happened. I lost focus, and put it in the bunker. The bunkers were horrible. They looked nice but they were hard as rock. I actually putted it out of the bunker and then 3-putted to finish with an eight.
I completed the back nine with a 48 which netted me an 87 for the round. Despite such a poor effort on the back nine, I managed to stay in the 80's. One of my goals for the second half of 2011 was to keep my score in the 80's and lower. There was a time when 87 would have been, "drinks on me". Now it's like, "I need to go straight to the range."
On a good note, I am currently on pace to having a 10.0 handicap average. The day before this round, I played at Club West Golf Club. The 81 I shot that day put me at the 10.0 mark. Despite my 87, the course was a little bit harder with slope of 122 and a rating of 70.7, which I suppose kind of evens it all out.
Another solid round should put me in the single digits and I will be able to cross off another one of my goals for the year. The key for me now is making the right decisions. My quadruple taught me a valuable lesson. It's better to take my medicine and play the smart shot. I would have salvaged the hole and kept myself in a good state of mind. It's better to just give myself a chance. Have a great round and always hit your target.
***This is one of those shots from the mowed rough. You can't see it but there was a tree in front of me. Double Whammy! Hit it fat, but at least got it back in play.
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| Posted: Wednesday, September 28, 2011 | |||
| The Crowne Plaza (San Marcos Golf Resort) | Tees: Championship, Slope: 122, Rating: 70.7 | ||
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Posts
It could have been worse.
I played last Sunday with a good buddy. I was on the green in 2 but he was just butchering the hole. I kept moving but it was tough to watch. When I could putt, I just wasn't in the moment and sent the putt off the green. My fault. I ended up four-putting a hole when I was there in regulation.
I'm OK with losing a ball or two in the rough. My buddy doesn't believe in it and spends as much time as possible searching. He has an exaggerated idea of the length of his shots so he's always sure he'll find his ball 100 yards farther down.
It's tough when your rhythm is thrown off. I know what you mean. There have been times when we have had to wait for the groups in front of us. By the time I hit the tee box, I just have too many other things in my head besides what I'm supposed to be doing.
I don't waste too much time looking for balls either. The longer I look, is the more frustrated I get. If I can't find it right away, oh well. Drop and move on.