My personal best (at my new club) yesterday was quite the enjoyable experience for me, because although it was a stroke shy of my lowest round ever - my club is by far the most difficult course I've ever played on a somewhat regular basis. Good golf is good golf, no matter what tees you play or what course you play. But it just carries a little more gravitas to the experience when you surpass your own expectations on a very challenging layout.

But even at that, there are certain things.... we'll call them ingredients, that add to the scoring casserole. And quite often, for me anyway, I overlook the little trivial ingredients. I overlook them because I want to believe that I had everything to do with the outcome. Which is natural, I suppose.

No different with food, these little bits of trivial ingredients either compliment the round or complicate the round.

Nothing is more frustrating (to me) than to be in-between yardages into the greens for most of the round. Take a little something off the 7, or go full-out with the 8? When you're playing on large, undulated greens - how far you hit it is just as important as where you hit it. I'm fairly decent taking more club and swinging just a tad softer, but it's very situational for me. Where this becomes most difficult is when I'm trying to flight something in low to a back hole location, or when it's a front pin and I need to hit it high and soft. No matter how hard you try to convince yourself to take the guesswork out of play and just go for the middle of the green - it's a tough decision to make. That said, if I've learned anything during my years of playing - it's knowing when to simply forget where the pin is and play the middle of the green, even if it means putting from 15 or 20 feet further away.

Anyway... I had 3 instances yesterday in that round where I was in-between, and I made the simpler decision. But it's very rare when I'm hitting the exact yardage I want going into the greens as often as I did yesterday. I can't overlook that.

Another thing I can't overlook is the conditions. Yeah, it was certainly hot and humid, sticky hot and we would've enjoyed some wind... but there wasn't a breath of a breeze in the air I had to account for. That too is very rare.

The superintendent must've gotten laid the night before, because the hole locations (for the most part) were fairly accessible, and only one hole location was near a ridge or mound. That's another thing often overlooked as it relates to scoring. We have quite a bit of contour in our greens, and it's not often that you're not having to figure out additional break from another intersecting ridge in a lot of approach putts.

Partly due to good iron play, for sure, but I left myself with some very makable birdie putts yesterday that I could be somewhat aggressive with. And much of the time it felt like I had the same putt on every hole... 15 feet away, slightly uphill, with a gentle L-R break (a southpaw's dream).

I'd also be remiss in not accounting for the 2-3 instances where a generous bounce turned a good shot into a great one. The par4 15th is a great example... great little short hole, 295 yards, plays uphill, narrow fairway, with a 2-tiered green. The hole was cut right in the middle, just to the right of the middle-left tier. I pushed my wedge shot slightly, but it came off the tier and rolled down to within 3 feet of the hole. I'm pretty sure I could 2-putt for par from up top that shelf, but highly unlikely I could drain a 20 footer for birdie. That was a nice break, leading to my 4th birdie of the day.

And, of course, when you're playing well it's a little easier to keep the momentum going. Even if you hit a bad shot, you feel like you can recover and make a par-save putt. My putting yesterday has never felt more natural... I was seeing the lines and reading the break, not getting overly anxious or reading too much into them, and my pace was absolutely perfect. For me, I make more putts when I'm rolling the ball at a pace to go about 18 inches past the cup. That's my ideal holing speed. A couple of times yesterday I was above the hole, with one foot on the brake and one on the gas, but even then my pace was spot-on.

And then, last but certainly not least... it was a great match with some really good players. We played in 3 hours and 20 minutes, not having to wait... the highest score was 76, followed by 75, 71, and 69. But the playing rhythm was perfect.

Finished 3rd in my tournament today, played well again, shot 75. The difference? I couldn't tell you. Felt like I played pretty well. It was just a different day. That, and the fact that tournament golf is just a wee bit more stressful.

