90* and sunny. Light wind. Perfect conditions.
Great start. Hit the first 7 greens in regulation, then landed on uphill par 3 8th, but rolled off back, even though I thought I might not have enough club. Had more than enough. Chipped it to 6 feet and saved par.
Came up behind a group on 9th. I was waiting just off fairway in thick rough for green to clear. And waiting. And waiting. Trying to stay calm. Had a nice rhythm and tempo working so far and didn't want to lose it waiting. They finally putt out and one of the guys goes over and starts raking the bunker where one of the others had hit from. And raking....and raking....and raking. My God already, get out of the freaking way! Got a little riled up and yanked shot long and left of green...and onto cart path. Took relief, but had a touchy downhill pitch to get onto downhill green. Came up a little short, then skulled my chip across and off. Blamed the guy raking the bunker in my head. Made a nice recovery chip to get close enough to save double. Tarnished a really good front nine by that one yanked approach. Should have been an easy GIR. Even parred the 3rd with a GIR, which rarely happens for me on that hole. Probably only the 4th or 5th time I have parred that hole in 35 tries.
Played the back fairly well, though started off coming up short with approach shots on both 10 and 11. Was able to get up and down for par on both.
Putted well both front and back. Two 3-putts, 1 front, 1 back, but both were long tricky, first-putt lags. The one on the 2nd was about 75 feet on a very slope-laden green. On 18th 140 out in the rough, I hit 8i uphill to green, but somehow got some spin on it, even out of the rough, and the ball checked about 55 feet short of pin. Expected a lot more release from the rough. After the round, no one was behind, so went back and dropped a ball in the same place and tried hitting 9i. Flew it to the pin and to the back fringe. Guess I shoulda hit 9i when it counted. Had an easy up and down from the back fringe to the back pin. Oh well. Can't complain. Played my best round in awhile.
