HL O65 League # 16 Ringer Board

 Oh, I think the concept is a little flawed, but there it is.

If I ever birdie the par 3s (#5 & 6), no one is likely to catch me . . . 

Monday in practice I birdied #7 & #8 -- I do love those back-to-back-birdies -- and came within inches of birdying #9, too . . . . 

HL O65 League # 16 (26-06-25) 3 Birdies

 

I shoulda hadda birdie on #1, but got double bogey instead. Big Drive over the creek, and boldly tried to hit a 72 yard shot with my 75-yard-club to the pin on the upper tier that landed hard with a circus bounce just into the deep rough past the collar. Boldly again (I practice this shot, the chip out of the rough to a short pin, all the time), and if this one had hit the pin instead of burning the edge of the hole maybe it would have been ok but it trickled to the downslope and rolled on down. Took 3 to get down from there. Even with the solid shots, not an auspicious beginning.

On # 2 my drive faded right of the mouth of the green between the bunkers, to the slope on the right edge of the bunkers. A testy shot that has given me grief over the last year, but this day I successfully lazy-lobbed the ball over the traps so that it rolled down tap-in distance. I used to birdie # 2 all the time, but it has been a while.

On # 3 my high drive plugged below the right front corner of the green. This is where-from I holed out for an eagle a while back, and then for a par, equally astonishing, after hitting a tree, missing the green, chunking a pitch – so confidence was high, but I missed the 6 foot birdie putt. Green is still very stubby after aeration.

On # 4 I gave my t-shot an easy skyrocket up the hill, down the right side, so that I couldn’t go at the green, for the trees on this 90 degree dogleg, so I just dumped an 8 iron down to the middle of the fairway, 100 yds from the green, where I hit a 1/3^rd 9 iron high-ish that landed on the collar at the front of the green and rolled up 6 feet from the pin, hole high . . . almost a straight putt uphill . . . but the last missed birdie made me anxious & irate so I moved my feet 3 times before I settled in for that nasty little side-hill knee knocker.

On # 9 I hit a power-launch that flew over the sand trap, even tho’ the tees had been moved back. Because the ball had gone right instead of left, I have to hit a 7 wood, instead of a 7 iron, but this does not trouble me, my 7 wood has become so well behaved. And indeed this attempt was a high rope line drive straight at the left pin. I couldn’t tell where it ended up till we walked up to the green.

 20 feet past the pin, it was an uphill putt with a known break that I might easily make. But that’s not what happened. I played it too defensively on speed, aggravating because the line looked really good, so no eagle, but I did have a back-hand-tap-in birdie.

Aces & Eagles, as of 26-06-19

 

HL O65 League # 14 (26-06-19) - Eagle for Me, 37 for Joe

 On #1, I hit a Tommyknocker 52 yds from the green, then pitched up to 5 ft, for a birdie putt I have missed before, left short, even tho' it's a downhill slider, or because it is a downhill slider . . . In the meantime, Joe hit his driver over the creek (where he has always used a 4 hybrid instead, laying up) then his approach skipped hard forward, instead of checking up, wound up on the top tier of the green - the pin is on the front right, but after consultation he made the 45 ft putt, then I made my little putt, and we both had birdies on the first hole. A very rare accomplishment. 

On # 3, Joe birdied again, in straightforward style, while I did not, with the greens still healing from the aeration, it's not surprising . . . 

It is noteworthy also that Joe parred 5-6-7, the back-to-back par 3s and the following par 4 infamous for the tree guarding the fairway. We both were able to hit shots that narrowly flew under the tree limbs, with easy and short approaches. Joe got his into a very favorable chance for birdie, left of the pin on the right side of the green, where it's flattish . . . while I pulled mine into the tough rough left of the green. Joe 2putted easily, and I flopped my shot 4 feet away, but missed the comebacker.

on #8, I pulled my drive into the trees on the left, worrying about the stiff breezes blowing left-to-right (same as at Shinnecock this week), with OB looming there. I saftied a 3iron over the trap, and over the green (trying to skip thru the trap, instead), chipped down the length of the green, and missed the 5 footer for par, again, I SAY, because of the aeration holes. Playing well, but not scoring.

on # 9, free at last from the cramped conditions of 7 & 8, I let loose a driver, high, straight and far, flying over the sandtrap in the middle of the fairway, into some tall rough. The wind was right to left and GUSTY , and I keep pulling this particular approach left for some reason, so I aimed as far right as I could make myself, but still pulled it again to the wrong side of the green, 45 feet away. But when it was my turn to putt, I made a confident putt (I seem to have a knack over the big hump in the middle of the green) with just enough speed to get over the top of the hump, before it rolled into the big bowl where the pin was. I was pleased, but still just hoping for a 2putt, watching it like a hawk as the ball turned left over the hump then trickled down the side of the bowl, bouncing left and right off the aeration holes, till it went in. So Joe & I both made 45 foot putts to score.

