Breaking 80

First Published: November 17, 2016

So I’ve been playing for a little over 3 years now and I’ve probably played over 400 rounds of golf and hit over 200,000 balls on the range. I get that that’s extreme. My worst completely recorded round ever was 171 at Windermere golf club.

Recently I’ve been playing close to my 19.2 handicap having started at 18.0 and slowly found my level.

But something strange happened yesterday.

I’ll preface this by saying that I played at my local course which was all on winter greens, so the course was considerably shorter than usual.

Here’s what happened ..

Playing my usual 8.15 am tee time Tuesday moring 2/3/4 ball with 2 guys playing off 12 and 13

I hit 32 on the front 9 and 38 on the back 9 for a 70. My playing companions hit 86 and 85.

So I broke 80 🙂

Here’s the round: par, par, bogey, eagle, par, birdie, par, par, birdie for the front 9 and birdie, bogey, par, bogey, bogey, par, birdie, bogey, par on the back 9.

The shorter course obviously helped but so did chipping in from 20 yards 2 or 3 times and putting well.

The oddest thing is that 2 weeks ago, I could barely hack my way around in 100. I was playing rounds where the frown lines were still etched on my face a day later. I was even shanking my chips!

I did hit the shed a lot and I did practice chipping a bit, but I never expected a 70.

So now I have a new benchmark, and even rainy days look sunny.

Enjoy your golf my friends …