Four Round Recap...

Galveston Recap...

My round at Galveston Island on Jan 26th went pretty good. Martin brought an R580 XD 9.5 stiff that Charles wanted to sell so I left my R 540 XD 10.5 regular in the truck. I struggled with bid fades on most of my drives, but I played the shots well enough for the most part. I ended up shooting a 94 losing 6 balls. I had a blow up on the seventh where I pulled my first drive OB left. The second was a long bomb that faded slightly but had enough distance to find a retention pond that I thought was unreachable. I dropped and went for the green over the retention pond and topped the ball to put another into the pond. Then a 7i into the fairway followed by a LW pushed right of a trap. Another LW hits the far lip of the trap and rolls back into the trap. One out and two putts later and I’m penciling in a 12 – OUCH!!! Even with the 12 on the seventh, I came off the front nine with a 48. But the back nine is a lot tougher and I hit two into the water on the par 3 13th and another on the 18th where the approach is over the bayou.

Here’s a look at how I played the 10th:


My drive threatened to fade hard into the water, but the wet fairway slowed it down. I had no shot at the green so I tried to fade it around the palm grove and landed short and left. Chip on and 2 putt for bogey.

Galveston Island is a real nice layout with plenty of water. I guess they decided not to plant winter rye grass because of the upcoming renovation. That meant the course was brown with the dormant bermuda grass and the greens were a little rough because of this too. I was told that the course would remain open through the second weekend in February. If it were a little closer, I would surely like to play there again. The staff was very friendly and they let us play for the resident rate.

Bad Day at Bayou GC...

Next, I played Bayou GC on a cold, windy, rainy day and shot 100 (50/50) and lost 4 balls. We all shot at least 10 strokes over our handicaps on this day, it was tough!!

Super Soggy at Pasadena...

Then I played Pasadena where I shot 92 (45/47). This was a pretty good round with a high bogey count. I had one triple on the front and a quad on the back. The course was very soggy. Drives always landed with a splash, we had to move our balls out of standing water many times. Very tough to score in soggy conditions so I’m happy with a 92.

And finally,

Busting 90 at The Battleground…

This is my fourth round hitting with Charles’ R580XD 9.5 stiff driver. I hit about 20 balls with it on the range and managed to cure my fade/slice. The biggest problem I have with it is not having a good feel for a good hit. It seems like all my hits are mishits, but I’m still getting about 250 on good hits – great hits are 280. The feel just seems so muted, I don’t like it.

1. Par 4 372 yds. Driver – straight drive down the right misses fairway by two feet. GW from 110 finds green; 2-putt par.
2. Par 4 349 yds. Driver – straight drive, slightly right lands on top of hill on right at the turn. Pushed GW from 90 misses green right, runs down the hill. LW is short. Another LW and 2-putt for boubly bogey.
3. Par 3 164 yds. 6 iron pushed right and fails to draw. Decent chip to 10 feet. 2-putt bogey.
4. Par 4 409 yds. Driver – pull draw into the ditch. 5W from 210 into trap on the left. Pick out of the trap over the green. Chip and 2-putt for triple.
5. Par 5 477 yds. 3W slight pull draws left behind trees. Pitch out for line to green. 5W to 50 yards. Flubbed LW short. On in five, 2-putt double.
6. Par 3 171 yds. 5 iron slightly long and right. Had it drawing in, but not quite enough. Chip and 2-putt bogey.
7. Par 4 394 yds. Driver – nice draw to 145. 8 iron finds green. 2-putt par.
8. Par 5 454 yds. Driver – very nice drive to 190. 5W to back-right pin location finds back-right fringe about 10 feet from the pin. Missed the eagle by inches. Tap in birdie.
9. Driver – straight but pushed way right. Tried to draw 8 iron around treesfrom about 150. Draws nice but lands well short barely clearing the water (guess it was more like 160). Nice chip set up for a nice up-and-down par. 44 on the front with one penalty sets up good start.
10. Par 5 461 yds. 3W pull draw into the ditch. Topped 3W stays in the fairway runs a ways. Big SW pushed right and long to back fringe sets up long downhill putt to front pin. Putt rolls past to fringe. Another putt from the fringe and a tap in for double. Technically a 1-putt hole, sad but true.
11. Par 4 387 yds. Driver – skyed it big. 7 iron layup. SW to back fringe. Nice putt just misses. Tap in bogey.
12. Par 4 386 yds. Driver – pull draw left. 7 iron to back right fringe. Putt across a lot of fringe to back left pin to 3 feet. 1-putt for par.
13. Par 3 156 yds. 7 iron – looked up, topped it into the water. SW finds green. Three-putt triple.
14. Par 4 378 yds. Driver – first weak slice of the day into the woods on the right. I actaully had a shot out and tried a strong fading 6 iron. The shot went off pretty good just didn’t turn enough landing pin high on the right up against a tree trunk. Chopped down with a GW and hopped the ball out on to the far fringe. Lagged up to 2 feet and dropped the bogey putt. Not bad considering the shots made!
15. Par 4 375 yds. 3W down the right side of a very narrow fairway leaks right and with the help of the cart path, comes to rest pin high on the right (375 yards!!!). Chip under a branch into bunker. LW out of bunker, 2-putt bogey.
16. Par 5 445 yds. Driver – second weak slice finds adjacent fairway. 7 iron fails to draw enough to clear woods and get back on the proper fairway. 8 iron punch to just short of the green. Chip on and 2-putt for bogey.
17. Par 3 149 yds. 7 iron off the toe going for back pin. Solid grip kept the shot in play, barely clearing the water. Big Chip across the green to fringe near back pin. 2-putt bogey.
18. Par 4 398 yds. Poor drive into the wind finds left rough behind hill 190 out. Low 3W rips just over hill hits face of elevated green just above a sand trap and pops up onto the green. Long uphill putt to six feet. Par putt falls for a low round of 90.

The greens were faster than I’ve even seen them. I would have had several GIRs had I not rolled onto the fringe on many approach shots. Normally I have trouble with fast greens, but on this day I only made one truly bad putt.

These rounds were all played in very wet and soggy conditions. Only 2 of the last 7 rounds were within one stroke of my course handicap. That means that if I can’t string together some good rounds, my handicap is going to go up a bit. But I can’t complain too much. I think I’ve been doing a pretty good job handling the wet conditions.

Goodbye Driver…

I got to hit a Bridgestone J33R 9.5 stiff at Golfsmith. I’ve been considering this driver for awhlie and I’ve decided to sell my Taylormade R540 XD and save for the Bridgestone. This means I’ll be hitting 3W off the tee since I won’t have a driver in the bag. I consider this to be a good thing. I’ll get a chance to see how well I can do without a driver.

Golfing Future...

My monthly membership at Green Caye is in need of renewal. I'm not sure when I'm going to do that. To be honest, I'm growing a little tired of these wet conditions. I may wait until the courses dry up a bit before I renew for a month.

You may have noticed I put the DTDGH countdown timer up. It's true, Dad (Father-in-Law) will be down in May again. I'm looking forward to teeing it up with him.

Congratulations if you've made it all the way through this long post!!!
-Greg