Joe wound up with a 37-net 27, which was best that day.

 

Aces & Eagles, as of 26-06-10

 

HL O65 League Event #11 (26-06-10) Eagle Scorecard

 Finally Eagled # 3, the shortest Par 4 I've ever played. Hmmmm. Scorecard says 228 Yds, but it's rarely more than 200. . . . but before I get to that . . . 

On the first hole I smashed my drive over the creek (a noteworthy accomplishment only in the Over 65 League) and had 66 yards left. Pulled my approach left, babying it onto the green, then lipped out my birdie.

On the second hole I threaded a beelinedrive thru the traps onto the green with my drive, then 3-putted for par from 44 ft. Did I mention the greens were freshly punctuated for aeration?

On the third hole I hit a slicing line drive to the front right corner of the green, in tall rough,just lately growing in nicely. I flop-shot my ball straight at the pin and shouted "GO IN", and it did.

On the fourth hole I hammerooskied my drive down the left hand side, skirting the woods, so far I had a clear shot around the dogleg at the green, without relying on a fade to keep it in play. I equally hammerooskied my 5wood from 230 to 20 yards short of the green in the unkempt rough. One of those situations where its better to be long than chunk it (IMVHO), but I missed the downhill 12 ft comeback slider.

On the fifth I hit a knockdown 8 iron to the front pin, and I swear it rolled by the pin going right to left, such weird bounces on that green, to about 6 feet. but the perforated greens overcame my birdie effort, there, too. 

On the sixth I tried to soft-peddle a 7wood in with the wind, but it skittered all the way to the back of the green, and my coping with the pegboard green was futile.

On the seventh I weakly tried to get under the big tree blocking the fairway and just left it sort and right of it, on a good number, for my 7iron, but the shot took a circus bounce of the front part of the dance floor to the back right corner, on the collar. Very small chance of making that birdie putt; took all I could do to 2putt.

No longer in my right mind. Too much grind.

On the eighth I pulled the drive into the trees on the left. My only shot was to make a 3 iron safety, and try to run it thru the sandtrap that guards the whole front of the green, and get up and down, but my 3iron blister carried OVER the trap and ran uphill to the back right of the green. From there I pitched on the green to the one soft spot, apparently, and my ball just set right down, leaving me a tetchy 10 foot downhill putt, which I somehow left just short, in the heart.

On the ninth I put a little west-texas-red-ass on my drive and had a clean look at the green from shortiron distance, but it came up just short, practically plugged in the sodden turf. My chip wasn't very good, and the following putts, neither.

So I got another eagle.

Played my ass off, and came away still with only 38.   

O65 League, Harbor Lights, 25-09-17, Joe makes 3 birdies

 Notes:

• on # 2, Partner Joe hit his usual high shot, but straighter than usual, it landed halfway between the traps that guard the front of the green, left & right, and bounded off the hard turf straight uponto the green, 12 feet from the pin -- while the foursome in front of us was still putting. They were in no danger but it might well have been unsettling. Joe has reached the traps before, but he's not trying to reach the green, just to leave a pitch to the pin. I waited till that group had cleared the green before I hit, I always do. I am trying to make an ace on that hole, but the ball could go anywhere, left-to-right, I never know. This time I hit a line-drive straight at the inner corner of the left trap, but the ball tiptoed around it, thru the rough, to 15 feet from the pin, left of Joe's. We neither made the eagle, but both had tap-in birdies, which is at least partially satisfying . . . 
• Joe birdied #3, too, which is my favorite parlay on this course. I on the other hand flubbed my ball into the woods on the left, short of the water, and it was all I could do to make bogie. A 3 on 3 is fairly unremarkable, being the shortest par 4 on the course. A bogie, thus, a terrible humiliation.
• on #7, Joe had reached the green, below the hole on what many hold to be the hardest green on the course, and even his 8 footer is intimidating. But after consultation, he calmly nudged his putt up hill 3 feet left of the pin, and saw it drip down in thru the side-door.
• 3 birdies in 9 holes is the standard of excellence, the McGuffin competition aside, in which Joe did not even win his point against friend Dave, a consistent personal-par maker with a 12 handicap. Hard to beat.
• 5 birdies as a team is pretty good, too.
• on #9, I technically had a chance for eagle, but it was short-sided to the pin, a little bit in the deep, dark rough behind the green, which slopes away from the fairway on the back, where the pin was. Meanwhile, my opponent chipped in from the other side of the back-bunker, for his meaningless birdie (within the McGuffin Competition). I have no confidence anymore chipping such a short shot (Visions of TC Chen in the Masters always run thru my head), and I have bladed more than a couple clear across the green, so I used a putter, with no confidence at all it would go in, but I had a only a uphill kneeknocker left for birdie.