Early Season Weirdness

I played my fifth round of 2024 yesterday.

One round in February. Three in the last week.

From the end of August to the end of October, I played 27 times.

The day job is likely to prevent me from playing nearly 15 times a month in 2024. This past week was an anomaly.

I knew the playing frequency would go down this year which has pressurized my rounds to date.

Plus, there’s the additional weight of my handicap bet with @stuck_n_a_bunk.

AJ is attempting to go from 4.7 to 2.0.

I need to drop from 18.8 to 11.7. I originally thought my 2023 ended at 18.7 when we made the bet. I started at 27.6.

We’ve set a November 15th deadline.

Naturally after shifting from playing mindless simulator rounds to more focused practice work over the winter, I was looking forward to my first round of 2024. That will be covered in more detail on Season Two of Carcosa Country Club. I still have to release the final two episodes of Season One.

Here’s a preview. The first round did not go well.

I arrived at the course wondering, what happens if things go really well? What’s my next step? While at the same time asking, what happens if I have a poor showing?

I chalked it up as a chance to knock the rust off, but then weird things kept happening in the subsequent rounds.

Round 2

My preferred warm up is putting green, chipping, and range. I like to set a 10 minute time on my phone for the putting green and chipping green.

I will take one ball which forces me to pay attention to each putt. If I have enough time, I like to start with a ladder drill and will go back to the start when I miss. If there is room, I will finish with very long putts in attempt to leave a makable second.

Our chipping area is very underwhelming both in terms of the green and grass around the green. I’m more focused on getting a few “feels” of the club through the grass than distance or ball flight. Sometimes, I will take one or two bunker swings.

The practice green and short game area are in two different parts of my home course. The golf cart drive from one to the other gives me a chance to reset mentally.

Then, I will go to the range. I will start with a longer swings with my 52 wedge then proceed to hit 3 or 4 balls with each club depending upon time and how many balls are in the bucket. I like to pick different visual targets moving from left to right but as of right now don’t concern myself with distance.

Should I be? Our range demands flight restricted balls and they are very protective of the grass. I am often hitting off the mats.

I will park near my range slot and carry two clubs back and forth. I believe this forces me to think about what I’m doing rather than go through the motions.

I have come a long way from needing my range session to go well to feel good about my round.

Having said that, I still am tempted to stop after the first driver swing if it was well struck. Or, take another driver swing if it was poor.

Two of my regular golf buddies are show up and play guys. They are also low single handicappers.

I associate confidence with knowing I did the work in advance. The preround range session is vital for having confidence heading into the round. I can control feeling limber and warmed up by showing up the course with enough time.

After spending a month in the simulator on a slight swing adjustment to get more shallow on the downswing since the first round of the year, I discovered the range was closed for Round 2 due to construction on a new short game area.

The lawnmower was also patrolling the practice putting green.

The construction near the range adjusted the opening hole from a par 4 to a par 3. I couldn’t use the normal cart path and had to drive five minutes around the driving range back into the first hole where there was a foursome waiting at the tee.

We had a brief interaction regarding tee times and tee box location. I turned around and drove back to the fairway.

My first swing of the second round of 2024 was a 100 yard pitching wedge.

On the second hole, I teed off. During my backswing, I was committed to easing into the round. On the downswing, I changed my mind. The ball looks like it goes backwards on video.

Oh, it was also windy all day.

A perfect storm to unleash a new swing.

Round 3

By now you know, I am a full warm up disciple. Outside of a few kids milling about the putting green with parents and grandparents.

No idea why so many chirruns were off from school at 11AM on Tuesday unless North Carolina gives a full week off for Easter.

Otherwise, the warm up was checking all the boxes for me.

I had a great range session. Maybe only miss hit one ball and I headed off for my 11:50 tee time.

Right into a log jam.

There was a single waiting to tee off and a two some on the green.

There was also golfer on the fairway. I later realized he was an attendant working on filling divots with sand.

I had a brief conversation with the single ahead of me regarding Cleveland and Pittsburgh sports. He joked, “Now, we definitely shouldn’t player together.”

Hole one opened with a bogey. A week prior I would have recorded it is a three putt but I was recently was informed that you don’t count non green putts as putts. Frustrating, but I put myself in a good position to score.

I’ve had an exponential increase in putts off the fairway/fringe this year. A combination of being fearful of skulling a chip but hopefully more so to improving approach shot accuracy.

The log jam turned into Chernobyl on hole 2.

One of the toddlers I noticed on the practice putting green was near the green with his mother. The Cleveland golfer was racing to play through.

Me, the 18.8 HC who has occasionally hit into where they were standing, had to wait for the toddler and mom.

I eventually hit my drive 254 yards just past the OB stick into a backyard.

When I reached hole 3, the Cleveland golfer was long gone and the mom and toddler duo were teeing off.

I waited and watched them. I waited and watched the single behind me on hole 2 catch up.

I’ve been hitting shots short and left into this par 3. A small part of me wanted to go as soon as I saw them reach their cart on the right path but I waited until they vanished from view.

Earlier today, I tweeted about my affinity for my home course, a semi private club. It couldn’t be a better situation for me. The fees and par 3 tee boxes align. I always use a tee on the par 3s.

