The Lumsicle
Playing the First C-Tier of the Year... Blind!
My first sanctioned tournament of the year was played at Lums Pond State Park in Bear, Delaware. This 18-hole course is a mostly wooded test of your shot-shaping skills and your height and line control. Every hole is a par-3, (although I disagree with that designation on several of the holes), making scoring easier but playing havoc with expectations. That being said, there was only 1 hole (Hole #11) that was, in my view, a "poke-and-pray" hole with no truly defined fairway for 50% of the 303' length.
(Or many, many tiny fairways winding through the lodge pole pines, depending on your point of view!)
So how much extra pressure can I possibly put on top of the first sanctioned tournament of the year? Let's count, shall we...
Blindness: I had not stepped foot on this course before, so I would be playing the first round blind.
Mechanics Changes: I am in the process of refining some new mechanics, and they don't yet feel natural -- and definitely are not automatic.
Minimal Practice Time: Weather, physical issues, and my 9-To-5 responsibilities all conspired to limit my practice to 1 4-hour session on the day before the tournament, which certainly is going to magnify #2!
Well, *THIS* should be fun...!
The camera rig on the cart made it's first appearance of the year; however, between using the gps map to find the course, keeping score on the PDGA.com app, and running the camera controller software, my phone was using power like crazy. So I abandoned the camera (except for a couple of small clips) in deference to the scoring app. I'll have a extra power supply for next week's tournament, so I'll resume the camera work then.
It's good to get all of the bugs worked out now.
Driving on Hole 18
Driving on Hole 1
Video Clips
Scores for the Day
A combined score of 119 was good enough for first place -- since I was in a division by myself!!
| Hole | Rd 1 | Rd 2 |
| 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 2 | 3 | 2 |
| 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 4 | 4 |
| 5 | 3 | 3 |
| 6 | 3 | 3 |
| 7 | 3 | 2 |
| 8 | 3 | 3 |
| 9 | 4 | 6 |
| 10 | 3 | 3 |
| 11 | 4 | 3 |
| 12 | 4 | 4 |
| 13 | 3 | 3 |
| 14 | 3 | 2 |
| 15 | 3 | 4 |
| 16 | 3 | 4 |
| 17 | 4 | 5 |
| 18 | 3 | 3 |
| 59 | 60 |
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | |
| Rd 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 59 |
| Rd 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 60 |
Tournament “Post-Mortem”
With only 1 practice day between the last tournament and this one, I was a bit concerned that the conflict between the old and the new mechanics was going to make a mess of the day; but as it turned out, playing a conservative style during my first round (as I learned the course) let me "groove in" the new footwork and new release point, while not killing my score too badly. We started on Hole 18 and I was carded with the only two women players at the tournament, Colleen and Amy. Both women were locals, with Lums Pond being Colleen's home course, so I had plenty of guidance and support.
I rattled off 4 pars before I hit my first bogie on the 417' 4th hole, then 4 more pars before I stumbled again on the 316' 9th hole. (These two holes, along with the 415' 16th, should be scored as par 4 IMHO; they rated 3.5, 3.9, and 3.5 respectively. Then again, since I was +7 over these 6 holes (3 holes x 2 rounds), that opinion might just be sour grapes.) I also managed to bogie holes 11 (the "poke-and-pray" hole), 12 (a silly, missed 20' putt), and 17 (adventures in bushwacking!) 5 bogies against 0 birdies gave me a +5 59, which I considered acceptable given the challenges for the day.
Between rounds, I decided to play more aggressively, both because I was not longer playing the course blind, and because I wanted to see how the new mechanics would fare with more of a run-up and a little less deliberation during the process. Again, we (Colleen, Ann, and myself) started on Hole 18, and I managed to get to hole 4 at -1 with a birdie on the short hole 2. And again, I managed to bogie hole 4. But I picked up another birdie on hole 7, and brought myself back to even. The mechanics were holding up well to the additional speed and the reduction of the focus on the specifics of the footwork.
Then we got to hole 9.
A bad kick into the briars on my drive put me in a horrible position, with nothing but a pitch-out possible. Finding myself only 1/3 of the way up the fairway and throwing 3, I had a true "WTF Richard" moment and fired a forehand WAY off-line into another briar patch 50' or so long and left of the basket. The approach bounced off of something solid near the basket and rolled backwards to circle's edge, where I proceeded to 2-putt my way to a triple-bogie 6.
Cue the "Wah-wah-wah" fail music.
I bounced back on 10 and 11 with pars, then missed a par putt on 12 and a birdie putt on 13 to take me to +4 for the round with 4 holes to go. I threw a perfect drive on 14 and hit the birdie putt there to come back to +3, then allowed my ego to take over and tell me that I could get another stroke or two back by playing even MORE aggressively.
Cue the "Wah-wah-wah" music again.
A bad forehand drive on 15 put me WAY out of position and led to a bogie, a shorted upshot on 16 led to a missed par putt on 16, and a bad forehand drive AND a shorted upshot on 17 gave me a sad double-bogie to finish. +4 over the last 3 holes... I think I've heard this story before.
Positives:
I like the new form. It's getting more natural, and I'm starting to trust it. When I step up the power, I start to pull the shots to the right, so I still have a ways to go, but I like it.
Circle 1 putting continues to be strong. I need to get things set up so that I can start practicing circle's edge and short circle 2 putts.
The camera setup is up and running... sort of. I need a better monitor so that I don't drain my phone battery when I'm filming.
Negatives:
I had some misfires with my forehand, with either too much angle or too much power and pulled to the left. I'll address that during my next practice session.
I DEFINITELY ran out of gas for the last 3 holes of round 2. That's better than it's been in the past, but I still need to stop the bleeding at the end of the second round, as it's KILLING my scores.
Circle 2 putting isn't where I would like it to be -- but that's pretty far down on the list of "need to fix."
Next week is the Carlisle Ice Bowl XIV at Coyote Hills DGC in Carlisle, PA. It's a familiar course... mostly. They will be adding 9 holes to make this tournament a 1-round, 27-hole event instead of the traditional 2-round, 18-hole format. Plus it's with a great group of players who are hysterical to hang out with and who cook really well (there's a potluck lunch involved!) I'm going to try to get at least 3 practice sessions in before then, but time may limit that possibility.
Until then...
See you on the course!!