My season opener was held at Pumpkin Ridge, which is where the LPGA plays the Safeway Classic and is where Tiger won his '96 US Amateur. It's a pretty amazing course, but in March it is soupy. Lots of rain and no sunlight keeps it soggy so we saw lots of plugged balls.
8:30 tee time turned into 9:00 then to 9:30 thanks to a frost delay. It was 37 degrees when we finally teed off. It was a shotgun start and I started on 16 which is a short par 3. I skulled a wedge over the green and a chip and two putts later, I was +1. I chipped in on the next hole for birdie though, so back to even... that's about all the good news I would get during the next 16 holes.
My ball striking was atrocious to say the least. 1 OB and 1 water ball led to two doubles. I hit one fairway all day. Let me repeat that... ONE fairway hit. I had four GIRs all day. 1 fairway and 4 GIRs does not allow for good scoring. Add 35 putts on top of that and you've got a recipe for disaster (many of those putts were from the fringe). I had only two birdies all day, the second one coming on our last hole where I actually got a GIR.
There were 134 players, 34 of which were in my flight. I shot 81 to finish tied for 17th.
I give myself a D- this time.
8:30 tee time turned into 9:00 then to 9:30 thanks to a frost delay. It was 37 degrees when we finally teed off. It was a shotgun start and I started on 16 which is a short par 3. I skulled a wedge over the green and a chip and two putts later, I was +1. I chipped in on the next hole for birdie though, so back to even... that's about all the good news I would get during the next 16 holes.
My ball striking was atrocious to say the least. 1 OB and 1 water ball led to two doubles. I hit one fairway all day. Let me repeat that... ONE fairway hit. I had four GIRs all day. 1 fairway and 4 GIRs does not allow for good scoring. Add 35 putts on top of that and you've got a recipe for disaster (many of those putts were from the fringe). I had only two birdies all day, the second one coming on our last hole where I actually got a GIR.
There were 134 players, 34 of which were in my flight. I shot 81 to finish tied for 17th.
I give myself a D- this time.