I played golf this past Saturday. I play about once a year; well, I've played twice in the past two years. Before that, I think it was around 1990 since I had played.
I played with three of my co-workers at Hermann Golf Course. They had us do a "shotgun start" at 7:30 am, which means that everyone who wants to play golf that day all start at a different hole and all start at 7:30 am. We happened to get to start at hole #1, I think because we were a foursome and we made our reservation first.
I played horribly, at least compared to the last time I played. I got a 99 last year playing from the women's tees (I call them the "toddler tees" because when there were four places to tee off from, we always picked the one closest to the hole last year, which sometimes was closer than the women's tees!). This year, I shot a 128 from the men's tees. Pretty horrific.
I don't know why I shot so poorly. I shot very few solid tee shots, and most of the time they sliced to the right, although generally not too severely. My approach shots rarely went well. I still have a problem of getting height on the ball. My putting was OK, since I don't mind three-putting them, and I didn't often have more than three putts on a hole.
I won't say there aren't some factors that likely contributed to my poor score:
- We were rushed. The whole reason for the shotgun start was so that up to 18 groups could all play before a golf tournament started later in the day. Every once in a while, a man in a golf cart would come driving up to us and tell us that we were lagging behind and needed to pick up the pace a bit. I felt like I needed to rush through most of the course.
- We played from the men's tees. I'd be silly if I thought this wouldn't add to my stroke total. It certainly shouldn't have added 28 strokes, though. I think I always got my first stroke past the front tee.
- I broke my digital camera. This put me in a poor mood from hole #11 on.
Yes, I broke the camera. I loved our Nikon Coolpix 885. It allowed us to take pictures whenever we wanted and have them instantly available on our TV or computer - very useful with 20-month-old twins.
On hole #11, we were actually waiting on the group in front of us to clear the hole, so I figured I'd set up for a group shot. I couldn't find a good place to set the camera, so I tried setting it on the roof of the golf cart. One bump to the cart and it fell 6 feet onto the concrete. The battery case was cracked and the lens was scuffed. I thought it might be OK since the LCD was OK, it still had power, and the glass part of the lens was undamaged, but the lens housing was frozen. Since it could not retract, the camera refused to work.
I am hoping it can be fixed for $100 or so. Otherwise, we'll be out $300 for a replacement camera, and that's not money we really have lying around.