A Bit Hit & Miss.........Revisited

I played in the competition yesterday. It was a stroke play event. Top 64 qualified for the club match play. A net score of 72-74, maybe even 75 would be good enough to qualify - usually.
It was a round of some ok shots, some good shots and some great shots, as well as, unfortunately, some bad ones.

There were pars, bogies, double bogies, 2 triple bogies and one awful 4 0ver. I had a 7 on the par 4 5th. I put my drive out of bounds and didn't do too good with my second. I took my punishment and was happy enough to get out with the 7. I managed to pull my self back into contention with a couple of pars and a run of 4 bogies. I had my second 7 on the par 4 14th. I hit a decent drive to the left of the fairway. I was about 155 metres out. I hit in a 5-iron but left the face open slightly and the ball shot out left into the trees to the right front side of the green. When I got up to the ball I wasn't too happy to see the ball in a drain. I took my penalty drop and landed it on the font of the green fourth shot. I was thinking that if I could manage to two put and get out with a 6 it wouldn't be too bad. I putted it to within 5 feet of the hole. To my absolute dismay I missed the 5 footer. Another 7 - GREAT.

What really finished me off was the following hole, the par 4 15th. I was pretty angry with myself for missing the 5 footer on the previous hole. The ball felt every bit of it. I drove it straight down the middle - a long way down the middle. I was about 145 metres out. I took out my 5-iron again. I'd been hitting it very well - except for my second shot on the 14th.
I seized up the green, decided which line I wanted to send it down. I shanked it. I nearly took the head off the guy teeing off on the 14th tee box. I was left behind a bunch of tall trees. Way too tall to get a lob wedge over them. I took out my 4-iron and decided on a punch shot. There is a concrete bin beside the 14th tee. I caught it so square that the ball nearly hit me on the way back. From there I lost it - ended up taking an 8 and definitely ruining my card.
I had a par and 2 bogies on the last three holes - just to rub in the fact that if I'd managed to only have two or three shots less on the 14th & 15th I'd probably have qualified.

Ah well, live and learn. I finished with a lovely 97 - a net 77. Come Thursday I'll be playing off 21, so I'll have one more shot to play with. I'm really going to try and get more practice in, as well as a lesson over the next week or so. Have to improve my consistency with my chipping. I know I can chip and lob well. But I mess up about 3 or 4 out of every 10. Have to improve that. I'm happy enough with my driving and my iron play but a bit of practice wouldn't hurt. Putting has improved something over the last couple of weeks. Very happy with that.

I'm away next weekend so I'm going to try and get out a couple of times during the week.

Later.