My Round

I had a chance to play RiverPines after work for my first match in the Atlanta Golf League. This is the second time I’ve played RiverPines and this 83 is the best round I’ve ever posted. The course is still in excellent shale. I felt completely in control of this round the entire time. I was focused, I hit great shots with the irons, driver, rolled some putts and recovered well. I wanted to go out and hit the same shots I’ve hit on the range, but actually do it on the course for a change. I did.

There are a lot of positives to this round and a many holes where something fairly significant happened. I had a few main swing thoughts, take the club back inside not outside, then at the top bump the hip left keeping my head still and feet planted and just let it go. I hit some very pure irons, mostly straight flight with a slight draw, but a couple fades too. Contact was excellent. Same with the driver. I was hitting a fade today and went within. I know I’m not closing the face and releasing properly and also coming out to in a bit. Ryan, my playing partner, also noticed i was taking the club back outside a bit as well. By the end of the round I had a nice ball size dark mark in the center of my driver. I hit almost 80% of the fairways.

My chipping and putting wasn’t strong. Too many 3 putts and too many short chip. I could’ve easily shot a 77-79 if I simply made a couple better strokes. But my irons and my driver were saving me.

But the mental game was critical. I applied a suggestion from Chris – take the course 3 holes at a time and have a goal for those 3. For 1-3, we set a +3 goal and I went +1. And then forgot about it and moved on to the next 3. That’s easy to do when you’re playing well, but critical when not. And it really worked well. The mental approach helped me to make a pretty great up and down. Gat drive ended in the trap by the lip. 98 out so I tried a SW which hit the lip. I stayed calm, looked at my options and knew I had to go over a bunker and get the ball to stop close to save par. I ignored the bunker and approached the shot with confidence. My SW flew over the bunker, hit and stopped within 8 feet and I rolled the par.

Standing on 17 with water right, I had complete confidence to let it go. A little draw ended up right in the middle of the fairway with 165 to clear the creek and get home in two. I hit 6i with 182 to the pin, a little short, chipped up, and rolled in the birdie. I almost played that hole as perfectly as I could have.

This was definitely one of my best rounds and I need to take the positives with me going forward.

Scorecard

Other photos