First Round of the 20XI Campaign

On the morning of May 1st, Dad asked Henry and me if we wanted to go golfing that afternoon. Of course, we said yes.

Last year, I had a membership at Springbrook in Leeds, but this year, I lobbied for Natanis. Its two courses, Arrowhead and Tomahawk, are more challenging than Springbrook's 18 holes, and the state championship tournament is held every year at Natanis. We arrived at Natanis, purchased my membership and 20 rounds for Henry/Dad, then headed out to the practice green, where we warmed up for 20 minutes.

Dad left Henry and me on the first hole of Arrowhead, and we got down to business. On the par-5 first, I took my Nike SQ Machspeed driver and hit a low draw 240 yards down the middle of the fairway. From there, I smacked my 3-wood 200 yards, leaving me 85 yards to the flag. Hitting my 56-degree wedge ten yards short of the hole left me to three-putt for bogey.

I double-bogeyed the next hole. On the par-4 third, I smacked another perfect drive 230 yards down the middle of the fairway, leaving me a nine iron to the green, which I put 15 feet from the hole. I then two-putted for my first par of the year. Next came a par on the short par-5 fourth, then a double bogey on the par-3 fifth.

Teeing off short on the downhill par-4 sixth, I hit a bad tee shot with my hybrid and was left with 50 yards from the rough to the green. I then knocked the wedge shot onto the green and two-putted for par.

I finished the front nine bogey, double, par for a 44. We moved to the back nine, with a 165- yard, uphill par 3 on Ten. I pushed my tee shot to the right of the green, pitched up and two-putted for bogey. On the next hole, I hit my drive into the left rough, 150 yards from the green, where I hit the next shot fat and ended up with 50 yards left. From there, I hit my 60-degree wedge to ten feet, and it went 360 degrees around the cup and dropped for par.

After that I went par, bogey, bogey,bogey. On the long, uphill, par-4 16th, I hit a decent drive down the middle of the fairway and a 3-wood, leaving me 20 yards to the hole with my ball in the rough and my feet in the sand. I managed to hit a beautiful low spinner to two feet, which I knocked in for par.

Then my Dad showed up (I never play well with my dad watching), and I went bogey, bogey to finish with a 41 on the back for an 85 on 18 holes.

Not bad for my first round in six months. ( Good grief! It was that long!)

Luke