I think I have the wrong club ..
The details of my second best career round, are actually more interesting than those of my career round (if any round-of-golf-details can be considered interesting :) ), proving that the score isn’t everything :)
After playing the same golf course (Markland Wood) literally hundreds of times over the five years that I worked there (1975-80), I finally had the great fortune to “put it all together” one day (uh .. get very lucky too) and shoot my lowest round ever (to that point), and also to break the “magic” 70 barrier, shooting a 68 on the par 71 course.
I remember that I had two doubles and a bogey for what “could have been”, especially annoying was the double on he 17th hole. But hey it was the first time I ever broke 70 so I wasn’t too unhappy. (Of course while I bemoaned the two doubles, I happily accepted the two eagles I made ;) .. one on a relatively short par 5, the other a rather lucky hole out on a very short par 4 : (the 14th hole) (I only had about a 70 yard approach).
I played the round with a golf buddy, Geoff C. (Hey Geoff are you reading this ? :), and two other members, one who was Dale Tallon, former NHL player and who was a very low handicap golfer at the time.
I wish I had kept the scorecard, but after my eagle-hole out on the 14th hole I was five under for the round and trying to stay calm and focused, never having been that many under par before. Heck I don’t know that I had ever been under par at all that far into a round !
Dale was also shooting a great round and in fact we ended up both shooting 68! (I think his competitive juices were spurred on by the thought of preventing this skinny kid who worked in the backshop, from out scoring him ;) )
I can still remember being -5 going to the 17th tee, a shortish par 4. (actually all of the par 4’s were short on that course, save for the medium length 3rd hole), but the course is extremely narrow with a creek running down the middle and O.B. along the outer edges of every hole. So the course actually fit my game perfectly, as I was a short straight hitter .. or did I become a short straight hitter from playing a short narrow golf course everyday ? :) )
The 16th hole is a par three, with the green on one side of the creek, and the 17th tee was on the other side. So we’d usually just leave our bags on the 16th side of the bridge, and just bring whatever club we needed, in my case I took my driver, thinking that the tees were in their usual back position.
When we got to the tee, the Blue markers had been moved up to where the Red markers normally were. ( The ladies markers were yellow). Now I was never a long hitter anyway, but even for me, hitting a driver from the middle tees would have been an awkward shot as the hole doglegs significantly. I can still remember momentarily hesitating as I walked towards the tee, thinking that I should go back and get my 3wood instead.
But I didn’t, figuring I would just “ease off” on the driver.
Bad, dumb decision!
Instead of “easing off”, I did some kind of quit / brain far** swing, and ended up pull hooking my tee shot into the creek! From there I hit on the fringe (I think) , chipped and two putted for a nice smooth double !
I did manage to par the last hole a tough 220 yard par 3 though, but I was still annoyed after the round even though it was my lowest ever up till then.
So it was a bitter sweet “victory” as my buddies congratulated Dale and I on our great rounds, and I smiled and said my thank yous while pondering what “could have been”.
Lesson learned - always take your bag to the tee ! Which I almost always did afterwards whenever I wasn’t sure of the conditions !
Mike
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2 opinions for I think I have the wrong club ..
anon
Oct 7, 2007 at 12:56 pm
Wow, I can’t believe I read that entire thing. Seriously dude, that was the worst story ever. All that build up for nothing.
Mike
Oct 7, 2007 at 2:05 pm
anon, Thanks for stopping by.
You’re right, I just re-read the article, and I noticed that I messed up some of the details.
What actually happened on the 17th tee was that I tried to hit the driver easy, but I SLICED the shot, not hooking it, and it went over the houses and onto the street, hitting a passing car in the side. The driver was so freaked out, that he lost control of his car, and crashed into a nearby house. The car went instantly up into flames, but miraculously the driver escaped unharmed. As well the house was empty, but it caught fire, and four fire engines were dispatched. The howling noise of the sirens was distracting as we putted out on 18, but I managed to make a tough downhill-sidehill 5 hooter to save my par :)
Mike
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