Joey's Golf Bag

This afternoon, I played eighteen at Arizona National Golf Club, on a warm and sunny day in the desert. The course is visually stunning, well designed and fitting with the land. The fairways were in nearly perfect conditions, though the rough was, well, a bit rough, meaning some bare spots. The only downside was the bentgrass greens were in pretty sad condition. They’ll be re-seeded for the winter shortly, though.

I warmed up in the practice area just off the first hole, starting with the lob wedge, then moving to the 7-iron, and last with the driver and 3i hybrid. The lob wedge started pretty inconsistent distance-wise, though direction was good, but got better as I warmed up. I never really hit the 7-iron or longer clubs consistently. Finally, I putted for a few minutes and went to play.

I went off at about 2:15 PM and finished the day at 5:45 PM, so a full round took only 3-1/2 hours. I went off just behind two high school golfers walking, who courteously let me play through, as I was in a cart. I soon had out-run them and had the course pretty much to myself until the turn. At that point, I caught up with a foursome of the University of Arizona golf team (and, WOW!, those guys can hit a driver). They soon outdistanced me and I didn’t see another golfer until I finished the course.

My score:

* Hit green in regulation.

Themes:

• Off the tee. When I warmed up, I hit the driver pretty poorly, so I left it in the bag and hit it on only two holes, one of which flew into a swampy area for a penalty, and the other ended up in a fairway bunker. The rest of the time, I teed off with the 2i or 3i hybrids, mostly the latter, and hit 9 of 13 fairways, which is very good for me. I hit only one of the five par-3 holes in regulation, but that was a very nice 6-iron.
• Approach shots. Very mixed results. I hit only four greens in regulation today, and one of those was a par-3 hole. Mostly, I hit hooks or pushes, which left me to one side or the other of the greens. On the par-5 holes, I reached only one in regulation, but I did end up in the fairway after my second shots on three of the four par-5 holes.
• Wedges. Better today than the last time I played, but still not very good, getting up and down on four holes in total. I did stiff one short wedge shot to 18″ on the 15th hole, but that only saved double.
• Bunker play. I had one stellar bunker shot to about 4 ft, but that was after chunking the first one. I was in two fairway bunkers, chunked both of the shots. This surprised me, as I never had any difficulty before hitting out of fairway bunkers; those cost me at least two shots.
• Chipping. Pretty poor today, tended to be long.
• Putting. I had a total of 36 putts, which included four greens with a single putt and four 3-putts. Yeech.

Despite my poor play, I was pleased that I never got angry or upset at any time on the course, and just played and had fun. That in itself is remarkable for me, as I tend to be a somewhat emotional player when playing alone.

I had tremendous fun today, and highly recommend the course (once the greens get back into shape after the brutal Tucson summer).