Birdies in back-to-back rounds

[Ravenous Bugblatter Beast]

As much as the weekend before outing was unpleasant for happenstance pairing, yesterday's was much nicer, as I arrived at the same course the same time as a pair I had joined up with the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We had some rain for much of the front-9 and from then on, it was at worst a stray drop here and there.

The one fellow hits the ball incredibly long, it's amazing to see him hit. At the par-3 6th hole, approximately 175 yards, he hit a 6-iron to the green. I hit a 5-wood to get on the green, with the combination of temps in the upper 40's and humid air. Is it just me, or do balls fly less when it's more humid? Does the increased water vapor increasing the frictional drag of the air?

Except for my first drive of the day at hole 1 leaking right, and failing to transfer my weight forward at hole 18 and gouging turf on the tee, my driver was locked on hitting a nice, soft cut. For the first time in my life, I had that feel like PGA players get sometimes, I would swing, know it was good, and could bend down and just pick up my tee. Damn, that was pretty sweet.

Anyhow, I birdied hole 9 last week. I put it on the green there again this weekend, but 3-putted, ugh. We eventually got round to hole 14, a par-3 that in the warm weather I'll hit 9-iron, 8-iron if the flag is in the back. With the reduced distances of this time of year, and the pin the back yesterday, I chose 7-iron.

When I hit it, I got lucky some. I hit the ball down near the heel, if the club had gotten a fraction more outside, and more under, it would have been a who-knows-where hosel rocket. As it was, it came out low, but still with my slight cut, and began making a low curving line towards the hole. It hit near the front of the green and took off towards the back, looking to get very close.

It did, it came to a stop about 6 feet under the hole. Just a bit more, and it could have rolled in. But I sank the putt for my second birdie of 2006, and for the first time ever, birdies in 2 consecutive rounds.

I then followed that up by reaching the par-5 on the next hole in regulation, and had my putt 25-footer taken the break a bit more, almost birdies on consecutive holes. Still, making par there was the first time I've ever gone birdie-par.

On 17, I sank the longest putt of my life, approximately 60 feet to save par. That was hilarious. Then the long-hitter who had put his shot on the green but about 25 feet away, sank his putt for birdie. Then the other guy, who had played out of a bunker to around 20 feet away from the hole, had his putt stop just short.

It was a fun day yesterday, and I left with a pretty good mood in spite of the doglike way I had played the first 3 holes.

[Eracer]

Nice report. Golfers have good days and bad days. That's a given. What is most puzzling to me is that the bad days always seem to be categorically bad. By that I mean one either drives the ball well and can't putt, or putts well and can't get the ball in the fairway off the tee, etc. I would think that if one was having an off day, then the driving, chipping, putting would ALL be off. And if one were having a good day, then the whole game would be good.

I just don't get that.

[Rockford35]

My most frustrating days are when your irons are so dialed in you have no putts outside 10 feet, yet you can't sink a putt to save your life. Lips outs, short but on line, ect. That's such a massive piss off.

I can pretty much recover my tee game if the driver goes on vacation, or work simple iron shots to make chances for par, but when the putter goes south, it's such a struggle. You wonder why we even play this bloody game.


Anyone wanna go out this afternoon? LOL....

R35

[Ravenous Bugblatter Beast]

It's a great sport, isn't it? Even in my worst rounds, I've always found something good to take from it. I've still got plenty to work on, but it's rewarding to see some of the dividends showing up. I can't remember for sure if I had 2 or 3 birdies when I had golfed as a younger man, but now since returning to it in August of last year I've made 4.

I still need to practice my putting stroke and getting my pace more consistent with it, but since going to the new putter with the 2-ball alignment system I'm finding myself more confident with stroking the ball on the line I think the putt should go. It's showing up in making more of the lengthier putts.

If I play and practice enough this year, I should be shooting in the 80's fairly regular I think. When that starts happening, I can start dreaming about a round in the 70's.

[crcowboyfan]

What do you normally shoot now?

[Ravenous Bugblatter Beast]

I'm normally shooting in the 90's.

Can't wait to get back on the course. Last two weekends the weather hasn't been favorable. But we're supposed to see mid-40's during the week, lower 40's on the weekend. That'll be warm enough.