I had to get the terrible taste of Sunday at Sugar Creek out of my mouth, so after a few days of rain, I was back on the course today at Bear Creek on an absolutely gorgeous day. What a difference a few days can make.

I played much better as I was back to shooting under my handicap. I drove the ball brilliantly all day. Even my push cut ones stayed on the course and generally in the fairway. I only missed two fairways all day. One was a pull that might have faded back on if it had not caught a tree and dropped straight down. The other was a bad toey push that thankfully held its line and only missed the fairway by a couple yards.

When I get off the tee without much drama, I generally score well. That was definitely true on the front where I hit five greens and only bogeyed the three hardest holes on that side.

On the back, things got a little shaky. I remained good off the tee, but I started pulling off the ball a bit with my irons and woods and my strike suffered. I think I was just trying to hit the ball too hard for some reason. I topped my 3-wood into the water on 11 going for the green in two and made bogey. After a tough 3-putt bogey on the huge green on 12, I made a double on 13. I duffed a 7-iron because I knew it wasn’t enough club uphill, so I tried to kill it rather than walk back to the cart. My subsequent full 54-degree was pushed slightly. I for some reason decided to make the chip running away from me and ran it over the lip. I then ran my putt back up the hill across the opposite lip of the hole. Another topped 3-wood and a drawn instead of faded 5-wood led to bogeys on 15 and 18, respectively.

The good news on the back was minimal, but the driver was the star on 16 and 17. 16 is a 240-yard par 3 from the tips and with the fairways being so soft I didn’t think I could get the bounce and roll my 3-wood would need to get to the pin towards the back of the green. To also take out the water on the left, I hit a soft driver and ran it along the edge of the green to pin high and deftly two-putted for par from the fringe. On 17, I muscled up for the 280+-yard carry downhill over the pond. I didn’t strike it perfectly but it still wound up pin-high just left of the green in the fairway. I didn’t get the chip to the hole which was disappointing and missed yet another birdie putt just over the edge of the hole.

My putting wasn’t bad today. I made some genuinely difficult two-putts and par savers. It didn’t feel all that great though because I continue to burn up hole edges. I think it is a green reading problem. Generally, I’m not missing these moderately distanced putts because of my start line and the pace is generally good. If I was perfect with my pace, maybe some of the lip outs and those just below or above the cup would fall. However, I think I am struggling with the variable green speed as I move on from Winter golf. In the winter on a lot of these courses, you just have to hit it at the hole and make sure you get it there, and the break won’t knock you offline unless it is crazy. The greens are getting back to their peak faster than you would think for how wet a winter we had. Despite the fairways being waterlogged on most of the course, the greens were pretty quick and the ball marks were actually hard to find they dug in so little. I think this will just be a feel thing. I don’t think this is usually a weakness of mine.

Unfortunately, we are supposed to get a ton of rain next week, and it is even supposed to snow this Saturday. Hard to work on something that just takes reps in real life situations when courses will be closed. I do have one more tee time for Friday at Belk Park, though it will be a cold one, before I put up the clubs for a bit because of Mother Nature (and possibly the Coronavirus).

ScoreCard from Tim Kaiser on Bear Creek Golf Club (Bear Creek) – 18Birdies https://18birdies.com/s/AKn6jhBf2GM