I had it. I had the challenge done today. I was even stepping onto the 18th tee.

It’s a par 5 that with a good shot off the tee you have a shot at the green. I ripped a drive over the top of the hill and left myself with about 200 yards to the front. I was nervous about fatting or toeing one into the pond. I debated going 5-iron because it is downhill to the hole, but that brought the water more into play on a shaky strike and there was a slight wind into and off the left. Ultimately, after standing over the shot way too long trying to shake the nerves I absolutely crushed a 4-iron right on the sweet spot. I pulled it a little which is the bailout. It hit about pin high left in the “fairway”, but I couldn’t see how far it bounced and rolled up the hill in the rough.

Turns out it rolled all the way up the hill and dropped into a depression right up against a lip with bushes where I would stand and right in my line (pictured above). The lip made it impossible to take any kind of normal swing. I ended up hacking it out kind of sideways and then chipping it onto the downslope. It rolled out to about 15 feet below the hole. The only way to get it closer would have been to land it at the edge of the rough and trickle it down. However, after the bad luck I already had, I didn’t want to risk not even giving myself a putt for par.

The putt was a right-to-left breaker. It was about a cup outside on the right. I hit a good putt that was tracking the whole way. At the last second, it dove and stopped on the lip.

Heartbreaking.

The funny thing is I shouldn’t have even been in that position. On the last two of the three par 3’s on the front I hit weak leaky irons which caused two of my three bogeys on the front. If I don’t have those in my head, I think I definitely hit 5-iron and take out even the chance of those bushes coming into play.

My only other bogey came on the 9th. I bogey that one every time because it requires a well placed shortish tee shot that doesn’t run through the 90-degree dogleg left or miss in the lateral on the left or in the trees on the right. Then you have to account for a severely uphill shot into a blind green where you are dead if you miss right and it falls away that way. I always screw up one of those. Today, I leaked a 5-wood and 5-iron (lie-induced) a little right and pulled my par putt after a good pitch to the back pin.

I knew today was going to be a good day when I actually birdied the first. My wedges were great today. I think I have them figured out. The rest of the front nine was pretty routine. I couldn’t knock down another birdie, but I was playing pretty well.

On the back, I flipped the switch. I one-putted the first four holes of the back. I made a great par save on the 10th after a tree impeded my swing on my second shot. Seeing that ball roll in just started the ball rolling. I hit a dart of a 60-degree for a tap in on 11 for birdie. On 12, I made another good par save. On 13, I made up for an unlucky bounce on a beautiful 5-iron cut around a tree and a subpar chip. I rolled in the 12-footer to move to 2-under on the back and even for the day. I probably should have birdied 17 with the pin being backstopped on the lower tier. However, in a bit of foreshadowing for the 18th I took 50-degree instead of 54-degree and ended up above the hole on the top shelf. A good lag though gave me the opportunity to make something happen on 18.

Aside from the putter getting hot, the best surprise of the day was the driver is back. I was striping the ball. Conditions were fast yet again, but I was ripping it. I knew things were going to be good when the first drive of the day was a 300 yarder that was perfectly placed. I hit 6 drives at least 300 yards in the fairway. The drive of the day was the arrow-straight ball on 14 that rolled out to 335 yards. My swing was way better than Monday. I hit 61 percent of fairways which is just OK. However, even when I missed I kept it in play. I did tweak the weights in my driver from the heavy in the front (low spin, workable, fade-biased) to heavy in the back (higher spin, forgiving, draw-biased). I was slightly worried about sacrificing distance, but that certainly wasn’t the case today and I was much more controlled. It was probably a combination of swing work and the weight change.

It is slightly frustrating I didn’t finish the job today. I played about as well as I can play today and all the elements were there. My iron striking was generally good. I hit about the right number of greens. I kept the driver on the planet. My putter got hot. However, a bad bounce from a “too well hit” 4-iron still kept me from glory. The positives are all those things went right. If I can keep doing that I have to think eventually I’ll get the good bounce to shoot below par, right? Right?!

Anyways back at it tomorrow at Incline Village. Just like Golf Club of Wentzville, the last time I played this course I shot a 1-over 72. Hopefully, this is the one.

Side Note: Back-to-Back 72’s at Golf Club of Wentzville has me wanting to play that course every day until I actually get it done, but it’s almost double the cost of what I can get on GolfNow.