First round with new golf stats
Got on the course today for the first time since I thought up my new golf stats. (Had to play with the sound of thunder in the background to do it. Not smart!) I played the front 9 at Leo J. Martin in Weston/Newton. Here were the results:
| Hole | Yards | Par | Score | Tee | Approach | < 100 | Putts | 3-putt | <> Play | Recovery | Flubs |
| 1 | 325 | 4 | 5 | FW | Thin | 3 | 1/2 | ||||
| 2 | 510 | 5 | 6 | R | Right | 3 | 1/1 | 0/1 | |||
| 3 | 165 | 3 | 7 | Short | NA | 6 | 1/2 | 0/2 | 3 | ||
| 4 | 535 | 5 | 6 | R | Long | 3 | 1/2 | 0/1 | |||
| 5 | 150 | 3 | 4 | Flub | Green | 3 | 1/2 | 1/1 | 1 | ||
| 6 | 370 | 4 | 6 | FW | Thin | 4 | 1/2 | Yes | |||
| 7 | 335 | 4 | 5 | R | Green | 3 | 1/2 | Yes | 1/1 | ||
| 8 | 365 | 4 | 5 | FW | Green | 3 | 1/2 | Yes | |||
| 9 | 275 | 4 | 4 | R | Green | 2 | 1/1 | ||||
| Total | 36 | 48 | 7/9 | 30 | 9/16 | 3 | 0 | 2/6 | 4 |
Tee shots: Not bad. The only one where I really screwed myself with the tee shot was #5 – an 8-iron off the toe. I wasn’t getting much length today but at least I was keeping it in play.
Approach shots: Took a while to find the groove, but I had it going on the last three holes. (On #9 I hit the flagstick from about 125 yards.)
Shots from less than 100 yards: Other than #3, which was a disaster, my chipping/pitching was OK today.
Makeable putts: I missed a lot of opportunities here. None of the putts I missed were under three feet, but I could have saved a bunch of strokes if I’d made some mid-range putts.
Three-putts: Three three-putts in a row. That hurt, although they were all from a good distance away. I have to make sure I’m leaving myself no more than 2-3 feet after the first putt. (I just saw on TV that Anthony Kim has gone about 150 holes without a three-putt. That’s why he’s playing for money and I’m writing about him.)
Out of play: None today. Excellent!
Recovery shots: Four times I failed to get from the rough into the fairway or from a bunker onto the green. They didn’t all hurt, though.
Flubs: Hole #3 was a real problem. I was smart off the tee and played it intentionally short. (Put it over the green there and you’re likely to lose your ball.) But I pitched my second shot right into the bunker. I got out of the bunker in one stroke but left it short of the green, and then had a real chunk of less than a foot. (I was angry about the bunker shot and didn’t prepare properly.) Finally I got it onto the green and then two-putted for quadruple bogey. I also had a very poor tee shot on #5 but I recovered with a nice pitch and had a makeable par putt (but missed it).
Lessons from the new stats: Breaking 90 is going to be very hard. There’s really not much room for error, so if you are going to make mistakes you have to make up for them by sinking some long putts. I do think that keeping these stats today actually helped my game a bit. I was more conservative off the tee and thought a lot more about keeping it in play. I gave up 20-30 yards with the driver but it was worth it. (Of course, this course doesn’t have any really long par-4’s.)
Weather permitting, I’ll tee it up again Sunday morning. My goals: fewer flubs and no three-putts.
