Golf is crazy because you can play basically the same two rounds in a row and shoot two drastically different scores. I had another great ball-striking day but shot 9 strokes better than my last outing at Links at Dardenne. The difference came down to where I missed and the more forgiving nature of St. Peters Golf Club. At Links at Dardenne, the difference between a great shot and a catastrophe can be a few feet around the greens and a bad tee shot can have you scrambling just to save double. At St. Peters, a missed green doesn’t hurt and you can knock it around the park and get away with it.

I was nearly perfect off the tee today. However, St. Peters was still holding a ton of water from the more than 2 inches of rain we got three days ago. As a result, I got nearly no roll out and plugged a few shots in the fairway. Add into that a strong 15-20 mph sustained wind and I didn’t bully this course like I can sometimes.

I handled the wind fairly well because it happened to be pretty much straight into your face or at your back. The only two holes with a true cross wind were my only two without a par.

On the par 3 5th, I had one of my few bad strikes, and it started going right. With the wind moving right the ball ended up nearly dead across the cart path, requiring a pitch over a hill and under a low hanging branch to a short-sided downslope landing area. I had to chip twice and left with a double.

On the No. 1 handicap par 4 13th, I put a good swing on my shot into the green, but I couldn’t hold it up enough against the wind and, disappointingly, couldn’t get up and down from pin high right of the green.

Aside from those holes, it was a routine day in which I hit 10 greens (good), putted pretty well, and made the most pars (16) I have ever made. The wind preventing me from getting tight with high-flighted shots and over-reading some putts did cost me some birdies. I had two pitches and a chip on the par 5’s and couldn’t get up and down for birdie on any of them.

I am definitely playing St. Peters more though. It was in rough shape the last time I played it seven weeks ago. The grass is still not all the way back to where it was at its peak, but you can actually get a decent lie in the fairway, so it’s a drastic improvement. I assume they were still working on the course when it was closed for a month for the Coronavirus, but even if they didn’t the time off at least gave the turf some time to grow in significantly.

St. Peters should really consider going to only walking permanently. Not only will it help the turf which has been a constant problem for years, the course just runs better because people aren’t driving all over the place and jamming up play. It’s an easy walk, and on days like today, it was just a beautiful stroll. It won’t happen though because they need to pay off their shiny new clubhouse they have already jacked up prices for and let the course itself decline. They will be right back to jamming the course over the reasonable capacity as soon as the city knows they can’t be sued or get a bad headline if someone catches the ‘Rona on their property.

I’ll be back at it tomorrow at Golf Club of Wentzville. I might have a little trouble with storms late in the round, but we will see.

Side Note: My stimulus money finally came, so I restocked on Pro V1x’s and ordered some Snell golf balls to test out. When the golf shops reopen next week, I think I am going to be looking to get a few “new” used golf clubs, as well. I had my eye on a 50-degree Vokey wedge that matches my spin-milled 54-degree wedge I carry and manipulate along with my 46-degree MX-23 pitching wedge to fill the gap a 50 would fill. I also had my eye on Cobra F9 fairway woods that had the properly weighted and stiff Aldila shafts. If they are all still there, I might have to pick them up and experiment with the best configuration of 14 clubs for me as my game continues to sharpen.