The Golfing Chronicles, Part 3

The third (and last, for now) installment of my golfing exploits. If missed the earlier editions, click thru to Part 1 and Part 2.

#27. Duke Golf Club, Durham, NC. 3/5/08. White: 6,172. Par: 72. Rating: 69.6. Slope: 122. Score: 99. Putts: 40, 5 3-putts. FIR: 7/14. GIR: 3/18. We only lived in North Carolina for less than a year, and unfortunately I only played golf there twice! (In fact, I can’t find a single scorecard from the entire year of 2007. Amazing that I may have not played for over 12 months. Sage must have been ready to throw me out of the house.) There was a bad drought in NC while we were there, and I remember the Duke course showed it. The fairways were rock-hard, most of the rough was spotty with dead grass, and the water hazards were barely puddles.

#26. Wayland Country Club, Wayland, MA. 6/28/08. Blues: 5,836. Par: 69. Rating: 67.9. Slope: 114. Score: 88. Wayland CC was only 10 minutes away from the house we rented when we first moved to Massachusetts. I wanted to get out early one Saturday morning, so I called a couple days before and asked when the earliest tee time they had. They told me that they allow play at dawn, as long as you pay afterwards. Considering this was late June and the sun comes up around 5:15 am, that was pretty early. But what the heck, right? So one Saturday I got up at 5:00 am, drove to the course and walked me out into the morning dew. There was actually a twosome who was on #2 when I teed off at 5:20 am, but I quickly caught up and they let me play through. I walked off 18 at 7:30 am, having played (and walked) 18 holes in 2 hours 10 minutes. I remember walking into the pro shop to pay for my 18. The guy looked at me like I was nuts. “You only played 9, right?” No, I told him. I teed off at 5:20 and played all 18. I think he was kind of impressed. I got home around 7:45, just as Sage was waking up, and we had the entire day in front of us. How great is that?

#24. Myopia Hunt Club, South Hamilton, MA. 8/22/08. Blues: 6,539. Par: 72. Rating: 73.2. Slope: 135. Score: 95. Putts: 40, 4 3-putts. FIR: 3/14. GIR: 6/18. Myopia is a private club on the North Shore. It’s an old, classic layout and opened in 1882. It has hosted 4 US Opens (though none since 1908), and has some bunkers on #11 called “Jonestown” named after Bobby Jones. (Jones used to play the course when he went to school at Harvard.) My friend/co-worker Adam and I were lucky enough to play the private track by being invited by a vendor who we did business with that’s a member. We had a great day: the course was beautiful, the clubhouse amazing, and we stayed for a buffet dinner that was INCREDIBLE. (Steak tips, salmon, and risotto were just a few of the many offerings.) It was this day that I thought for the first time, “Wow…being a member of a private club might not be so bad.” The thought scared me…what if I was turning into a Republican? This course is also one of the toughest I ever played. The rating of 73.2 is only behind Blackstone National (see below), and the slope of 135 is only behind Little Bennett (see above). But I guess you’d expect that from a course that is always listed in the top 100 golf courses in the United States.

#23. Concord Country Club, Concord, NH. 8/23/08. Whites: 6,181. Par: 70. Rating: 69.5. Slope: 125. Score: 91. The day after I played Myopia I played Concord CC for the first (and actually only) time. Yes, 2 straight days of playing private golf courses. I was on my way to voting for John McCain!

Handicap at end of 2008: 17

#21. Blackstone National, Sutton, MA. 5/3/09. Blues: 6,620. Par: 72. Rating: 73.5. Slope: 134. Score: 99. Putts: 41, 5 3-putts. FIR: 7/14. GIR: 4/18. As I mentioned above, Blackstone has the highest rating of any course I’ve played. Last year my aforementioned friend Adam and I split a golf card for Blackstone, which gave us 2-for-1 rounds all year. With the half-day Fridays we get at our work, we would hit Blackstone quite often on Friday afternoons. The course is nice, good holes, and puts a premium on iron accuracy, which isn’t my strength (at least, until May, 2010). Also, the greens are really tough: I have averaged about 4 3-putts for all my rounds at Blackstone. Obviously I need to play somewhere with easier greens.