Except this round.

I preceded to chunk my 8 iron 64 yards.

As I turned around to walk to my cart pondering a second tee shot, I saw the single pulling up.

Like most passionate hobbyists, golf folks have strong opinions over things that either don’t matter or shouldn’t be energy vampires.

A goal of mine is winning a flight in an amateur tournament. This means I need to play my best with others. So far, my best rounds have been recorded while playing by myself.

Playing with others isn’t a problem. But, when I book a tee time as a single, I get annoyed if I have to let someone join me, particularly if the group ahead should have let me through.

This older gentleman said, “Thank you. I won’t try to hold you up. I saw you on range.”

“You didn’t see the shot I just took,” I replied.

We got a long throughout the round and have texted a few times to share course schedule news. I hope to play with again soon to show a better side of my golf game.

When we got to hole 5, we realized we weren’t behind just one toddler. There was an army on the green.

Parents, two kids, and grandparents. In two carts. The kids and parents were playing. The grandparents were taking turns riding in the cart.

My new partner had enough and called the pro shop on tee box for hole 6. By that time, there were three groups on hole 5 and a solo walker was waiting behind us.

It took us 20 minutes to play that hole.

The ranger arrived when we reached the green, but the family must have sensed the blue lights were coming. The grandparents had taken the kids home and the parents stayed on to play.

On the next hole, a par 5, I would once again fall victim to not knowing how to manage waiting as a green cleared. I recorded a triple.

Overall, the round was significant improvement score was from the first and second rounds of the year but I didn’t feel like there had been a shining moment to celebrate.

Round 4

Compared to the first three rounds, I got to the turn feeling hopeful.

Strong warm up.

No wind.

Course to myself.

I did notice that I was about 10 minutes slower than my normal solo pace.

In the fall, I regularly found myself ball hunting 170 yards left of the tee box on hole 10. On this day, I was overcome by the possibility of a birdie following a 200 yard drive into the fairway and 174 yard 7 iron that landed on the back fringe.

I combined my general lack of trust in my fringe putting with a downslope and promptly talked myself into, “at least I’ll have a par.” That resulted in a triple.

Hole thirteen has given me fits since I moved up to my proper tee box. I don’t know how to play a 515 yard par 5 with a 90 degree dogleg left guarded by trees and an out of bounds bog.

The previous round I gave my 3 iron a chance. I had been hitting it 230 in the simulator in February. It went 80 yards. I switched back to my Play It Again Sports Nickent 2 hybrid to great results.

A 216 yard tee shot cut the corner slightly and ended up in the fairway. I tried the 2 hybrid again producing and accidental stinger that traveled 184 yards into the left rough leaving about 72 yards.

For some reason, I opted for my 57 degree wedge, another Play It Again Sports purchase, which I hadn’t used outside since purchasing a Tour Edge 52 and 60 wedge from Dicks in October.

I chunked it 24 yards and finished up with another triple.

There was still a chance making an improvement on the score card compared to the prior round. But, as I was wallowing in misery following a three putt double on a par 5, the clouds opened up dumping heavy, cold rain.

A triple followed on a par 3.

A fat chip and two putt led to a bogey on 18.

The score card said one stroke better than round 3.

Round 5

This was my third round in four days.

I arrived 8 minutes before my tee time thanks to over sleeping. I did briefly use my TheraGun on the 15 minute ride to the club which I hadn’t done at all on previous rounds.

I hadn’t given used it the previous two rounds of the week. Maybe, this would help.

Due to rain the day before, the range was closed, but that hadn’t been made public yet. Maybe it was for the best that I didn’t have to fight through being annoyed with the proshop for not updating their website prior to a 9:20AM tee time.

However, there was another mental and potentially physical hurdle to overcome.

The wet course meant cart path only. Something I had discovered on site. Given that I had overslept, I hadn’t eaten anything other than a glass of milk and a scoop of peanut butter.

I feared that my erratic ball flight would not only had time to my round, but that extended walking would further tax an empty stomach.

I opted not to purchase any snacks from the proshop and instead hoped my water and Celsius drink could at least get me through the front.

The course was soaked. Three fairway bunker shots were a problem, but maybe the wet greens held up some approach shots for me.

My head was spinning following a four hole stretch of 10 over to finish the front.

Do I go with fitted clubs to upgrade my bag that consists of 20+ year old irons, Play It Again Sports fill ins, and a used Taylor Made Spider mallet putter?

Should that money be directed towards coaching? There are good results every round, maybe consistent coaching can bring more out of my sticks faster than fitted modern clubs.

At the same time, I didn’t warm up. What can I really learn from this round?

Do I have enough information to make a decision?

That has been the most frustrating part of 2024. I put in a lot more intentional time into my game November-February, but outside forces keep exerting their will on my opening rounds.

Rained out ranges.

Little kids on the course.

Downpours late in the round.

Unexpected cart path only directives.

2024 is one fourth of the way complete.

There are only seven months left to reach my goal and win the bet.

What happened on the back 9 of my round yesterday?

Only fuel for the confusion fire.

High handicappers are bad because of inconsistency. Something new is always going wrong.

How on earth was I this good for this long after being a disgrace on the front?