My Journey 2 Scratch

What a difference a day makes huh?!?  Following my disappointing( +12) round, the next day I went over to my local executive course Oaks North and shot a (-1) 59!  Followed that up yesterday with a solid (+3) 75 at Carmel Highlands.   I’m proud of myself over these past few days and how I kept a positive attitude and belief in myself even after my previous rounds were so disappointing.  It would have been so easy for the old me to slump into a negative fog, get discouraged and question myself and my abilities.  Like I had said in the last post, I knew that I had hit the ball fairly well on Wednesday, despite the (+12) score and that I knew I was getting better and moving in the right direction.  I could see it on the range, I can feel myself improving in all aspects of my game and that is an exciting feeling, so it is nice to finally see the hard work pay off in terms of score.

So Tuesday I headed out to Oaks North by myself to get in a quick executive round and work on my mid iron/short game.  My iron, wedge and putting game were on fire, hitting it close with all variety of shots; cuts, draws, low, high, shot a career low of (-4) on the front 9!  Hit the prettiest 5-wood shot of my life on the 242yard Par 4 6^th to about 10 ft.  Missed the eagle putt of course, but still made a solid birdie.  I hit the ball well on the back 9 too, but wasn’t able to take advantage of some birdie opportunities and shot +3.  Just wasn’t able to get up and down on the back, 3 bogeys, 2 of which should have been fairly routine saves, but didn’t chip it as close as I should have.  So overall, I finished the day (-1) and recorded my 2^nd ever under par round of golf!!  Albeit they both have come on the Par 60 Oaks North Executive course, so I’m still chasing the regulation under par score, but negative anywhere is still an accomplishment.

Oaks North Executive Par 60 East/South 56.4/89 3,527 Yards

Score: 59 (-1) FW: 3/6 GIR: 11/18 Putts: 29 Up/Down: 3/7 Sand Saves: 0/0 Penalties: 0

Wednesday a few friends and I headed over to the Par 72 Carmel Highlands golf course and played a round.  Started off a bit rocky, bogeying the first 2, but ended up shooting (+1) the remaining 16 holes for a (+3) round of 75.  The first two holes, I hit tee shots where I left myself really no shot to reach the green, pulled both drives to the right and at Carmel Highland every hole is tree lined so if you are not accurate off the tee you’ll find yourself a lot of the time with no chance to get a GIR.  Made good recovery 2^nd shots and solid chips, but wasn’t able to convert either par putt.  Hit a 5 iron to the 217 yard par 3 4^th hole to about 10 ft, but couldn’t convert the birdie…missed another 10 ft birdie putt on the par 5 5^th, but converted one on the 6^th for my first birdie of the day.  Ended up making 3 birdies total on the day, missed a few makeable ones and also 3 putted the par 5 15^th to make a par after hitting the green in 2. It was about a 70 ft eagle putt downhill so it wasn’t some routine 2 putt.

I drove the ball great all day and after hitting 4 balls out of bounds off the tee on Wednesday it felt nice to be in the short stuff for most of the day.  The one negative I would say about the past few days is my inability to really get up and down from what I would consider pretty routine spots.  I was 1/7 on up and down attempts on Wed even though I was leaving my misses in pretty good spots.  I’m surprised I couldn’t convert the save more often than not as that has been a strong part of my game over the past month.  This could have been that under par round if I could have been just 5 for 7 on up and downs, but  I’ll keep working on it, I was making good contact it was just either spinning or releasing more than I had anticipated so I need to grind that practice chipping green to really get a sense of distance control.

Carmel Highlands Golf Resort Par 72 71.4/129 6,428 Yards

Score: (+3) FW: 7/15 GIR: 12/18 Putts: 33 Up/Down: 1/7 Sand Saves: 0/0 Penalties: 0

I feel great about my game right now, I was saying that even when I shot (+9) and (+12) last week, so hopefully I can keep this level of game up in coming weeks.  I have my annual work tournament coming up here on May 19^th, we shot (-10) both last year and the year before, so we want to improve and possibly win.  A lot of it is going to fall on my shoulder to hit it close and that motivates me to bring my A game on that day and to get on the grind with practice over the next coming weeks.