I felt the need to document my play from this past weekend’s Greater Hartford Disc Golf Open due to just how miserable my performance was out there. With luck, being forced to fully review my rounds will help determine just what has gone awry in my game and prevent such a catastrophe from happening again in the future.
Wickham Park is a tough course when it wants to be. It’s not an easy course by any stretch, but it can certainly not be unthinkable to come out close to course par (58) if you’re playing intelligently and some of the top guys can routinely finish a round around 54 or better. In the first round I threw an abysmal 66. First hole of the day (Hole 2, for those that know the course), I duff my drive low into the ground where it grabs an edge and skitters Out-of-Bounds. I take my upshot, leave myself 20′ from the pin, and proceed to miss the putt to wind up with a 5. Next hole no real drama, but don’t take the 3 I wanted and card a 4 instead. I miss 15′ birdie putts on holes 4 and 5. I par 6 and 7, and my head is in a good place so far still for the round. Sure, I’ve already missed 3 putts inside 20 feet during the first 4 holes, but being +3 isn’t the end of the world and this can still be a decent round. I then take a 5 on hole 8 after a less-than-stellar drive lands on the edge of the treeline and I have trouble making a respectable upshot (and after approaching again, miss yet another 20-footer). Par out hole 9, then go OB on 10 into the boccee court. Hole 11 card a 5 after taking another OB penalty going over the wall on the right side of the hole. 3 on 12, 4 on 13 after my upshot doesn’t clear the last guardian trees on the edge of the pocket and I miss my putt, 3 on 14 as well. Hole 15 I putt low into the basket to try for deuce (third missed deuce attempt from inside 20′ this round). Hole 16, late wood just outside the pocket means I take a 3. Hole 17, 4th missed deuce putt from inside 20′ as I putt low yet again. Hole 18 my drive somehow doesn’t make it up onto the second plateau, and trying to muscle a TL with an uphill runup into a headwind I stand the disc up and go into the road for another OB penalty: miss the comeback putt due to the bushes between me and the basket, despite making a valiant run at it – another 5. Hole 1, miraculously no drama and the round is finally over.
I never got into my own head all round, at least as far as my spirits were concerned. I kept telling myself that every shot was a new shot, and I truly believed myself. But it was one of those rounds where anything that was going to go wrong, did go wrong. I rarely take an OB penalty at Wickham, especially knowing the course as well as I do when you know exactly how a disc would need to be thrown from almost any spot on the course in order to find it, and I took 4 that round. My rounds are usually pretty good at damage control (mostly), and I had five 5’s on the card – the OB’s certainly didn’t help that fact though. Four missed birdies all within 20′, and other missed putts from inside the same range for 3 or worse. I’m not a great putter, but that was abysmal stats even for my usual track record.
Round 2 was nothing special, shooting a 62 from the long layout (long tee 1, long pins on 7/9/18) which yes shaved 4 strokes off on a layout that probably plays about 3 par strokes tougher overall. And despite feeling fairly tepid about my 62, it still came back with an unofficial rating of 958. The first round? 893. Yes, I’ll say it again, 893. -sigh-