    PA-PLAYA

    Nice !
    Days like that on the golf course is just wonderful. Weather around here is worse than two months ago.
    A cluster of low pressure hung over the the Pacific Ocean outside of Vancouver B.C. Canada kept spinning off moisture to our State.

    Reading your fine days on the golf course stir up the desire to want to get out on the golf course myself.

    I had a crazy lucky day of good ball striking and "member" bounces at my home course week before last. Played the senior tees at 5600-ish with a 135 slope. Shot a 2 under 69 for my all time personal best. Every bounce that could have gone my way, did and most putts that I was just trying to cozy up close for a 2 putt dropped in. Gonna frame the card! 👍

    Of Note: PING Eye 2 irons in the bag.

    image /assets/images/0-18-JEc4xGOsG5E93SiS.jpg

      PA-PLAYA

      What I hear you saying Scott is that You keep doing the same and what happens is based upon that.

      Strive makes it live. Grind it out. The God's of Golf will honor effort.

        sdandrea1

        I wish I could love my Ping Eye2+ like you do yours.

        Just found out why it was in the box for more than 10 years, going back to the box .
        Maybe the KT-M shaft does not agree with me ?

        5600 yards an slope of 135 is no push over, guess the retirement had done good to your golf game.

          Release

          I pulled the ZZ Lites out of these, sent them back to PING for the makeover and put Fujikura Orochi graphite tapers in them (Mizuno pulls). Brought them back to life! And yes, playing 3 to 4 times a week helps the game. 👍

          FauxAmish

          Thanks, Pat. Very true.

          Having been a member at my current club now for going on 3 full seasons, I've learned that this place requires a ton of patience, much more so than any other course where I've played on a regular basis. There's so much trouble lurking on just about every shot... it's a very tight course, lots of trees and hazards. Then too - the difficult nature of our greens only adds to the challenge, making it really important to stay in reasonable position. Trying to force the issue there most always makes things even more dire, because it's almost impossible to get up and down from either above the hole or on the short side. And lots of times I'm hitting approach shots beyond the 150-160 yard range as a result. In fact - I routinely hit more hybrids/long irons into the greens here than any other place I've ever played, and on occasion I'm even swinging a fairway wood if there's some wind. I wish our fairways were just a tad firmer, but they're not and they've not been firm for three seasons now. Our superintendent sure does love his water. So I've just come to accept it however frustrating it is some days.

          One thing is certain - swinging harder does not make the holes play any shorter.

          So yeah, I've kinda figured out the angles... it's taken me 2 long seasons to finally detect the subtle nuances of break and grain on our greens, so I've got a pretty good feel for the general direction and pace. There are some putts on some of the greens that look flat, but they're optical illusions. However subtle the slope might be, the down grain makes them much more tricky.

          As a result, I've had to make a difficult adjustment as far as putting style. I used to charge my putts, back of the hole, leaving 3-4 footers coming back. But that was on greens with not quite as much borrow or pace. At my new club - I've been forced to account for much more break and die the ball into the hole. Today I had no fewer than 5 putts in the 3-5 foot range that had 4-6" of break. If the speed isn't exact, you're probably not making them. I only missed one of them, but it was a very unforgiving miss. Just a tad too much pace, caught the lip on the high side, ended up with a 5 footer coming back from the other direction.

          But I'm still in a good grind mode. Hit only 3 greens on the front side, but still managed 1-over 37 going out. I hit only 4/9 greens on the back, came in with 38. So to only find 7/18 greens and shoot 75 was terrific. But at the same time it was the absolute best score I could've shot today.

          Just feeling good about my game at the moment. My index will drop to 2 on the next adjustment update (Friday) and we've got the biggest tournament of the year coming up this week - our Member-Guest. I've got a ringer playing with me, so I hope I can keep making a bunch of pars and give him some breathing room to play loose and free. He hits it a long, long way and he's a very good iron player. I really like our chances if I can keep up my end of the deal.

          But, as always, that's a HUGE if.

          Wish me luck!