That’s more like it. After a disastrous round yesterday, today was much better. My ball striking was still not perfect like usual, but it was light years ahead of yesterday, especially with the driver. That led to a round with much more chances to score even if I didn’t capitalize as much as I would ultimately like.

I decided to try out the Srixon Q-Star today because they had some sleeves for sale in the Pro Shop. I knew I wasn’t going to play the soft balls I had been playing like the Chrome Supersoft because those give you limited spin. The course was finally dry, so I knew I needed more spin and this was a good opportunity to test out a value ball with “Spin Skin.” It’s a two-piece ball that claims to be soft, so I should have known I was in trouble. I’ll have a full review later today and will link it here. It definitely felt good and not as soft as the almost squishy balls I mentioned before. However, you could tell it was taking the spin off and the cover was not enough to put it back on. I like to flight low generally into greens and nothing was holding. My pitches that I normally am great with were acting like fliers even from the tight lies of the fairway.

When I switched to a Pro V1 after snap hooking my drive trying to find a gap while playing through a group all over the fairway, I immediately stuck a pitching wedge pin high 5 ft. from the pin with no rollout to save par. I hit a pitch into the 18th green over a bunker that would have never stopped with the Q-Star. Also, I hit nothing but bombs of 280, 295, and 300 with the Pro V1. Soft might feel good everywhere and spin less off the driver, but the harder tour balls with high-quality urethane covers just do everything better if you swing harder than an arthritic senior citizen.

I was 3-over on both sides which is about average for me on that course. I’m not convinced I make the three bogeys on the front with the Pro V. On the back I made a series of terrible swings on the par 5 10th and had to get up and down for double. My bogey on 17 was a classic double fat of my 9-iron off the tee and 54-degree pitch from the “fairway” in front of the green. The latter of which was just a stupid mistake of not getting the weight on my front foot and making sure to get it on the green to give it a chance going up the hill.

The biggest disappointment of the day was how I played the Par 5’s. I normally dominate them at Links at Dardenne. They aren’t that long and are all birdie-able and definitely must-par holes. The previously mentioned 10th was the biggest disaster. I was 60 yards out with an easy pitch on the 5th but flew the pin and rolled it up the hill into the rough. A poor effort of a tricky chip led to 4-strokes inside of 60 yards and a bogey. On 15, I was only 215 yards out for my second and hit a little pully 5-wood that landed pin high but in the tall grass. A poor pitch out of a tough lie made me settle for par. On 18, I played it beautifully with another bomb of a drive, a safe 3-iron to the front of the green, and a good pitch over the bunker to the back tier. But, my downhill 6 ft. birdie putt entered the right lip high side and rolled around the back of the cup and fell out on the left for the brutal 180-degree lip out.

I really just need to clean up a few snap hooks where I come steep over the top off the tee and some slightly mishit irons and wedges and it was close to a perfect round. I love this putter, and it is performing beautifully with longer lag putts and inside of 6 ft. where I need to be dropping everything.

I am definitely only playing balls tour balls for the foreseeable future. I had planned on trying out a bunch of different balls, and I didn’t really see any difference when the balls and course were cold and wet. Now with things warming and firming up, the differences are showing more in the extreme. Golf is already hard. Why give up spin and distance?

I am going for the perfect week of golf — 5 days in a row. I have a tee time at Crescent Farms to try out that course on Thursday and an attempted redemption of Going Low at Bear Creek on Friday. Hopefully, I can finish the week more like today than yesterday.