The Golf Gods are a funny bunch. Golf is inherently a game that won’t let you get too high or too low.

You can be having the round of your life and a stray tree branch that is poking just a little too far over in front of the tee box will snatch your ball out of the air and spoil your day.

Conversely, you can have a miserable day just hacking it around the course, cursing yourself up and down after every shot. But then you’ll get up on the tee at 18 and hit the drive of your life that you can’t believe came off your driver and not Tiger’s. That one shining moment makes you come back the next day so you can try and do it again.

Today was a lot like that today at Belk Park Golf Club across the river in Illinois. I like to come into a round with a swing goal when things aren’t going great which my last two rounds definitely haven’t from a ball-striking perspective.

I decided I was going to focus on squaring the club at impact. I think I was generally successful with that. However, because I have an out-to-in swing (closer to neutral when I’m dialed in), there were some problems getting that sorted out.

I didn’t put an entire hole together until the 12th.

Part of this was the swing. Part of this was Belk Park plays differently than any other course I play. I knew going in the greens are usually the fastest in the area, at least for public courses. What I figured was they would be soft because we were cart path only because all the courses are water-logged from continuous rain, snow, and freezing and thawing. However, the greens on the front were rock hard. It took me nearly the entire front 9 to stop bouncing balls off the green or on the wrong part of the large greens.

Even when I did hit the green there were problems. I hit the best shot of the round on the long 432-yard dog-legged, par four, second. I hit a poor drive that got lucky off a branch and fell in the fairway about 190 yards from the green. I was playing through a two-some so I quickly grabbed a four-iron and hit a perfect low cut four iron up the hill that bounded on to the front of the green. It was probably the best shot I’ve hit in a month. However, it was a back pin placement on a green all the way uphill. This would have been a tough two-putt regardless, but the first hole tricked me into thinking they were faster than they were because that putt was straight downhill. Three-putt bogey after an amazing shot in is the most infuriating thing in golf.

The rest of the nine went about the same. I had three lip outs for pars and wasn’t doing anything particularly well. The back started the same way on 10 and 11. I hit good shots to get in scoring position and just couldn’t get down for par. On 10, I hit a shot similar to 2 with a 6 iron held on line against the wind to the fringe, but didn’t put it particularly close and missed a makeable but tough 12 ft. breaker.

Starting on 12, the tide completely turned.

I birdied or parred the next six holes. The biggest key was my 54-degree Vokey was finally working its magic. I was short pitching and chipping to three feet. On 12, 13, and 14, I had tap-ins for par. On 15, I got my first and only birdie of the round by hitting it down the hill and then starting back up the hill to the green just right of the cart path, which isn’t a bad line. I hit a brilliant 54 degree 70 yards straight uphill and actually got it to stop. I then hit a 20 footer right in the heart. 16 and 17 were played much the same way with me finally putting together complete holes. I was on in regulation for both and made good putts. My 3 iron continues to be a sneaky great club off the tee on long par 3’s. On 17, I was right into the wind with a 2-club wind adding to the 175 yards with some uphill and was able to knock it in near-perfect position for an easy par.

The golf gods brought me back to earth on 18. It’s currently all torn up for what looks like either drains or irrigation, so they put a temporary tee out there at 130 yards. This was perfect position to somehow shoot even par on the back after a terrible front. Unfortunately, I pulled my PW and a little help from that strong wind helped hold it up and drop it in the nastiest plugged, downhill lie I’ve ever seen in the bunker. I made a great shot with my 60-degree just to get it on the green in position, but regrettably, I missed the putt and the miracle back-nine surge was halted.

All-in-all, shooting 82 from the tips on a course that is designed like it is, with one of the more thought out bunker placements to actually make you think off the tee and into the green, is not bad. With how I scored on the front, it is downright amazing. With how cold it was especially early and a difficult wind day, consistently in the double digits, I can’t complain much.

MVP: 54-degree. I love that little wedge and it was working today. I usually flight it low and rely on spin to stop because I can dig it into most greens especially now in winter conditions. I realized a little late that I needed to give it more air on these greens, but once I did it was magical. My putting was good once I got the pace and stopped over-reading break, but it didn’t have to be with the magic it was spinning out there. Honorable mention: My ball-striking. I didn’t fat a single ball today, which has been a problem with these irons since I got them. Focusing on squaring the clubface made my strike much better especially with my irons.

LVP: Driver. Another brutal day with the big stick. It was short and all over the place all day. If my scrambling, putting, and pitch game wasn’t better today, I could have been staring at a 90. The good news is that my misses were never dead. At a course with more punishing areas when you miss the fairway badly like Links at Dardenne or Bear Creek, today could have been a lot worse. I didn’t get much help from the fairways that seemed to hold all the water the greens miraculously didn’t, and they obviously were a little longer because they couldn’t cut them. Take away my rollout when I’m not striping the driver and courses that are only 6800+ from the tips play long.

The good news is Sunday is supposed to be even better weather, and I got an even cheaper deal on GolfNow at Belk Park. Let’s get after it.

ScoreCard from Tim Kaiser on Belk Park Golf Course (Belk Park) – 18Birdies https://18birdies.com/s/AEx9DBfu2NI