A day that will live in infamy… The follow up round to my best round ever played. The follow up to my 5 under, 65 at The Golf Club at Echo Falls. Previous to this, I had only made it out for a quick 9 hole round and shot a two under, 34 at this layout that fits me so well. Today was the day that I was going to see if I could chase down glory once again and finish two consecutive 18 hole rounds under par. The day started off well enough, with a brilliant par on the par 4 first, and a second on the par 4 second. I moved to the par 4 third, and the round began to get interesting. I hit driver to clear the 260 yard carry distance to the green for the first time and actually nailed it. It landed just to the right of the green for an easy chip on and one putt – birdie. I was striking the ball well and rolling at one under par after three holes. The par 5 fourth played equally well for me as my drive found the left center of the fairway, but I missed the easy approach short right in the bunker. I will call it like it was, a brilliant lob wedge from the bunker settled about 4 feet from the cup and I one putted for my second birdie. I was rolling.
After moving to two under through four, I ran together a string of pars that lasted for a good 8 holes. A 166 yard 7 iron into the par 3 fifth was the first. That was followed by a driver, 7 iron, lob wedge play into the par 5 sixth. On the long, par 3 seventh, I slightly misjudged the distance and came up at the front edge of the green. A great first putt left me an easy tap in for par and allowed me to quickly move on to the par 4 eighth. I decided to go driver on eight as well, differing from my normal 17° hybrid choice on this hole. The course was very wet, the weather was sloppy and the extra carry that the driver would give me was going to be a great help on it. A great drive found the left center of the fairway and a wind-deterred 60° wedge found the front of the green, but left me a long 85 foot putt for birdie. A solid first putt left me about 3 feet for par and I moved along to the ninth. On the 9th hole, the weather began to get interesting again. The clouds became a bit darker, the wind picked up a bit more and there was a bit of frozen rain or sleet falling from the sky. Nothing major, just something to watch out for going forward. On the ninth, a good driver, no I’ll say it, a great drive was followed up by a not so great lob wedge. My 36 foot putt was terrible, but I made up for it by draining the 8 foot comeback (somehow) and still managed to walk away with a par. Probably the best and worst shots of the round on one hole – the drive and the first putt. As I left the 9th green, I noticed that the sleet was starting to stay on the green there, but it was still not really coming down, so off to the tenth I went at 2 under par.
The 10th played interesting to say the least. Normally, a perfect 56° wedge for me, the 10th is one of the easiest holes on the course. That was not the case on this day. Between the wind coming straight back at me and the sleet falling from the sky, the 10th played about as hard as it possibly could. Still, a good wedge found the green and a two putt par from 30 feet was good enough to move along. The dreaded 11th was up next. The weather let up at this point, the winds died down and the sleet stopped falling. It looked like a good time to race through the final holes and see how low I could go. Then, I came up on the threesome in front of me, and they were playing SLOW. I hit driver off the 11th tee, finding the left center of the fairway. A solid 56° wedge found the green about 20 feet from the flag. I missed the first putt by inches before tapping one back in for another par. The 12th played pretty similarly, but with the drive going to the right side of the fairway, then a gorgeous 6 iron towards the green. A horrible 60° wedge pitch to the green left me 90 feet down the hill through the collar of the green to get to the pin placement. It’s amazing how much difference 10 feet can make on a shot. Had the wedge carried that extra 3-4 yards, it would have caught the downhill and rolled to the hole. Instead, I had nearly 100 feet to cover and some mid-level grass on the correct line. I hit the shot and found myself with about 2 feet left for par. Another hole, another par. A great round so far, but then something happened.
