First Group Out

I wrote before this that I felt loose, not ready, and that the range couldn’t tell me whether it would hold up. It didn’t hold up on Saturday. It mostly did on Sunday. The difference had almost nothing to do with my swing.

Saturday I shot 103. I opened with a bogey on the first hole and felt fine about it, and then I could not stop making 6s. Nine straight holes over par. On 11 I hit a tee shot into a penalty, then hit the recovery into another penalty, and made a 10. That one hole was about a third of everything I lost that day. I finished bogey-par-par, including a 51-footer on the last, which is the only part of the round I’d want back on video.

I played with Jeff, Steve, and Kyle, my brother-in-law. The group played fine. But there were a lot of rules discussions, and a lot of guys getting on themselves after bad shots. I don’t think anyone did anything wrong. It just added weight to a day that already had plenty.

Sunday I teed off at 7:00, first group out, which is where they put you when you shoot 103. That felt a little bad. Nobody in front of us, so we played the front nine in about ninety minutes. I shot 93.

I hit fewer fairways on Sunday than Saturday. Three out of fourteen. My approach numbers were nearly identical both days. What changed was that I putted well and I stopped compounding things, and the reason I stopped compounding things is that I wasn’t carrying anything extra. The guys I played with wanted to play well and were also just having a good time. People from other tee times were cheering for each other. That was the whole difference. Ten strokes.

I still had one hole. On 17 I sliced the tee shot and hit a provisional. Then I left the face open on the next one, watched it bounce just outside the white stakes, and hit another provisional. Same miss twice in a row. Nine. Then I holed out from nine yards on 18.

That’s the pattern across both days, actually. Make a 10, then bogey-par-par. Make a 9, then hole out. Whatever else was going on, I kept showing up for the next shot.

Against what I said I wanted

Play to my abilities. Yes, mostly. But I three-putted my way through Saturday and needed to mentally recover before I could stop. 6 out of 10.

Don’t second guess myself. Once I was over the ball, I wasn’t rethinking anything. 10 out of 10.

Give myself grace to rethink things on the fly. Bogey-par-par after a 10 is the answer to this one.

Come off the course feeling good about how I performed. Two answers. Saturday, no, but I also didn’t feel like there was more available to me that day. Sunday, great. I found out afterward I finished tied for third in my flight. I didn’t know while I was playing. It feels amazing now.

Final

• 196 gross, 57th of 61
• Net 144, tied for 25th
• Flight 4: 16th of 17 on Saturday, 3rd of 17 on Sunday
• One skin: birdie on 17 Saturday, the same hole that gave me the 9 on Sunday

I’d do it again next year, which I said before I played and still mean.