I thought today might be the day. I was even through the first 8 holes, but finished 5-over thanks to 6 bogeys in the last 11 holes. My wedges just weren’t as good as yesterday, and my putting didn’t pick up the slack at all.

The putting was incredibly frustrating basically all day. The greens were extremely slow, like the slowest I have ever seen. Golf Club of Incline Village was still holding the rain from this weekend, and it apparently kept them from being able to mow. The grass on many of the tee boxes was almost reaching up to my ball fully teed-up. The greens, which were fast even in the dead of winter, were so slow you had to mash the ball even on downhill putts. Anything outside of 20 feet, I had a hard time trusting such a huge stroke. On uphill putts, forget about it. You have no shot of getting it tight. They also had the pool noodles much higher than other courses to the point you could see it in the cup from over 6 feet out. It also wasn’t cut straight, so it was playing tricks on my eyes when trying to assess the break.

I can’t blame my putting and wedge woes all on the green conditions though. I also just wasn’t making good swings and strokes. I pulled and pushed multiple putts I should have made inside of 10 feet. I may have spoke too soon about these new edges being magic. Incline Village calls for more pitches and three-quarter wedges into greens. I haven’t developed the feel with these yet. I wasn’t even close to the hole on way too many wedges.

The epitome of this problem showed itself on 12 and 17. On both, I bombed drives. On 12, I had about 70 yards uphill to a tiny green. I pulled my 54-degree long and left and couldn’t get up and down because my chip just died on a downslope that is normally impossible to stop on. On 17, I bombed a drive over the tree that blocks a lot of the fairway. It didn’t draw, but I missed right, which is the good miss and only had 30 yards in. I left a 60-degree from the deep, wet rough short, made a decent chip, but pulled the 5-footer just over the left lip. That’s two holes where I bogeyed with a wedge in my hand from a lot less than 100 yards. That’s just totally inexcusable.

The stats might lead you to believe my putting is better than it has been. I haven’t made a birdie this week yet though. I hit less than half the greens which is part of the problem, but I missed so many makeable birdie putts and par saves on the back today I wanted to pull my hair out.

The fact today was so frustrating and I was only 5-over shows how far my game has come in just a few months. The drenched courses are apparently throwing me off enough to keep me from doing this. Or my game is just not there yet.

Hopefully, my wedges and putter show out better tomorrow because St. Peters is a beatable course if you execute.