Joey's Golf Bag

This afternoon, I played a practice round at the Grapevine Golf Course in preparation for the January GGA tournament. We played the Mockingbird and Pecan courses, the same courses that will be used for the next tournament. We played from the blue tees, as that’s where the tournament is played. The weather was very nice for January, mid-60s by the afternoon. There was a strong wind on a couple of holes, but mostly light and variable.

The course was playing firm and fast, greens very fast.

My score:

* Hit green in regulation.

Themes:

• Tee shots. I hit 7 of 14 fairways and one par-3 hole. I had two penalties off the tee, one an unplayable lie under one of those ball-eating grass bushes (9th hole Mockingbird), and one dunked in the water (9th hole Pecan).
• Approach shots. Not good at all. I didn’t hit a single green in regulation, except for the par-3 hole. I had two penalties on approach shots, both balls lost into the woods. I did have a few shots that were pretty good and just off the greens.
• Chips and short wedges. My chipping and pitching was very mixed. I got up-and-down four times, but I thinned two or three chips over the green.
• Sand shots. I was in two greenside bunkers, and got out cleanly from both, though I didn’t get up and down on either one.
• Putting. Pretty pathetic. Aside from a 12 foot putt, I didn’t hit any long putts at all. I three-putt my only green in regulation, and added four more three-putts to go along with it. 36 putts total. Yeech!

I wasn’t particularly happy with the way I played. I didn’t use the driver or thriver at all, as my practice time has been very limited and I’ve been fighting big hooks with these clubs. My 5-wood was used on almost all of the par-4 and par-5 holes. I’m going to have to get the driver and/or thriver to work. Having long irons or hybrids into most of the par-4 holes is quite challenging.

Still, I did manage to shoot 5 shots better than the last time I played this course.