Regular group. Played poorly again, at least to start. Tripled first after ending up in trees on right. Can't remember the last time I went right off the first tee. Ball against tree. No backswing. Hardly able to get club on it. Moved it 10 yards or so to another poor position with very little room to get behind ball. Punched it almost to fairway. Bad start to the round. Came back with a par on 2nd with nice 5i off tee to about 15'. One of the few decent shots on the front. Then hit a good drive on 2nd which was probably one of the last good ones until the back nine.
On 5th, I pulled my drive so far into the red-staked woods on the left, I think it might have come out the other side! Terrible. Probably should have played the next shot from where it entered the hazard, but was just so pissed about the drive, had to take another. So stroke and distance and I'm hitting my third off the tee. Another triple. Same thing happened on 6th off the tee, only saved double with mulli-par. Actually could have played my first tee shot which bounced out of the trees into a somewhat playable position, but just wanted to try another drive so took stroke and distance again. Probably could have saved a stroke or two if I played the original tee balls on 5 and 6, rather than S & D penalties. Game now totally off. Mind even worse.
Another poor drive on 12th, though this one I played into an acceptable bogey. By this time I had had enough. Had been playing the round with a new driver shaft that I was testing out, which, when I started hitting the ball all over the place, it got in my head and I couldn't swing with a bit of confidence. So, on 14, with the round already so far into the shitter, I switched the shaft back to my normal one and my game turned around. Though I only had to hit driver four more times, everyone of those drives felt right throughout the swing and were on the money. That seemed to bring the rest of the game back, though a little too late.
Only poor swing on the back was a 4W on 17th with ball buried in thick rough, just off fairway, and well below my feet. Should not have even attempted 4W. Should have played an iron to get out. Hindsight...blah, blah, blah.....resulted in a topped ball, then another two to get on and bogey.
Hit a perfect draw off the tee on 18 which outdrove the group and the twosome we hooked up with. (Lou Braun and Frank. We were a fivesome for the last two holes.) Frank, who was outdriving Lou all day long, hit his in the same place I hit mine, between the two bunkers, both carrying over the hill. When we got to our balls one was 20 yards in front of the other. Frank immediately walked to the front ball, confident it was his. When he looked and saw it was mine he said, "I can't believe you outdrove me." Not because he was putting me down, but evidently, he was used to being the longest all day. I just said "it happens" with a quiet little smile of satisfaction to end an otherwise bad day on the course. I had 137 left to the pin. (Of course I put my approach in the right bunker.)
