I booked a tee time last Thursday after
I saw that the weather on Sunday was supposed to be around 60
degrees. I knew I wouldn't mind missing the first half of the Jets
game (and I should have played an extra nine so that I would miss the
entire game). I made the short drive up the Parkway to Kenilworth
and rolled into Galloping Hill.
Galloping Hill is one of the two
courses in Union County and I went there instead of Ash Brook which
is about 5 minutes from my apartment. In case you haven't been to
Galloping Hill recently, they have renovated both the course and the
two-room clubhouse. It's now a giant clubhouse and conference
center. They added a nice restaurant and are clearly looking to host
wedding receptions, based on the decorations inside. The NJ State
Golf Association is supposedly moving their headquarters to Galloping
Hill at the end of the year. The 2016 NJ State Open will also be
held onsite and they have started construction to lengthen the
course. I'm interested to see if they make any changes to the 3rd
and 5th holes. They are keeping 18 holes open throughout the
construction and we played the Learning Center 9 and the back nine of
the main course. Tees were moved forward a bit on most of the holes,
although I played the more normal blue tees on the three holes where
the blue and whites were separated.
The starter hooked me up with Hank,
Claude, and Ben (I felt like I had played with Ben before, but wasn't
positive) and we went off at 9:51. I had been able to stretch, but I
didn't hit any balls or even make any putts since the practice green
is nowhere near the clubhouse or first tee box. I pulled out driver on
#1 (288 yds). The fairway goes down and back up to the green, which
is relatively even with the tee box. I sliced my tee shot off to the
right and landed just in front of a pile of leaves. My second shot is
looking up the hill, but staying below the tree branches. Or I could
pitch sideways back to the fairway and then have a simple shot to the
green.
I took the Double Dare physical
challenge and failed..twice. My third shot rebounded off a branch
and rolled to a stop just off the fairway. I hit my fourth fat and
dumped it into the front greenside bunker. It's only the first hole
and my heart is already pounding with embarrassment. This is a fine
recipe for hitting a horrible shot and leaving it in the sand. Up
and down from there for an 8 (+4, +4 overall). Awesome start.
I focused too much on turning my hands
over on the second tee shot and smothered it into the piles of leaves,
never to be seen again. Hitting three and then up the hill to just
off the green. Up and almost down as my putt hangs over the edge of
the cup. I waited 10 seconds and gravity doesn't feel like helping me
out. (+3, +7).
#3 continues the mirroring of the main
course with a pond to the right of the landing area. Fast-forward to
taking a drop, chunking it from the wet area, and carding another 7
(+3, +10).
I started to wish for some
regression to the mean around this point and was deciding on how long I
should wait until I take the flask out of my bag. #4 is normally 242
yards with a dogleg left near the green. I don't own a draw and
there are too many trees to hit a fade. Luckily, this was one of the
temporary greens and the hole was straight and about 200 yards. I
hit a pull with my 19º
hybrid and angled it off a tree to within about 10 yards...just as I
had planned. I was putting from the fairway and almost sink it for eagle.
Tap in for birdie (-1, +9).
The fifth is a short, non-descript,
slightly uphill par 3 with a green that is wider than it is deep. #6 is 305 yards with a
stream around 200 yards out and then the hole bends to the right
towards the green. Perfect for today's shot shape. I have 70 yards to go and hit a sand wedge to about 12 feet. The birdie putt ran right by
the edge of the hole, but I made the next for par. The greens were very
sandy, but rolling well and fast and I was very happy with my putting;
this is as much in comparison to the rest of my play as my recent
month or two of putting.
#7 is a par 3 (around 135 yds)
with a pretty large elevated green. I was about a foot off the front
with the flag towards the middle and made a nice par save. #8 was
about 50 yards shorter than normal (240 today). I lose my 3wood off
to the right near the tee box on #9. I was walking so I made the
efficient choice to drop my bag and just carry my wedge and putter from there. I broke my par streak and
finished the front 9 with a double, courtesy of a fat 7 iron off the tee and
pitching over the water and green to the bunker.
