I did not plan on playing golf today. It was cold and we have had almost 2 inches of rain in the last 5 days. However, St. Louis City and County announced this afternoon that they were putting in similar measures that Governor Pritzker did in Illinois and others around the country have with “Shelter in Place.” This has shuttered golf courses across the Mississippi. In fact, a guy who I played with today was only there because Gateway National, his regular, was closed. I have a tee time I got on special from GolfNow for Monday, but I wasn’t sure St. Charles County wasn’t going to be the next domino and there would be no golf for the foreseeable future.* So, I grabbed the first Hot Deal tee time and one of the few left this afternoon at Eagle Springs.

For the first time playing this course, these were less than ideal conditions. It barely hovered over 40 degrees and there was a bit of wind. Add in the no windshields on the carts, and it was downright cold. The course was definitely wet and the greens were of varying speed. They were pretty quick downhill, but uphill was a crap-shoot. The fairways were extremely patchy. There was the dead grass and then tons of tufts of fresh green growth, and it was definitely wet. I thought they were easier to play on than Sugar Creek because you could at least take a divot. The greens were in good shape. They rolled pretty true barring some spots on some of the greens that had some scarring from possibly the effects of trying to kill weeds. They also are somewhat trampoline-like. They were soft but springy.

Ultimately, my round was bad because of me and not the course. It plays much longer than the 6500-yardage on the card because they do a great job with the doglegs and for every short par 4 there is a 500+ yard bendy par 5, including the 571-yard behemoth 2nd. There is a decent amount of elevation change and nearly every green seems like it requires an uphill shot into the green, a bunch significantly uphill. I struggled on the front to dial in distance between the cold and elevation change. The iron striking also could have been better.

My putting continues to be a travesty. I missed 6 or 7 putts inside of six feet including leaving multiple putts in the heart of the cup but short and a lip out. I also had two three-putts on the back. If I hadn’t chipped in twice and barely missed a couple more for easy tap-ins, things would have been even worse. One of my chip-ins was to save bogey to stop the bleeding on 12. The other, two holes later, was for a birdie after leaving a pitching wedge woefully short on the par 3 14th.

I am so fed up with my putting I bought a 33-inch milled blade putter– the Cleveland Huntington Beach No. 1— to try something different from my 35-inch Odyssey Two-Ball to see if that makes any difference. Unfortunately, it won’t get here until after my next round, but hopefully, I will have it on the course for what are supposed to be gorgeous days Wednesday and Thursday.

I only had two truly bad drives today. They both resulted in double bogeys. Both went left: the first was unlucky and winded up unplayable in an evergreen tree, the second was a snap hook the opposite direction of the dogleg. The other atrocious double bogey came on a par 3 where I didn’t close the face of the 6-iron and sent the ball flying down into a swale right and short of the green. A bad pitch off what was essentially a vertical uphill and sidehill lie and a bad putt back on to the green led to further disaster.

I once again had nearly half the holes that were entirely unremarkable and played basically textbook. My problem continues to be limiting the blow-up holes. Three double bogeys and two three-putt bogeys is completely unacceptable. If I missed every green and shot a 90 with all bogeys I would be less mad at myself. I would at least know I was playing consistently. This is entirely avoidable. On the par 3 I made double, I angrily threw down another ball after the disaster and hit a slight cut that hit pin high and rolled to 4 ft. from the pin. That’s a three-shot difference. If I miss three feet right or left on the drive that I had to take an unplayable, I wasn’t making any worse than bogey. After the snap hook, I hit my provisional perfectly online and made an easy par. Make the three-putts two-putts and that’s a total of 8 shots. That’s 84 to 76 if I don’t make easily avoidable mistakes and hit even decent shots like I continually prove I can. If courses were beating me, I would feel less down on myself, and there are definitely some bogeys on the card today where the course did beat me and I was fine with getting out of there with a bogey. But on these holes, I beat myself. I know this is why golf is hard for even the tour pros. You have to be close to perfect for 18 holes. It doesn’t make me feel any better though.

It’s probably hilarious to go back and read blogs from just a couple weeks ago after rounds of 76 at Incline Village and 78 at Links of Dardenne when I thought it was just a matter of time to complete this challenge and move on to scratch before summer even gets here. I was so cocky. I am now in a complete tailspin and into the dreaded spiral of buying clubs to try and improve what is clearly my fault. I now think there is serious doubt I get this done barring some breakthrough soon and then possibly some blind luck.

*By the time I got home from North St. Louis County, St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann had released a statement in which he says, ““I do not believe we are in a situation where government should be deciding which businesses must close and which may stay open.” As far as stopping a deadly disease, I think that’s exactly what a government should be doing, but that’s for another kind of blog. This means that for the foreseeable future, barring the almost inevitable increase in cases from just three in St. Charles County, golf courses will remain open. Golf courses are one of the few businesses that are naturally great for social distancing with just a few cart, pin, and rake precautions, so I don’t feel bad about playing for now in the shadow of Covid-19.