Good, bad, ugly at Coyote Ridge
Yesterday, I played 18 (just barely, it was dark when we finished) at Coyote Ridge. We went off around 1:30PM and finished up in the dark at 6PM. We had to wait on groups in front of us on nearly every hole. The weather was warm and sunny, with only a slight breeze until the back nine.
Unfortunately, I didn’t keep the card, so I don’t actually know what I scored. I probably broke 100, but not by much.
- Tee shots. I hit about half the fairways, using my 5-wood on nearly every hole. My distance was pretty good with that club, even out-driving one of my playing partners who was using a driver. I only hit one of the par-3 greens in regulation, the 7th.
- Approach shots. I continue to struggle on approach shots. I lost two balls on approach shots, all hooks with long irons. I hit only two greens in regulation, but one was a perfect 5-iron into the green after a short tee shot on the 16th hole.
- Wedges. Very mixed. Hit a few good shots and also bladed a shot or two. I got up and down on the par-3 3rd and 11th holes with fine lob wedge shots and managed to get up and down on about five holes in total (though not always for par).
- Sand shots. I hit into only two bunkers. One was in a fairway bunker, where I hit a nice layup on the 4th hole. On the 18th hole, in near-dark conditions, I had a badly buried lie, but got out cleanly, but had a 60 ft putt remaining.
- Chipping. I had only a few chips, as I generally had to go in high with a wedge in order to not run well past the hole. I didn’t do very well, chunking a couple.
- Putting. I putted poorly on the first couple of holes, and then putted well the rest of the round. I estimate I had about 33 putts for the day, despite three 3-putts. The greens were very fast, so that’s not bad.
I continue to struggle with changing my swing to be inside-square-inside, instead of the steep over-the-top swing that I’ve been fighting. I expect it will take a few more weeks to get it right. My warmup was very, very poor until I’d hit about 30 balls and then got better. Much work remains.