The Day I Shot 79 – The Back 9

My last post I detailed the front 9 of my magical day.  In this post I will chronicle the back 9 of the day I shot 79!

Front 9 Score – 42

Hole #10 – Par 4

Another dogleg left with bunkers on the inside of the dogleg.  I hit another nice drive but again with too much fade and found the bunkers 138 yards out.  I hit a perfect 8 iron from the sand right at the flag, over the greenside bunker, to within 1o feet of the hole.  My putt just rolled by the hole and I tapped in for par.  Score – 4;  Total – 46

Hole #11 – Par 4

Again, another dogleg left but without fairway bunkers.  Today it was playing directly into the wind and I hit a perfect drive with a little fade into the middle of the fairway about 148 yards out.  My second shot was a 6 iron right into the wind which ended up about 20 feet from the pin.  I was a little wide with my first putt and made a 5 footer for par.  Score – 4;  Total – 50

Hole #12 – Par 5

Long par 5 that was playing longer because it was into the wind.  I hit a great drive with my little fade right into the middle of the fairway.  I hit a hybrid straight up the fairway to about 100 yards.  The pin was at the back behind the greenside bunker and into the wind so I hit an almost perfect pitching wedge that just landed on the back fringe about 10 feet from the pin.  I came up just inches short on my birdie try and tapped in for par.  Score – 5;  Total – 55

Hole #13 – Par 4

I hit my second worst drive of the day, a short pop-up that left me about 210 yards away.  I hit a poor hybrid, another short pop-up, that still left me about 110 yards out.  My third shot was another poorly hit shot that ended up left of the green.  I hit a chip shot to within 5 feet and drained the putt to save a bogey on a poorly played hole.  Score – 5;  Total – 60

Hole #14 – Par 3

A long par 3 playing into the wind making it about a 200 yd shot.  I came up short and landed in the front right bunker (I hit lots of bunkers today).  I didn’t hit a good shot out of the sand and left myself with about a 35 foot putt for par.  I hit the par putt 35 feet but about 3 feet to the right so I had an easy putt for a bogey.  Score – 4;  Total – 64

Hole #15 – Par 4

A shorter par 4 that I hit a nice sweeping fade that ended up in the middle of the fairway, about 75 yards out.  I hit a nice wedge to about 12 feet and just missed the birdie putt and settled for par.  Score – 4; Total – 68

Hole #16 – Par 3

Playing downwind, I hit a nice high 7 iron to about 10 feet.  I just grazed the edge of the hole on my birdie putt and again tapped in for par.  Score – 3;  Total – 71

Hole #17 – Par 5

I hit a nice drive that ended up just in the rough on the left side of the fairway.  I hit a hybrid layup down to about 80 yards out.  As I was walking to my ball that I realized that I had only bogeyed 2 holes on the back and might be having a pretty good 9 hole stretch.  I hit another really good wedge from 80 yards and just landed on the front fringe, about 10 feet for birdie.  Again, I just missed the birdie putt and tapped in for another par.  Score – 5;  Total – 76

Hole #18 – Par 4

On the short walk to the 18th tee box, I did the mental math on my round and was about 99% sure that if I parred 18, I would shoot 80.  I didn’t say anything to Kevin because I didn’t want to jinx anything if my mental math was correct.  I hit a really nice drive down the right hand side but it didn’t fade for me very much and it ended up in the right rough.  Kevin had hit his drive on the left side so we were across the fairway from each other.  I pulled out my range finder and was having trouble picking up the flag so I couldn’t get a yardage.  The pin was on the very left of the green tucked right behind a deep bunker.  I yelled over to Kevin to ask what he had for a yardage (yeah I know by the rules of golf that’s illegal.  I’m a middle aged, stressed out, amateur that gets out once a week at the most.  Some rules can bite me!).  He said that he had 162 so I was probably about 175 so I grabbed my 4 hybrid.  The green is uphill from the fairway so my intention was to aim for the middle of the green and not risk hitting the front bunkers.  I absolutely flushed my hybrid and, not by design, it was right at the flag.  I knew as soon as I hit it, that it was going to be close.  It stayed right on the flag and was helped along by my urges of “GET OVER THAT BUNKER!”  It landed just over the bunker, but because the green was elevated, I couldn’t see it land but I knew it was going to be good.  At this point, my heart is beating out of my chest because I’m pretty sure a birdie gets me 79.  I make the climb up the hill to the green and when my ball comes into view, it’s 7 feet from the pin.  One of the best shots of my life!!!  I marked my ball and waited for Kev to finish putting.  I lined the putt up which was a fairly straight putt, tried to slow my heart down a few hundred beats, and with my trusty Sabretooth, rolled the ball right in the middle of the cup for a birdie.  Now, the moment to see whether my math was reality.  Score – 3;  TOTAL – 79

My goals in golf have always been ever-changing – break 100, break 100 consistently, break 90, break 90 consistently, shoot low to mid 80’s consistently.  A few years years ago when I lived in Dawson Creek, BC, I averaged 4-5 rounds of golf a week and I got pretty decent at the game where the goal of mid to low 80’s consistently was achieved and I set my new goal of breaking 80.  After I moved to Camrose, my frequency of golf diminished and the consistency of my game also diminished so my goal of breaking 80 started to move far out of focus.  At the beginning of the 2015 golf season, I renewed my passion for the game of golf and was determined to start playing better and more consistently.  I had big spurts of good golf within a round but would putt bad, or have a few bad holes that prevented me from scoring low.  On this particular day, I got in that groove and my confidence kept growing hole by hole and it felt great.  It was the day I shot 79!