Redgate - I've Played Too Much Basketball In My Life Not to Know How to Lay Up...

“Success depends almost entirely on how effectively you learn to manage the game's two ultimate adversaries: the course and yourself.”

-Jack Nicklaus

There's no shame in punting right?  Well maybe in Football.  In golf, technically the course is always on the defensive and you're on offense.  Maybe I've played too much football and am way too competitive to give up on par.  I feel like the course wins every time I get a bogey or worse.  Not to mention what your playing partners must think, especially if you're the only one laying up.  But I'll put it to you this way.  What will your playing partners think if you take a 9 on a Par 5 versus the worst you could have done if you laid up was a 6?  And that's my story of the day. 

Date: Monday 6/9/2014
Location: Redgate Golf Course, Rockville, MD
Score: 91
Excuses: Swing Change, no warm-up, way too aggressive, poor course management 
Course Conditions: Fair.  Greens were in good condition, but rolled slower than I ever remember at this course.  Fairways were in decent shape, but cart path only :(.  The rough was not very penal but the tall grass and water definitely were.  The tee boxes were not in the greatest shape, a couple of the tee boxes (#16 especially) were in awful shape and they had a temporary mat for the golfers to hit off of. 
        The Good: Drove the ball well, only missed 3 fairways 
        The Bad: 35 Putts, +5 on the Par 3's (that's with two pars!)
        The Ugly: Eight over on Par 5's and finishing the round with three consecutive double bogeys 

Yup, +8 on Par 5's, and I did manage to par one of them (#14).  I will spare you the gory details of all 8 strokes over par.  But all had the same exact theme.  I hit the fairway in decent position.  Managed to screw up the second shot by being too aggressive, and in my lust for birdie (or eagle), I manage to screw up the third shot and not leave myself an opportunity to save par.  In two of the cases (#4 and #16) I put my beloved golf balls into the hazards.  In both cases, if I would have used a shorter club to lay up to the 100 yard mark, I probably would have done no worse than par.  Instead...  You get the idea, all 8 of them.

Bill Belichek does play the percentages when going for it on 4th down.  I really ought to do the same.  If the shot requires a level of precision that I don't have, I have no business going for it.  It bears repeating from my previous post:

“Ask yourself how many shots you would have saved if you never lost your temper, never got down on yourself, always developed a strategy before you hit, and always played within your own capabilities.”
-Jack Nicklaus

Aside from the terrible round (by my standards) my group started with three, then on the 4th tee box we increased to four.  Then on the 5th tee box my group increased to 5.  Even with a group of five for 75% of the round, we still managed to finish in less than 4 hours.

Until the next time, back to the RANGE, PRACTICE GREEN, and the GYM!

Next stop: The Links at Gettysburg