death by a 1000 putts, the sequel
January 26th, 2009 by Doogs
11th green at the Growling Frog, looking back to the Clubhouse
Played in a comp on Monday at the Growling Frog with members Dave, Ange and Pino. Sensational weather with little wind and warm but not hot. On the first tee, sent an overfaded drive into the rough, which is dry and rarely provides a decent lie, then pulled the wedge approach. Landed a great lob and sank the putt for par. Off to a good start, however the putter was about to let me down severely. Unlucky with a poached egg bunker lie on 2nd, then putted terribly on 3,4,6,7,8 and 9. Drove greenside bunker on 7th, bogey, green in reg on 8th, bogey. Managed 17pts for front nine, but could have been so much more. The driver and longer irons were firing, but within 100 metres was again the problem.
Into the backnine, and again the putter was shocking, finding too many fairway bunkers also didnt help. Finished with 14 pts for 31 stableford in total. Missed too many makeable putts, misread long putts, and lost confidence mentally. Didnt count the putts but it would have been way too many. For some reason I struggle with the pace and undulations on the Growling Frogs greens, at Victoria a few weeks ago, everything got close. Maybe its time to blame the tools and revert back to the old putter, a more traditional offset design compared to the current mallet!
