| Making par
Finally, after two weekends of no golfing, the weather was decent enough that I could play. Of course, it seemed like that break completely got my swing out of kilter, and I had horrible front-9 with seemingly no feel for a good or bad swing. But as the round went on there was improvement, but after 15 holes I realized I still hadn't had a hole where I had made par.
It's been a long time since I've had a round with no pars.
A pretty stiff wind was blowing when I teed off on 16. I gave it a pretty good rip, leaving myself about 180 yards to the green. With the wind and cold, I thought 5-wood, in spite of how I hadn't hit a wood right yet from the fairway this day. And I didn't hit one good here, advancing it about 100 yards, though into the middle fo the fairway. So I get to my ball, and guess with that wind I could go with a full sand wedge. Which became my best shot of the day up to then, my slight cut held it against the crosswind, and it went right at the flagstick. The ball came to a stop about 5 feet past the hole.
I leaked the putt a bit right. Still no par. Off to 17.
Pin on the wrong side of the green for my cut shot, I aimed for the flagstick and tried to hit it straight enough that it would end up middle of the green. The wind and cut spin had it stop pin-high all the way on the other side of the green. My first putt came up 12 feet short. The putt for par hung out just to the right. Tap in for bogey.
So I say to the two guys I had joined up with, "3 good shots and I'm gonna par this last hole. I'm gonna get my par this round."
My drive faded a bit to the right, but ended up in good position. I started to feel some pressure, pondering whether I should go with a wood to get it close as possible or with the 4-iron to make sure I at least hit the ball well. I chose 5-wood. And hit the best wood of the day, striping it over the hill crest and down the fairway middle, then cutting back with the fade. The ball would come to rest about 140 yards from the center of the green. My two playing partners had also ended up about the same area, with me having the last whack from that position.
It's a steep hill home there, and I was thinking 5-iron, but maybe 6-iron. I decided to go with a hard 6, just try to get it on the green somewhere in the middle. I hit it good, but with the cool weather and hill I knew almost instantly it was going to be short. I screamed at it to get going, but I could see it land up in the flat area on top short of the green.
At the top, I discovered it had found the sand trap in front of the green. And actually, I was glad. I was glad I didn't have to fuss with a chip shot, because as I looked at it, I thought I could open up the 60* wedge, give it a full swing, and it should be about the right distance to get it to the pin. So I entered the trap, positioning the ball off my left heel, then flared my left toe forward. Wiggled my feet firmly into the sand, and opened the clubface, envisioning the club sliding through underneath the ball. Set, go, swing. Poof! The ball came out high and soft, plopped onto the green about 8 feet short of the flag. It had plenty of spin, but the downslope it landed on gave it some roll out. It rolled out about 1 foot past and to the right of the hole.
"That's my par!" I yelled.
That was kind of cool.  | 
02-26-2006, 10:09 AM
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