#7. Baltusrol Golf Club (Upper Course), Springfield, NJ. 9/24/09. Greens: 6,469. Par: 72. Rating: 71.0. Slope: 133. Score: 94. Putts: 39, 4 3-putts. FIR: 9/14. GIR: 5/18. Easily the highlight of the courses I’ve played. When I got invited to play at Baltusrol, I jumped on it in a second. It’s not often one can play a course that has hosted 7 U.S. Opens, 4 U.S. Amateurs, and a PGA Championship. (Full disclosure: Baltusrol has 2 courses, the Upper and Lower, and we played the Upper, which has hosted only 1 U.S. Open.) This was also the first time I ever played with a caddy, which was a unique experience. Ebby was his name, and he was great. He was always 2 steps ahead of me as far as getting my clubs ready, he could find my ball without even thinking about where it landed, and his read on the greens was astounding. I shot a 94, but probably would have been 6-10 shots worse without Ebby’s help. One story that is kind of amusing, and a bit embarrassing, happened on the first green. So I was the last to putt out, and after I did picked up my ball and started to walk to the next tee. Ebby came up to me carrying the flag, and he was reaching out to me. Having never played with a caddy before, I had no idea what he was doing, and first thought that he was handing me the flag. So then I noticed that he had my driver with him, and was asking for my putter. For some reason I got all flustered and confused, my brain not really registering what was going on. Somehow my putter in my hand swung back and forth during this pas-de-deux, and the end of it came flying up and landed square on my upper lip with a lot of force. Ebby stood back in a bit of shock, and immediately asked if I was okay. Not wanting to make a big deal out of it, I said I was fine, we exchanged clubs, and I walked to the 2nd tee holding my mouth. By the turn my lip had swollen up (thankfully it wasn’t real noticeable), and I ended up having a small bump in my lip for months after this round. As always, I know how to keep it classy.

Handicap at end of 2009: 19

#5. Osprey Ridge, Disney World, FL. 1/29/10. Whites: 6,629. Par: 72. Rating: 71.7. Slope: 124. Score: 92. Putts: 36, 4 3-putts. FIR: 8/14. GIR: 3/18. Avg. Drive: 218 yards. Longest Drive: 233 yards. Playing on Sage’s birthday while at Disney World, I had a really good round at one of the Disney’s courses. The day before I had played Magnolia, which is where the PGA tour plays, but that round ended up being over 5 hours long. It was horrendous how slow it was out there, and I sent an angry note to the Disney Golf folks afterwards, as they did nothing to try to speed up play. The round at Osprey Ridge was much better, and the course was nicer as well. There was plenty of wildlife, with ospreys (of course), turkeys and deer seen around the course. This was one of the few times I kept track of my driving distance, and averaging at 218 isn’t great. I’d like to get that up to 230.

#1. Waverly Oaks, Plymouth, MA. 5/16/10. Blues: 6,682. Par: 72. Rating: 72.3. Slope: 124. Score: 85. Putts: 34, 2 3-putts. FIR: 10/14. GIR: 7/18. The round that set off this blog. As you can see from my stats, I was hitting fairways and greens with regularity. My problem is still with my putting and also with my inability to get back on track once a hole goes downhill. But as a famous person once said (and I repeat this mantra to myself continuously): I’m not a bad golfer because I’m inconsistent; I’m inconsistent because I’m a bad golfer.

I hope one day to upgrade myself from bad to below average. Considering my handicap has gone all the way back to where it was 10 years ago, I’d say I still have a ways to go.

Current Handicap: 20

Postscript: Since I wrote up this blog it's been a couple weeks, and I've played a few times since that great round at Waverly Oaks. Unfortunately my game has gone way downhill, and I'm having a hard time even breaking 100. It's sad that my golf season peaked this year in mid May. Maybe I should just hang up the clubs now...