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Here's the latest blog installment from my less than illustrious golfing career...
Lessons learnt at Pebble Beach
21 Jan
I've been playing a lot of 9 hole rounds recently, mostly as with
the fewer number of holes it allows me a chance to actually keep on a
roll and shoot a better score than attempt the full 18 holes, mess it up
after the fifth or six hole then have to hack my way to the end. That
can make for a long and unhappy afternoon but I'd been getting some
consistency in my scores recently, mostly shooting around par, perhaps a
little under so I felt it was time to get back to an eighteen hole
round and see if the consistency was real or imaginary.
I've been playing Pebble Beach a little more than some other courses
lately as some of the residents there pointed me in the direction of an
enterprising local who has been selling candy bars from a small stand
underneath the cliff on the seventh hole. Most players are familiar with
the seventh, a short par three played high off the cliff top where you
have to drop the ball onto the green fifty feet below perched out into
the ocean. I think you love that hole or hate it, either way, stopping
for a sweet treat on the way down to play your second shot is quite
enjoyable and it allows you to take a few minutes to have a chat and
take in the beautiful view over the water. I'm pretty sure the sugar in
the candy gives a little pep up which also seems to be helping my game.
So I had good feelings when I stepped up to the first tee and was
immediately rewarded with a birdie, then another birdie on the second
and I was grinning as I played onto the third fairway but the grin was
soon gone as I bogeyed the hole which helped keep the emotions in check
and forced me to try to concentrate on playing each shot, rather than
imagine some incredible scorecard if by some miracle I birdied each hole
to the end.
That bogey seemed to steady my nerves though as after hitting two par
holes, I managed a further three birdies leaving me four under par from
the front nine and that, ladies and gentlemen, is certainly the first
time I have ever been four under on a ranked round anywhere and I could
feel myself beginning to grin again as I stepped up to play the back
nine.
I couldn't seem to keep the momentum going, I was hitting the ball
well, however I could feel myself tightening up and my shots were not as
crisp, but I was holding it together as I hit four pars in a row. At
this time I was probably looking for a little more, a little more
yardage off the tee, a little more accuracy with placement of the irons
onto the green, a little more precision with the putter and yes, a
little more sugar from another candy bar. So going into the 563 yard par
5 14th hole I was getting anxious as I wanted a few more birdies to
drive the score lower and, hopefully, post my best ever round on a
championship course.
As you can tell, my focus had again shifted from concentrating on
playing each shot well and approaching each stroke on it's merits to
dreaming about how the scorecard might look if I managed to hold the
round together. Now as all good golfers know, you have to play each shot
well, you cannot rush the shots, the mind must be calm and the stroke
deliberate but the way I approached the 14th tee was more like an ice
hockey player looking to blast the puck into next week, than as a calm
and considered golfer. I was in too much of a rush, I was thinking about
the scorecard, I aimed more to the right hoping to get some wind assist
and push the ball past that tree that grows on the middle of the
fairway and then I ripped the driver back and attempted to fang it hard,
but my aim was wrong and yes, I got a great deal of power on the drive
but instead of flying up the fairway to the approval of the crowd, the
ball plowed into the canopy of a tree only 90 yards from the tee and
dropped unceremoniously onto the rough some way from the fairway. I
could see spectators in the crowd shake their heads with disdain and
hear cries of, "What is he doing?" and "Who let this guy on the course?"
as well as some comedian who hollered, "Nice way to spoil a good
walk!".
I was in real trouble and after hitting the bunker from my second
shot, scuffing my third onto the fairway a long way from home, well
outside the range of even my favorite hybrid, it just got worse and
worse and even although I managed to two putt when on the green, there's
nothing positive about carding a 9, four over par on the 14th hole and
it wiped out all my earlier good work to bring me to even par for the
round so far. Talk about a humbling experience.
If there is one thing that can keep your mind focusing on playing
each hole as it comes and not daydreaming about how good a scorecard
might look, it's posting a quadruple bogey on a par five that might have
yielded a birdie or perhaps more realistically a par. I learned a hard
lesson there but took it positively and endeavored of play the rest of
the round with much more focus, so I was pleased to post a birdie on the
15th, two pars and then a birdie on the final hole to bring the round
to a respectable two under par 70 from the white tees.
Thanks Pebble Beach, I will be back.