As I teed off on the par 3 thirteenth, things got crazy. I hit my nice 7 iron into the green, but the wind suddenly picked up and knocked the ball short right, leaving about 25 yards to the green. Then, after another rough 60° lob wedge pitch, I missed the 30 foot putt for par and made my first bogey of the round. Still, I was clinging to a 1 under par round in some pretty tough playing conditions. From there, it was a short drive over to the next par 3 and that is where this story really starts getting interesting. I love the design of the 14th hole. It’s a short, challenging par 3 with trouble short and right, OB left and back and a green that can really mess with your mind if you hit the wrong spot. That said, it’s not a hard hole and is usually just a wedge or 9 iron from the middle tees. Today, well, today the hole had an all new defense that I had never seen before. I’m going to include a few photos of this hole as I couldn’t believe what happened on it. I hit my standard pitching wedge into the green with the front pin placement. It landed me a bit longer than I thought, but as I returned to the cart, I noticed that it was getting a bit ugly in the weather department.
The play by play follows…
I lifted the club cover off my bag only to notice that the sleet was starting to pile up on there and it was coming down at a pretty good clip. I popped my wedge back in the bag and hopped in the cart to get up to the green to check out the results of my shot.
When I arrived at the putting surface, there was definitely a tinge of white to be seen. It almost looked a bit like a frozen lake, or maybe just a chemical covered green that you shouldn’t walk on, but as I got closer, you could see that it was nothing to worry about. Keep in mind, that 2 minutes earlier this thing was totally normal looking. That was not the case anymore.
Fortunately, the green wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t putt out, so I reared back with my putter and tried to get enough on the putt to make it the 30 feet through the sleet pellets, but I muscled up so much that this ball was going places and those places were far away. That was until the sleet built up on the ball and slowed it down perfectly to where it bounced off the back of the hole and fell in the cup for a birdie. Ooops, but I’ll take it. Off to 15!
As I pulled away from 14 to move to the par 5 fifteenth, I looked back at the green that was now completely white. It was looking less like a green and more like a skating rink. Still, I only had four holes to go and I was two under, the show must go on. As I pulled up to 15, the reality hit…
The cart path on 15 was completely covered in a snow/ice mix. The grass was quickly becoming enveloped in the same mixture and the threesome in front of me was not moving fast enough to even give me a shot of finishing this round with the weather doing what it was doing. I was stuck. This is when I took 10 minutes to shoot my “Welcome To Back In The Fairway” YouTube video while I waited for them to get moving.
By the time they had moved along, the tee box looked like this and I had switched up to some old Nike One Gold balls that I had in my bag as I didn’t want to lose a good one in this stuff. It was a good thing I did. I hit a stellar 5 iron off the tee to the left center of the left turn on the hole. It was perfect and it was solid. I got back to the cart, tossed the 5 in my bag and got ready to go find that ball.
And then this reality hit. The snow was falling so quick that the entire hole was covered except for the tall grass. The path was so slick and icy that the cart was spinning it’s tires when I pressed the gas pedal. It was not a good hole to be on at this point in time. I managed to get unstuck from the tee box and rolled out slowly down the path. As I got to the corner, right before the big downhill on the hole, I had thoughts of going out to play my ball. Those ideas were quickly squashed when the cart didn’t stop when I pressed the brake. It continued sliding for about 15 feet before it stopped completely. From there, I decided that some lucky fan from Echo Falls could keep my Nike ball and I was going to try and get this cart down the hill, slowly, hopefully. As I maneuvered the cart, forwards, backwards and sideways down the hill, getting stuck here and there but not tipping over or getting completely stuck, I realized that I may have to abandon this thing and walk in.
I managed to finally get off the hills of 15 and navigate 16 (which, for the record, that little hill you need to climb to get to that tee box isn’t so little in the ice and snow) and get over to 17 where I knew there was a cut off to the parking lot. I was able to get across the fairway to the parking lot and back to the safety of the van.
So, as I left the course, I realized that I was pretty lucky to get a solid 9 holes in before my Winter Membership expired. I was also pretty lucky to have a GREAT 9 holes on a day where I didn’t expect to play. I also had one of the most fun times on the course ever with the snow falling and just watching it while I pondered if I was going to be able to finish my round. There’s no final score to post today, but there will always be the great story of the heroing journey down the 15th in the cart where I had no control of where I was going or how I was going to get there. Of course, if you want to see the weather in action, make sure to check out my “Welcome To Back In The Fairway” YouTube video right away.
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