The difference between good and great in golf is such a slim margin and at the same time it can seem insurmountable. Your mentality thoughout a round can drastically change the score on the card. A few mistakes here and there, physical or mental, can be the difference between your best round ever and just another round. And so it was for me today at The Links at Dardenne.

I had the best driving day of the year and arguably of my life. This has surprisingly carried over from this weekend at Incline Village and Acorns. I was striping it right down the middle and back up to my distances from last summer of consistently 260-270 and running it up past 280 a few times on a surprisingly wet track. I only missed two fairways and one was a slight push that missed by less than a yard.

The problem is I still had one pull hook that cost me a double-bogey on the rather easy 14th. This hole just always gives me problems because it is my least favorite kind of hole– a near 90-degree dogleg left. My natural shot shape is a fade (although I have been nearly arrow-straight recently) and you have to either take the corner over some tall trees, hit a draw, or try to take a line close to the trees. I usually try the third option because I don’t usually hit my driver that high and funky things can happen when trying to cut the corner with my swing. I was all in my head yet again, and as a result, I pulled one left into the high grass with my worst swing of the day, didn’t hit my fourth close enough, and missed a 20-foot breaker over a ridge.

The rest of my round was up-and-down as a result of playing more aggressively to pins than I normally do. I was just hitting the driver so well I felt like I couldn’t waste it by hitting to the middle of greens. On the plus side, I nearly pitched in with my 54-degree twice and made three birdies. On the downside, I didn’t have as many easy two-putts as I would have liked and left myself short-sided more than I can remember. As a result, I only had one up-and-down for a par save and had one three-putt.

On the front, I missed five greens while attacking tucked pins and missed an amazing shot by a yard or less each time. However, the shots back all were running away and I struggled to hit good chips and putts and bogeyed four of the five.

On the back, along with the double-bogey, I had the three-putt bogey on 16 after I ran my long birdie putt off the green by being too aggressive, a badly pulled 8-iron that I got back in position with a miraculous 60-degree flop over the cart path with no green to work with but missed the putt on 11, and an atrocious job on the short 12th.

The 12th is the perfect illustration of where I feel my mental game needs work outside of the dreaded dogleg left off the tee. I hit a brilliant drive to where I was only 55 yards from the front edge of the green with the flag in the front on the sloping towards the fairway green. I knew I wanted to be below the hole for a birdie putt up the hill, so of course, I hit the 54-degree pitch short of the green. Now reeling from messing up a great drive and a must par and probable birdie, I ran the ball past the hole and left myself a 10-ft slider coming back down the hill.

Playing aggressive on courses like Links at Dardenne is fun. I rarely make 3 birdies in a round. However, with how I was playing today, maybe I break par or shoot just a couple over if I’m a little less aggressive, smack it on the green, and walk off with my two-putt. Or, I do that and leave myself a couple testers anyway and shoot around the same score and don’t have holes like the first where I almost roll in an eagle from 75 yards.

It’s the dilemma of this “project.” Is my recipe to shoot par making three birdies or more with some bogeys? Or is it to par everything and get up-and-down a bunch like I did at Incline Village where I parred the last 12 holes?

I already have a tee time for tomorrow at St. Peters (Thank you, GolfNow Hot Deals), so I’ll have an opportunity to get right back after it and try to build on what was ultimately a good round– three shots under my handicap– even if it felt like unfulfilled potential.

Hit it hard.

ScoreCard from Tim Kaiser on The Links At Dardenne (Links At Dardenne) – 18Birdies https://18birdies.com/s/AKfNXw5_ivE