Played with Will again. Solid round, with exception of driver and putter. All other clubs were fine. 4 3-putts. 3 of those were on the back. Should have scored much better there.
Very nice par on 4th from deep crap left of cart path. Will said "Take an unplayable." But I was confident I could get it out of there. Surprisingly, not only did I get the ball back in play, but was able to move it forward and into fairway 70 yards out with a 9 iron. Hit a lob wedge to 6 feet and made the putt. THAT was a good par.
Trouble on 9th, my only badly played hole. Hit my layup further than expected and ended up going into deep grass on edge of hazard. Found it, but was not really playable. Got cocky (after my shot from the crap on 4th) and thought I could get it on to the green from there with a little extra club and a solid strike, even though there was a heavy hunk of tall thick weeds directly in front of the ball. Had 85 yards to pin, so took GW instead of SW. Got a lot of club on it, but it still didn't make it all the way through the deep crap. By the time I was done, it ended in double bogey.
Though I doubled the 12th too, I didn't play it poorly. Went over green a little on approach. My 3W drive made it through the fairway, all the way to the deep crap and came up just against it. I was only 140 from the hole, all uphill, but had a downhill lie looking straight into the deep hazard. Hit the 7 iron better than I thought possible from the deep crap, and it went on and over back of green and up a hill, leaving me a downhill pitch to a shortsided pin. Hit a decent flop from the downhill lie, but could not stop it close. Ended in 3-putt double.
18th should have been a bird. Will already said "Another nice bird" as my ball headed right on line to the hole. Unfortunately it stopped on the lip, overhanging the hole. Don't know how it didn't fall. I waited a few seconds, but to no avail.
Chip in 58* on 8th for birdie and then nearly chipped in on 14 for bird with 54*. Caught hole, but stayed out. Good par. Both should have been GIRs in first place.
Happy with irons and wedges today. Hit everything solid, 58*-3W. Driver is holding me back right now.
Side Note: Dave (my teaching pro) came and watched me on the range before the round. He said my swing looks great. "Now do the same thing with your driver." But for some reason, I can't. He said "If you can swing your irons that well, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to do the same with driver. You don't need me, you need Bob Rotella!" I know it's in there.
