Bernie and Sue. 60* to start. 64* and sunny through 14 holes. Dropped quickly after that as the sun got low. Had to put on a vest by 16th.
Played decent golf, but missed a few too many GIRs. Only made a few bad shots. Most approaches that missed were close, just left of the putting surface. Putting could have been a notch more consistent. It wasn't me as much as it was the greens today. They were cut, no problem.....rolled, still no problem....but freshly sanded, wherein the problem lay. Breaks you typically would play for, weren't there. Bernie probably missed 7 or 8 putts from inside 5 feet. I only missed a couple from that length, but missed a few more long ones on which I had put nice rolls. They would hit the small break that was near the hole, and just continue straight, winking at the hole as they rolled by an inch away. Frustrating. And then on the 18th, my approach bounced off the back of the green. The pin was in the front. My chip looked perfect, right on line taking the break of the hill exactly as necessary. From my position it stayed straight on the hole. The pin was still in and I was sure the ball would hit it and drop in. Alas, it did not. Instead of following the route it was taking, it detoured slightly right and rolled over the edge of the hole, continuing on past another 8 feet. This time I had the perfect read, a great roll, but I forgot to hit it. It stopped dead center with the front of the ball hanging over the hole, and would not drop in. Could have been a good day with a little more cooperation from the greens.
Driver was good, but Bernie is playing that old TM driver of his which seems to have gained him 20 yards over his newer TM one. It's 2 inches longer than my 917 and the most forgiving CoR of any driver that's ever hit the market. It's unbelievable, the results he's been getting since he restarted playing it. I'm jealous. More incentive to find the cash to buy my new Titleist TS2. Soon.
As good as Bernie has driven the ball lately, I am still in his neighborhood on most drives, but on five drives he hit yesterday of which he commented how well he hit them, I outdrove him not by a little, but by 15 to as much as 40 yards. I did pretty well with my little pop-gun 917.
On the par 5 13th, tees were way back. I was 25 yards past him, dead center fairway, then hit 240 yard 3W, dead center for my 2nd, leaving me only a 40 yard pitch in. Then on 14th, into the sun, I hit my best drive of the day. Bernie and Sue were busy gabbing by the cart and never saw it. As he walked past me to hit his drive he asked, "Are you good?". "Oh yeah." I replied. He hit his. "I got all of that." he proclaimed. The drives were into the sun, so it was difficult to tell where they ended up. When we got to the first ball, which was farther than normal for him, he looked up and said, "This is me. Where are you?" I pointed into the glare of the setting sun at the yellow AVX sitting in the fairway 30 yards further down the fairway. He looked devastated. That was MY highlight of the round.
