Golf0clock

I want to thank the Meadow Hills Golf Course of Aurora, CO, for hosting our round yesterday – Labor Day 2023. Top-line results summary of the round:

• Shot an 89 (70.7 /132 / ~6500 yards), I’m a 12.5 handicapper.
• Openning hole triple, 2nd hole par 3 double, not a great start.
• Also closed out the front with a triple.
• Back nine was a fairly benign bogey 9.
• All in all it felt great to be out there, I tried to course manage more than usual but my striking consistency just didn’t help the cause.

In a previous post I flagged an Emergency9 of self-prescribed advice and tips for me to go low and break the ever elusive 80.

Here’s that Emergency9er list with my comments from the round:

1. Walk up to every green thinking I can shave 1 less putt per green – I did a decent job of this, my putting was better – 38 putts
2. Walk up to every tee imagining I can distance manage off the tee by not pussy-footing and not aping – I didn’t do great here. I was in my head a lot standing over the ball. I did do a decent enough job of standing behind the ball, picking a target, taking a couple swings to loosen up. But then over the ball I was over thinking the back swing and contact on the face of the driver. I did club down successfully on a couple dogleg tee shots though.
3. Walk up to every missed green thinking head down chipping – I really only flubbed one chip which is an excellent result. And two chips almost went in, within inches – that’s what she said 😉
4. Walk up to every fairway iron shot thinking be short not long – This is tough for me, mentally I’m not comfortable being short. Call it Napoleon’s complex on approch. Luckily though maybe this advice played out well for me on the course – I had a couple deep look putts but I only went over on one green.
5. Pull the pin like an adult male – Thank god our 4th, a rando named Ed, was completely aligned to pulling the pin. I must be a complete psycho-path (obvs) because just meeting Ed and aligning on pulling the pin was just such a relief.
6. Order and eat a brat at the turn – Did it. Ate while paying. Relish, yellow mustard and onions everywhere. Errwhere. Vaporized and inhaled the brat while paying. I mean, who does that!?
7. Tone down the drinking, especially the Transfusions – 0.0 Transfusions. And that was hard. How’d I do it? I brought a 6er of Spiked Snow Melt craft hard seltzers from Upslope made with Skratch Labs hydration drink mix. I got buzzed for sure, hangover was almost non-existent. Went to the 10a Orange Theory to boot. Drinking one now actually, Peach Lemonade flavor.
8. Breathe. Take time on the tee – Did this. Might have worked against me in that I over-thought almost every tee shot.
9. Embrace Fit Golfer Girl stretches before round – check. Gonna do more of this more often.

Maybe I need a mission slogan to help me break 80. Breaking 80 is too straight-forward and our friends at ForePlay podcast (Barstool Golf) have a series in which Trent Ryan is attempting to break 90, called “Breaking 90“. So, for me, I like either “Grabbin’ at 79” or “Blow through 80”. Open to other suggestions as well.

Meadow Hills Golf Course: A former country club, Meadow Hills’ signature tree lined fairways, large lakes and lush grounds define traditional golf at its best. It was also an early tour stop and hosted the Denver Open in 1961. The tight fairways and small greens demand respect and accuracy from golfers. Some of Colorado’s best views are seen here. Extremely popular and considered one of the best values in the metro area, Meadow Hill always provides an excellent round of traditional golf.

City of Aurora