Broke 90!
This past Sunday I ventured back over to the west side of Oahu to play the Hawaii Country Club (HCC). A little known island course in Kunia, HCC makes you think of the movie Tin Cup. Placed in the middle of Delmont Pineapple fields the course length is 5911 yards long from the men’s tees with a course rating of 67.3 and a slope rating of 119 and par of 72. The difficulty in this course comes with the twists and turns of stuffing 18 holes in between a few fields of fruit. There are a lot of greens guarded by trees and quite a few dog legs left and right.
The first time I played the course was earlier this month and I was close to getting under 90 golfing a pair of 45’s. The last 3 times I’ve been out playing I shot a 90, 90, 94 and now this past weekend I shot an 88. A pair of 44’s. The front nine was two pars 5 bogeys and one double bogey. The back nine saw 4 pars but had a horrible triple and double bogey. Those holes really hurt my score but after the double bogey I really focused on keeping my score at par. It payed off and I made it under with one to spare.
On my way to becoming a scratch golfer I have learned that you need to play the day with game you came with. You could be having a horrible day and still manage to play bogey golf. You need to play each shot thinking about making par. If you duff the drive but it rolls 150 yards off the tee, don’ think, “there goes the hole.” Rather, you should be thinking, “OK, I hit it straight, now I have a 5 iron in that should get me near the green. To make bogey golf you don’t need to put the ball on the green every single time. First work on hitting it straight and near the green. Now you’re only a chip or pitch off the green. Now you need to focus on getting it within a two-putt. That’s generally within 20 feet of the hole, think of how much room 20 feet is.
With the next putt work on getting it close. Once you get it close you’ll have one putt left and still make bogey. Once you stop trying to make it on the green in two you’ll begin to swing smoother and hit more consistent shots. Play to the bogey and you’ll see your scores coming down.
Good luck,
Erik