Feelgood factor

Woke up this moring 30 minutes ahead of my alarm clock, a look outside the window looked promising, blue sky and sunshine.

I arrived at an empty parking lot at GC Prenden at 08:30, the clubhouse was still locked. Nobody on the range either, three, four folks could be spotted on the course. After a quick warmup I started my round with a slightly pushed four iron into the right rough. With the grass cut down low this wasn’t much of an obstacle to overcome. Eight iron out of the rough and lobwedge pinhigh, one putt, bogey. Not so bad after all.

During the roung I was experimenting a little bit, taking my woods into play sometimes and I regained some confidence in them. On the back nine, I always hit two tee shots, one with the four iron and one with the three wood. Before hitting the tee shot I decided which one I would take to continue playing, so I didn’t always get off with the better one. The comparison ended undetermined, the 3 wood gave me 20-30 meters plus in length, but I could keep the 4 iron in the fairway more often. Let’s just see how it feels tomorrow in the tournament.

My short game was really surprising me, I really had the touch for it today, I hope I can carry this over to tomorrow.

I cound’t overcome one course though: the par 5 birdie curse. On the par 5 11th I played three wood, seven wood (both mediocre shots) and found myself in the first rough left of the fairway with some 155 meters to the pin for my third shot. Thought about laying up for a second, because the pond was in my line of play right in front of the green. But then I tried to give it a shot with my 5 iron and here is where I found my ball again:

One meter to the flag, an excellent birdie opportunity and what did I do? I fucked it up and missed the hole by millimeters to the right. Once more I had to settle for par. I haven’t played a birdie on a par 5 in my whole life, I had plenty of opportunities like this but wasn’t able to convert a single one. On other holes, 3,4,5 meter putts make it, but not the ones on the par 5′s for birdie.

But I was really happy with my round, 96 strokes altogether and some 42 net stableford points. Let’s see if I have something left in me for tomorrow!