Round No. 2 - Dwan

Played my second round last Saturday at course in Bloomington called Dwan.

Only played 9 holes and shot 47.

I was hoping to play bogey golf, which, since par is 34, would have meant a score of 42.

Here are some of the other stats I recorded:

Fairways hit: 6 (includes greens hit on par 3's)
Puts: 17

Although it might make sense for good golfers to keep track of putts, I feel is a somewhat dubious stat for hackers.

For example on one par 3 I had zero putts.

It took me 4 strokes to make it to the fringe and I ended up putting it in from there.

Even though I used my putter I wasn't on the green so in my book it wasn't a putt.

I made a trip to the driving range on Wednesday to test a new strategy.

After playing my first round from the right rough, I was determined to play this round from the fairway.

To this end I wanted to find out how far I could hit my 3-iron straight (I've given up on the driver for the time being).

Turned out to be about 175 yards.

I figured two consecutive 175 yard 3-irons would get me 350 yards at which point I'd be hitting a short iron to the green. Which should give me a pretty good chance to play bogey golf.

Unfortunately, golf being golf, there were holes where I needed four shots to cover the last 20 yards to the cup.

I really enjoyed playing from the fairway, though.

It was nice to walk off the tee with my ball sitting right there in plain sight. Instead of searching for my ball I was able to take a pleasant walk and enjoy the scenary.

The whole course seemed different.

Golf can be a relaxing sport when you avoid the rough.

An added bonus was that I played the entire round with the same ball.

I can't remember the last time I've managed 9 holes without losing at least a couple of balls.

If I could have chipped the ball onto the green once I got within about 50-60 yards I would have had a decent round.

Maybe, instead of breaking 80 by improving my swing, I should change my focus to breaking 80 by playing from the fairway and enjoying golf.

This was also the first chance I had to use my new "long putter".

It worked out pretty well. I'll write more about that later.

Next week, Theodor Wirth.