The Course

I feel like Rio was in better shape this year than last year. It was pretty wet, which helped us on the greens, but that also mean the fairways, tees a rough were thicker and longer. The greens are more marked up than Cascata, but that’s not surprising given they have caddies. That said, Rio gives everyone a divot tool in the cart, I use it (year round) so it’s disappointing people don’t use it. Whenever I could I tried to fix other marks while i was waiting for others to putt. The conditions allowed me to take some awesome full divots, which is always something fun to do.

My Round

Chris asked me before the round if I would be able to handle shoot anything but less than 79. That thought had crossed my mind but was easily ignored because Cascata is harder and ive only broken 80 once.

I just wanted to go out and appreciate the course and have fun. I also wanted to shoot well, no doubt. The round started well, with a crushed drive, great approach and par. We went to the second hole and i hit a great drive down the right 285. It was downhill slightly but my ball also was only a foot from its pitch mark so it was great distance. It also left me with a 7i into the green one 450y+ hole.

Knock down 9i over the ravine and a nice chip led to a par and a string of 3 putts put some bogies on the board. I didn’t tally my front 9 score until after 9. My driver was not as on today’s yesterday, but I was still getting distance and cent accuracy. What’s great about my driver confidence right now is that I can go all out. After a string of bogies I let some frustration out by making a good turn and letting loose. I’ve never had that confidence before. I tried to drive a 265y par 4, but ended up about 10 yards left but pin high. Would’ve been in the fairway. But it was awesome to swing all out. I took a big full shoulder turn, something I should probably do everytime but don’t. I was able to give a couple par 5s a go at it in 2.

I had some nice irons but also some bad ones. I really think my transition was weaker today, due mostly to being tired, playing yesterday and having an early tee time today. I hit some hooks and pulls and a couple push slices. My alignment wasn’t as good today and I didn’t trust it. But mostly I think I wasn’t completing my shoulder turn, and wasn’t moving aggressively enough during the downswing. I know I can work out that. I hit 11 greens today. Still really confident.

I went 34 holes in a row without a triple bogey and only had a handful of doubles. I managed to make par on 9 despite going a bit right and takin a penalty. i hit a 7i to 6 feet and rolled a confident putt. I thought there was no way I could break 80 again, since I felt like I had more bogeys today, but until 16 on the back, I actually had a good chance. The triple really hurt.

But still a great round, on a great course. I really enjoyed the last couple of days on the course. I’ve wanted to hit solid, consistent, accurate shots on the course, like I do on the range, and this weekend I did that, awesome.