Playing A Round: The Most Superb Front Nine I’ve Ever Played

I managed to sneak off to The Golf Club At Echo Falls today, despite the windy and rainy conditions that we’ve had for the past – oh, 2 months – to sneak in a quick nine holes. It was pretty dodgy all day long as even as I went to the clubhouse, the weather radar was showing heavy rains in the areas around me. Still, it wasn’t raining, or at least raining hard, so off I went in search of getting in a walk more than anything. My plan was to actually play the front tees with irons only today – a theory that was stopped by the mushy yellow tee boxes on the first hole. Instead, I still hit irons off the tees trying to get some accurate numbers for my GolfPad GPS settings. I can honestly say, the numbers are starting to come in and they are starting to look really good.



Back to the first tee, and a blazing 3 iron off the tee. It landed a square 185 into the uphill par 4 and basically plugged in the fairway. My 100 yard sand wedge landed short of the pin for a two putt par. The greens were rolling smooth and were not hard to read today, so that helped on the distance putts like the first. The uphill, par 4, second was next up. Another great 195 yard 3 iron found the fairway leaving me a very short wedge into the green. A somewhat sloppy lob wedge left me 50 feet to the flag. Another 2 putt par had me moving on to the third hole. I managed to block out my 3 iron on the 3rd hole, but hit it so badly that I managed to hit into the area across the water. A light pitching wedge landed about 20 feet from the flag for another 2 putt par.



The excitement level picked up on the par 5 fourth hole. A gorgeous, 249 yard, three iron drew perfectly down the fairway and landed in a somewhat dry patch. A cut swing 7 iron faded into the green and landed about 20 feet from the flag. A quick two putt snagged my first birdie of the day. The par 3 fifth has been the bane of my existence at Echo Falls so far, being a hole that the first time I hit to the wrong green and the second time I missed far enough right to think I did again, but today was different. I took an 8 iron to cover the 170 yard shot, since it was a little downhill. I started the ball a touch right of the green, over the trap and drew it back in to the center of the green. With the pin on the back edge, the ball landed about 10 feet past the flagstick and stopped hard. The straight in putt was an easy one for my second birdie.



The second par 5 on the front side was up next. The sixth hole plays very short if you can make your drive reach the hill, so I had to play a full driver off the tee box. What followed was possibly the best drive I’ve ever hit with my Wilson FG Tour F5 driver. A beeline shot that had a slight fade to it, just like I wanted it to go in my head. It settled 305 yards down the fairway in a dry patch of the hill. A 185 yard downhill 8 iron found the back of the green leaving me about 15 feet for eagle. Unfortunately, I left that eagle putt short by about 10 inches. Still an easy tap in birdie to take me to three under was more than fine with me.



I’m giving the seventh hole it’s own photo here. Measuring 159 yards today, I blasted a nine iron off to the right of the green hoping to draw it back in. As I watched the ball flight, I knew it was going to be a good shot – just how good, I had no idea. What happened next was scary… It looked good from the tee box, but I figured it would be short of the pin, but I didn’t know how short. When I arrived at the green, I looked at the pin to see my ball embedded in the green, about 1/4” short of the hole. It was about as close to a hole in one as you can get without actually making it in the cup. After I repaired my ball mark, and the cup, I tapped in for a birdie to make it four straight.

From there, I pulled out a 4 iron for the tee shot on 8 again. I’m not sure why I keep hitting a 4 iron here, but I do, and it seems to work out well for me. The 186 yard shot left me about 140 to the middle of the green. A quick 9 iron our of the wet fairway left me about 20 feet. I was able to get down in two from there and secure yet another par for my round, keeping me at 4 under par. From there, the 9th hole played very easy in the wet weather. A 211 yard 3 iron found the center of the fairway before a 152 yard 8 iron found the back edge of the green. Another 2 putt par gave me my round of the year – even if it was just for 9 holes. A four under par 32 with 16 putts is about the best possible round I could ever hope for. Now, how can I top that?