Joey's Golf Bag

This afternoon, I played a scramble tournament at Ridgeview Ranch in Plano. The weather was heavily clouded, threatening rain, with a strong, shifty wind. We managed to get through 16 holes before the rain came.

Our score was 35, 1 under, on the front nine, and either 1 under or 2 under on the back; as it was raining hard, I didn’t stick around for the final score. It was a strange tournament, as two of our playing partners had conference calls intervene after the second hole, and they didn’t rejoin us until the 14th hole. My other partner and I played two balls each while the other two were absent.

My contribution to the score:

• First hole: My drive was the best, center of the fairway.
• Second hole: Hit the green with a 9-iron approach shot.
• Fifth hole: Hit both of my 9-iron tee shots to 15 ft.
• Sixth hole: On the par-5 hole, hit a 6-iron second shot just over the green into the fringe; we got up and down for birdie from there.
• Seventh hole: From off the green, hit a birdie chip to 2 ft; tapped in for par.
• Ninth hole: Hit a 45 ft birdie putt to 8 inches, and tapped in for par.
• Tenth hole: The entire hole was played with my ball, for birdie. Hit a good drive, then hit a lob wedge from 85 yds to 7 ft, and nailed the birdie putt. This was my best played hole this year.
• Eleventh hole: Good drive into the center of the fairway.
• Fourteenth hole: Hit 4 ft breaking putt to save par.
• Fifteenth hole: Two putted for par from 20 ft.
• Seventeen hole: Hit a chip to 4 ft to save par.
• Eighteenth hole: Hit 4 ft putt for birdie, after a spectacular drive and approach shot from one of my partners. What was most remarkable about this birdie is that it was made in a torrential downpour.

Themes:

• Driving. Hit about half the fairways today. My misses were, as usual, hooks. That damn reverse pivot…
• Fairway woods. I hit a couple of good fairway woods today, but my playing partners’ shots were better, so none counted.
• Approach shots. Pretty good today. Flew some greens, so my distance is a bit longer than I estimated.
• Wedges. Other than the lob wedge to 7 ft on the 10th hole, didn’t hit any really good wedge shots. Fault was mainly fat, but also hit some thin over the greens.
• Bunkers. I didn’t hit out of any bunkers, as my playing partners hit better shots on the two or three holes where I hit into bunkers.
• Putting. I was pretty pleased with my putting today, really only had two bad putts all day, and both of those were very difficult down-hill putts that I hit long. I only left one putt short.

A fun day of golf today; really enjoyed myself, hit some good shots (and a few stinkers), and putted well.

Update: My team won with a score of two under par. 🙂