Front 9 (par 33): 45 (+12), 14 putts
I hopped in the cart with Hank to get up
the hill and past the clubhouse to #10. Ben and Claude ran inside
for a minute and Hank and I talked about not putting our drives onto
the Parkway that runs south past the trees to the right of the
fairway. I managed to curve a drive down the middle of the dogleg
right and hit my 50º gap
wedge to 10 feet. My putt slid about 4 feet past the hole and I
made the mistake of not marking and cleaning the ball after it's
picked up sand on the green. Three-putt bogey and I'm annoyed with
myself for playing too fast. Sometimes I feel people waiting behind
me, even when they're not there. It's a flashback to when I was
really bad and I have to stop doing that in 2014.
#11 has one of the more difficult
greens on the back side. I struck my 7 iron very well and it rolled through the green to the collar. A difficult second shot with the
hole cut in the back and the green running back towards the front. I
couldn't quite keep it close enough to one-putt so that's a second bogey
on the back. Still better than the start to the front side!
#12 is the first of the holes where the
blue and white tee boxes are split. I headed to the blues where there
is a carry over a marsh to the fairway. My ball rolled off to the right and
just avoided the long fairway bunker. About 130 to the front and
another 5 on. I had a fluffy lie and would much rather be short
than long so I take my pitching wedge and left it short. A good
chip and my putt goes around the hole about 450 degrees before
dropping to the bottom.
#13 is a big dogleg left with more
marsh on the far side of the dogleg. The smart choice is to hit
something safe and straight near the 150 post, but I aimed way left and
totally cut the dogleg. I hear Claude say "Oh, he's aiming
wayyy left" and I made the best contact of the day with my
driver. The ball flew high over the trees and faded into the middle
of the fairway about 110 yards out. I pulled my gap wedge a little
left of the green (which is my standard miss on this hole). I grabbed my lob wedge and hit it high out of the soft grass. Claude says,
"Haven't I seen you on TV?" I enjoyed playing with these
guys and I needed this hole to make me feel good.
#14 has a strange design. There is OB and
houses on the right with the fairway running uphill and then slightly
downhill from 150 to 110 and then you're hitting your second
(hopefully) blindly over and down another hill to the green. This is
the one hole where I like having somebody in a cart so they can
quickly see if the green is clear. I hit a second solid drive in a
row and got the roll to the bottom of the first small valley. This
green runs severely from back to front and from right to left. I had
a 9i, but went down to PW and didn't swing hard enough. Short again
with a chip up and one putt for 3 pars in a row.
#15 is a straightforward par 3 and I
straightforwardly pulled my iron to the left and had to come back up
the hill. I didn't follow through and left my ball on the side of
the hill. Decent chip, but just missed the putt and wrote down a 5.
There were a bunch of large trees with Xs spray painted on them so you
can see that they'll be clearing room to the right and rear of the
green.
#16 is a straight par 4 with another
temporary (and muddy) green. Reasonably standard par.
#17 is a par 4 with a bunker in the
middle of the fairway about 30 yards from the green. The white tee
was 228 and the blue was 260. I didn't make a spectacular strike and
just got the ball to the right of the bunker. This is another
impossible green if you're not below the hole. My pitch stopped hole
high and 8 feet to the right. I couldn't quite curl it in for birdie
and we headed off to #18.
Our third hole with separate tees
left me 505 yards with another carry over more marsh grass. I got
it out there about 260 and catch up with the guys on the whites that
are 130 yards ahead and on the other side of the grass. I tried to
fade my 3 wood up the hill and it caught the bunker to the left of
the green. I had about 25 yards, slightly uphill to the hole, and made
a good bunker shot. I skimmed the birdie putt by the hole and made the return to
finish with three straight pars.
Back 9 (par 35): 39 (+4), 15 putts
Total (par 68): 84 (+16), 29 putts
I was happy with my putting and am
getting compliments on my stroke again. My ball
striking with the irons was also good, even though I left some of them a few yards
short. My driving was much better on the back. I felt myself being
a little freer. Like I mentioned on #10, I need to get my head to
turn off and relax a little more.
No comments:
Post a Comment