I didn’t play that well and still shot my course handicap. That is the difference between putting well and not.

I had my best day putting in over a month. It led to four birdies, which made up for my disastrous day from the tee. Two were tap-in birdies (one on the 4th because I nearly dunked a 60-degree from 60 yards), but I was all over the hole all day. On 18, I was on in 2, but had to putt all the way across the green (at least 60 feet) and over a ridge and still nearly made the eagle putt. My best putt of the day that actually went in was undoubtedly the 20 footer down the hill to make birdie on 7. At least keeping the ball in play is important off the tee (my double on 10 is proof of that), but if I putt well I can rack up some birdies and make up for some poor driving.

And boy, did I have a bad day driving the golf ball. I was push slicing it. I was hooking the hell out of it. Thankfully, I saved my two good drives for two par 5’s that I was able to make birdie on. On 7, I hit my one nicely shaped draw. On 18, I actually crushed one arrow straight, but I was so scared of hooking it and not being able to take a shot at the green I barely caught the right edge of the fairway and didn’t get much roll so it “only” went 285 yards.

However, that didn’t matter because of my new weapons. On Tuesday after the golf shops reopened, I went to Golf Discount STL in O’Fallon and bought a “new” used Cobra F9 3-wood and 5-wood. They both have perfectly weighted (70g and 75g respectively) stiff aftermarket shafts. The 3-wood is the tour version with a smaller head and weight in the front to take down spin and promote a fade. I was a little worried about getting the tour version, but I convinced myself it was a good idea because it might be easier to hit out of tricky lies with the smaller head and is potentially longer. After a range session yesterday and playing with it today, it might be my new favorite club. From the deck, it went about 250 yards with rollout. I hit it off the tee on 17 and smoked it nearly 280 yards right down the middle — by far the farthest I have ever hit a 3-wood. It completely eliminates the left-hand miss which along with crazy distance control problems, my old 3-wood had trouble with. It not only brings long par 5’s into play in 2 if they don’t have a forced carry in front of the green, but it also gives me another weapon off the tee if I have another driving day like today.

My 5-wood had arguably the shot of the day. After that drive on 18, I still had about 240 yards to the flag. It’s the standard model, so it promotes the higher launch you want from a 5-wood to get it to stop. With my old clubs, I would have had to take 3-wood and hoped it stopped. With the new Cobra 5-wood today, I knew I could get there and was slightly worried I would bounce off. No need to worry because that thing stopped 3 FEET from my ball mark. 3 feet after a 235-yard draw (the uphill, ball-above-feet lie created the draw not my swing). That is a weapon.

I struggled with face control today, especially with the driver. The golf swing is so infuriating because there are so many parts and if any one part is off the result can be disastrous. After I birdied the 7th, on all my full shots for the next five holes I failed to properly close the face and pushed, blocked, or push sliced every shot. I was 6-over in that section (4 bogeys and a double) around the turn and 1-under on the other 13 holes.

That’s my biggest problem. I go through stretches where I just am completely lost. Then, I get hot and birdie two of the last four holes. It is infuriating.

On the plus side, I have found my fairway woods for the next couple years and my work with the PuttOUT is obviously working. The 3-wood is so good with the weight forward I am thinking about moving the weights in my F9 driver. But, I have been hitting it so well I am afraid to mess with it and just want to make sure I am getting the face shut and putting a good swing on it instead (at least for now).

I’ll get a chance to redeem myself with the driver tomorrow at St. Peters.