Crossing the Mississippi to play golf for the first time since Coronavirus was just a new flu wasn’t as strange as I thought it was going to be. The last time I played golf at Belk Park was March 13. Pritzker shut down Illinois shortly after that. Golf Courses just now reopened as we played golf the whole time in Missouri.

You could tell the course wasn’t really maintained during the break. Everything was shaggy. It was kind of cool that the rough was nearly U.S. Open length and thickness, but the fairways and greens were the slowest I have played since deep in the winter. It didn’t help that we have had a lot of rain since they probably could get back out there and work, but it was strange for a course with some of the faster greens in the area to make you have to mash the ball to get it to the hole.

As for the experience of going to a post-quarantine course, it ran more normally than I thought. They even had carts. The pro shop just had a guy coming out back and taking in cards to run them, but I was surprised it wasn’t just walking. Don’t think you are supposed to have carts that aren’t owned by the golfer based on Pritzker’s order I saw because they say walking only on GolfNow, but Missouri has been using carts the whole time besides St. Peters Golf Club, which has to worry about a lawsuit against the city itself because it’s a muni.

As for my play, it was kind of a mixed bag. I definitely scored well for how I played thanks to another good putting day. My driver continued to be a wild card, but I was Tiger-esque scrambling on the front to shoot a 1-over. My irons were particularly good, as I hit five greens.

On the back, things got a little away from me as I bogeyed 5 straight holes. However, I finished with three pars to save the round well.

I switched up my driver after the last round to try to take away the big hook. It worked a little. I still had a few terrible swings that caused hooks and pulls. However, when I put a good swing on it, I liked the ball flight of the driver cranked down to 9 degrees with the weight in the front. My best drive of the day was a 285-yard arrow on 18 that I didn’t even try to step on.

With how wet and how long the fairway grass and rough was today I didn’t get an accurate portrayal of how this driver will perform because it should in theory just be launching knuckle balls that roll for days.

I think I’m going to go to the range tomorrow and try to get some more swings with this new rig and dial in my swing.

On some place like Golf Club of Wentzville, I could see hitting some monsters that roll out past 330 on flat ground on their really close cut, baked-out fairways.

Next week’s forecast is filled with storm clouds, so I’m going to play Monday and Tuesday even though it will be barely 60 degrees.