46 at The Crossings
Interesting round! Didn’t play great, didn’t play horribly. My practice helped, but I definitely wasted a bunch of time.
Let’s dig in.
Scorecard
Here is a hole-by-hole breakdown of how I did.
| Hole | Par | Score | Fairway | GIR | Putts | Penalties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 6 | Left | No | 2 | 1 |
| 2 | 5 | 7 | Left | No | 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 4 | 5 | Left | No | 1 | 1 |
| 4 | 4 | 4 | Yes | Yes | 2 | - |
| 5 | 4 | 5 | Yes | Yes | 3 | - |
| 6 | 3 | 4 | - | Yes | 3 | - |
| 7 | 5 | 6 | Right | No | 2 | 1 |
| 8 | 3 | 3 | - | No | 1 | - |
| 9 | 4 | 6 | Yes | No | 2 | - |
| Total | 36 | 46 | 3 | 3 | 18 | 4 |
Takeaways
Here are some key takeaways:
That’s not enough holes? You were supposed to play 18?
The pace of play was so bad that we decided to bail after 9. It was going to end up being a five and a half hour round and we wanted to do other things with our holiday.
Four penalty strokes for 9 holes?
Yeah, that is a lot. Here is what happened for each:
Hole 1. Driver off the tee, OB straight
This hole is a dog leg right where the woods are only about 220 yards on the other side of the fairway, straight away from the tee box. I had practiced my driver so much this last week that I decided I was going to push a fade around the corner and put myself right up next to the green.
What happened? I hit it straight as an arrow and it probably sailed 260 yards into those trees. Poor club choice - I should have hit a hybrid into the middle of the fairway.
Hole 2. Driver off the tee, OB left
This was actually a decent drive, it just started too far left and then had a slight draw to it. I’m still getting used to my shot shape and on this instance started the ball farther left than I wanted to. I would consider this shot a slight pull which ended up being a bad line for this hole.
Hole 3. Hybrid off the tee, OB left
Horrible shot, possibly the worst shot of the day for me. I had a hard pull that went straight into some trees possibly 100 yards from the tee box. I had an excellent recovery after dropping that set me up nicely to salvage a par - I should have scored way worse on this hole.
Hole 7. Driver off the tee, OB right
Long par 5 had a slight dogleg right, then dogleg left. Once again I tried to play a fade but instead hit a push fade. Ball started right and then faded out of bounds.
What was up with driver?
I hit driver a total of three times today, and everytime I hit it OB. I didn’t realize that The Crossings is an incredibly tight course. With a little better knowledge I would have hit hybrid off the tee except for the two par 5s, where I would have hit 3 wood. I had spent so much time hitting driver I felt like I had to get it out but it obviously ended poorly.
It also was bad not being able to warm up. We got to the course early enough but I had to monitor an incident at work before we teed off so I wasn’t able to get the driver out. I will definitely look to hit a couple drives before teeing off on my next outing.
What was your overall thought on the round?
I feel really good about it! I put myself in some difficult positions and still found ways to score okay. I only had three holes where my score blew up which is way better than my other previous rounds. I honestly felt that if I had played 18 that I could have scored pretty well on the back.
Those penalty strokes were definitely avoidable. I likely would have taken at least one, but I could have easily knocked off two penalty strokes with better course management.
I’m also shooting for an 89, or +17 to par, and I was on pace for +20 to par. If we ignore the first two holes (when I opened double-double) then I was on pace for +17.7 to par (last 7 holes were +6 to par, or 0.85 strokes/hole, multiplied by 9 additional holes and added to the 10 from the front 9 is +17.7 to par). That means once I settled in I was barely behind the pace I needed to achieve my August 1 goal. We are so close!
Next steps
I am possibly playing Queenfield next Wednesday with Chris. Queenfield is another relatively tight course although not as tight as The Crossings. It also will be a bit longer, playing at just under 6500 yards. Hopefully I’ll get to the range between now and then, and then give myself enough time to warm up so I can be ready to score starting on hole 1! These “warm-up” holes are killing my scores lately.
I’m feeling good though. I honestly feel that any round now I’ll be there at +17. I just need to get out there and prove it.