Day 65: Round at Balboa

I started my round by pushing my drive right off the tee box. I hit my second from the rough that missed the green by a few feet. I chipped to about 6 feet and missed my par putt and tapped in for bogey. Basically, this is how my entire front 9 went – missed putts to save par. I did hit a big draw off the tee on Hole #2 which went close to 300 yards and left me with a sand wedge in – of which I 3-putted to make bogey – awful. There was nothing noteworthy in my score of 48 on the front – a bogey train that I couldn’t seem to shake because of my poor putting.

However, I did shoot a 40 on the back. But it wasn’t as pretty as it sounds. I started out the back by making 4 straight pars on Holes #10 thru 13 – what an easy game. I then proceeded to finish the back with 5 straight bogeys. Again, missing putts within 6 feet – even a few with bad speed (short). I don’t even want to think about it. It is now out of my head because I am a good putter and my new putter is one of my favorite clubs to have in my hands.

The redeeming quality of the round is that I did not have any blow up holes – nor did I have any flubbed shots, fat shots or pop-flies. I did have 2 doubles, but no triples and beyond. I had my game very much in control for the most part but missed about 10 makeable putts. Had I made half of those, I would have shot in the low 80’s. Heck, if I made all of them, I would have shot a round in the high 70’s.

I need to work on my irons. Even though I putted poorly today, I need that club in my hand. I need to be on in regulation and have the putter in my hand. I figure that I need to make about 12 pars per round in order to consistently break 80 – and that is not going to happen with a g.i.r. percentage consistently in the 25% range. I need to raise that up to around 75% if I want to be a 70’s shooter. There is another thing that I need to shake - I can not make a bogey after sitting in the fairway. Every fairway that I hit must finish with a par or better.

I will focus on my irons for my remaining days.

Round Stats:
Score: 48 - 40 - 88
Fairways: 8 of 15 - 53.3%
G.I.R.: 3 of 18 - 16.7%
Putts: 34 putts - 1.89/hole

0 birdies

4 pars

12 bogeys

2 double bogeys

0 penalties