Only 6 more strokes

Joel, Dave, and myself went golfing at Peace Portal Golf Course http://www.peaceportalgolf.com/index.php on Sunday.  For once I was having good luck off the tee box.  Joel was ahead of me by 2 strokes when we arrived at #5, a 450 yard par 4 and the hardest ranked hole on the course.  To clear the valley in front of the tee-off box, your drive needs to carry about 200 yards.  My drive made it over.  My second shot was a beautiful 4-iron that took me to the corner of the dog-leg right.  I was about 160 yards from the green.  For my third shot, I used a 6 iron and rolled it right up onto the green within ten feet of the cup.  Joel was in trouble and would eventually card an 8 on this hole.  This was my chance to pull ahead and par the most difficult hole on the course.  I read the putt as uphill and breaking left.  That must have been an optical illusion.  My putt went right of the cup by about 6 feet and rolled about 8 feet past the hole.  I think it was the worst par attempt this hole has ever seen.  Now I had a long slippery put on the way back.  I thought to myself that although it looked like a significant downslope, it must be less of a downslope than it appears based on my experience with my first putt.  So I gave it a good whack.  Unfortunately, I sent it flyhing past the hole right back to where I started.  I guess the slope wasn’t an illusion after all.  My third putt was almost perfect, but it stopped about half an inch short of the cup.  I was absolutely disgusted as I tapped in my 4th putt.  Why would anyone want to play such a frustrating game anyway?

The answer to this question came on the 503 yard par 5 13th hole.  I smashed a 250+ yard drive straight down the middle.  It caught a downslope perfectly to add an extra 20 yards or so to the drive.  Joel was hitting his 5th shot (and would go on to record stick-men on this hole) before I even hit my second.  I ended up with a 7 due to a horrible chip, but I didn’t care.  There’s no feeling like hearing the ping of a perfectly hit drive and watching it sail a quarter of a kilometre straight down the fairway.  It was also nice to beat Joel by 3 strokes.  I shot a 105 (56 on the front and 49 on the back) and Joel shot a 108.  I think Dave was somewhere around 150.  We lost track of him a few times in the woods.

Now I know that it is possible for me to break 100 on a par 72 course.  All I need to do is string together 2 rounds like my back nine.  That is easier said than done though.

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