Army golf
I went to the North Texas Golf Center to practice and play nine this morning. The temperature was in the low 80’s when I arrived with a strong breeze from the north. The course was dry and brown except for the greens, which were in pretty good condition (with the exception of the 1st hole that has a large dead spot), though slow.
I hit a small bucket of balls to warm up and also to check my distances. Since my injury, I’m about 5 yards shorter than before, but I hit a few shots that were longer. My ball striking was pretty poor today, never really getting in the groove. I also spent a few minutes hitting the driver, which were pretty well struck, though shorter than yesterday. My final stop was the putting green, where I worked on ball speed, and then hit the course.
My score:
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total |
| Par | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 27 |
| Score | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 2* | 3 | 36 |
* Hit green in regulation.
Themes:
- Tee Shots. I had a very poor day off the tee. On the 1st, hooked a nine iron out of bounds, leading to double. Chunked a sand wedge on the 5th hole and a pitching wedge on the 7th. My only good shot was a nine-iron into the wind on the 8th hole that ended up 15 feet left of the hole, pin high. I played army golf on the rest, either hooking left or pushing right.
- Wedges. Mixed results with the wedges. Got up and down for par on the 3rd even though I sliced the tee shot nearly out of bounds, by hitting a lob wedge to about 8 ft and nailing the putt. None of the other wedge shots were close.
- Chipping. I had two chips, one on the 1st hole and one on the 5th. Neither was particularly good.
- Putting. My putts were short on the early holes, but starting rolling them good by the end, by nailing a 15 footer for birdie on the 8th and an 18 footer for par on the last.
The round was far from my best on this course, but I was happy to see my putting improve, having only 14 putts for nine holes.