Column: A hot start to season two in the journey towards better golf

Last year I started taking lessons and documenting my progress as I began to get serious about improving as a golfer. After playing here and there as a kid and then hardly playing at all throughout my 20s, I decided it was time to get back into it a few years ago after settling down in Marysville.

With so many great golf courses within a stone’s throw, it sort of felt silly not to.

The ultimate goal was always to get some fundamentals down with the intent of enjoying the game for years to come, but I also really wanted to break 100 for the first time. The season ended with me not accomplishing that goal, although I did shoot 100 on the nose and break 50 numerous times on nine holes.

The important thing was that I was finally noticing real progress, after not really taking the game seriously at all in the past. I can not thank Simon Jones at Purcell Golf enough for all of his wisdom and patience throughout last year.

I was very sad for the season to end, but was thrilled for ski season to start. I also got to play a couple rounds over the winter while in Hawaii with my wife and some family as a sort of honeymoon. Those were both really cool experiences, playing Waiehu Municipal Golf Course and The Dunes at Maui Lani — my favourite of the two. I certainly wasn’t playing great, but hit some of my best driver shots ever, sending a few tee shots over some trees and down some pretty wild hills.

The ski season this year, as many would likely agree, was not the best. The weather was pretty consistently not ideal. I wasn’t skiing nearly as much as I thought I was going to and then when the snow finally got better, I wound up hurting myself. Never got an X-Ray but pretty sure I cracked a rib. I then got sick for a couple weeks and between the injury and the illness I was laid up for a while, which then made my persistent low back problem flare up worse than it ever has before, just in time for the start of spring.

For a while the pain was so bad I was worried I wouldn’t be be able to golf at all this year. However, I kept working at it and eventually the pain subsided. My first range session of the year, as far as first range sessions of the year for hack golfers can go, went pretty well. After topping my first ball with a pitching wedge, I hit six or seven as well as I absolutely can. I could tell right away that my lessons from last year had stuck, so again, just a huge shout out to Simon Jones.

Once the pain cleared up I started getting out for a few nines, mostly at Bootleg’s Rec 9 and at Purcell. All my scores were in the mid to high 40s, pretty much back to where I was last year. Not great, but with clearly identifiable areas to work on. I was optimistic.

Then came the weekend of May 17. I was offered a free round at Trickle Creek on the holiday Saturday, courtesy of the wonderful Meegan Field. To warm up for my first full round of the year, I played a very lacklustre Rec 9 on Friday evening.

A chilly, but not quite rainy Saturday rolled around and we headed to course. On the drive to the course with my wife I remarked how nice it would be to break 100 on my first attempt of the year and finally get that monkey off the back early on. I also said that regardless of what happened score-wise, my intent was simply to enjoy myself and be grateful to be out on that beautiful golf course.

My round started with one of my more stupid double bogeys I’ve ever taken on the easy first hole. However, I managed to steady the ship a bit and made two pars in the first four. After nine, I checked my score and found I was sitting at 46: my best ever at that course, and a real shot at shooting in the 90s.

I continued to play well on the back nine, making a lot of pars, including both par threes. I took advantage of the few good breaks the course gave me and recovered well after errant shots. I didn’t find a bunker until the sixteenth hole, and then found three more — two fairway and two green side total — over the next two holes, but managed to successfully escape them all.

On the 18th I felt like I had a chance, but didn’t want to check my score. My wife then asked, as I waited to tee off, if I’d like to know. Based on her tone of voice, I figured I was doing okay. It turned out that as long as I didn’t take an 11 on the hole, I’d do it. That freed me up a lot and I hit a good shot down the fairway and wound up making a stress-free six. I broke 100 for the first time with a final score of 95.

I was elated to say the least. It’s the first big milestone all golfers try to get to when they first start playing regularly, and while I didn’t get to it as fast as I would have liked, it still felt good to do it, especially on the first 18 of the year.

I promptly texted all those people in my life who would care, my dad, my golf buddies, my coach.

The next day the plan was to relax and not play golf. It was raining, my wife was working, I’d played twice in the last two days.

However, I wound up deciding instead to get off my butt and go watch the final few holes of the PGA Championship. Xander Schauffele, one of my favourite players on Tour, had a good chance at winning his first major, so I figured I’d go watch the tail end and hit some balls after.

This turned out to be a great idea. Not only because I got to watch him win live and in dramatic fashion, I also got some practice in on the range (bad) and putting green (very good) and then when I got home I was invited to play the next afternoon at St. Eugene with my neighbours.

I set no expectations for score, again just intending to be happy and grateful to get out again on an awesome course with great friends. Plus, the 100-mark had already been slain, I could just relax and play my game. Before tee off I figured it was more likely that I’d backslide and shoot 116 or something, rather than match or better my previous score.

I was wrong.

While one over through the first four holes, I said something like “Let’s shoot in the 80s, boys!” I then finished the front nine with a shocking 42, from the blue/white tee combo, thanks in large part to the best putting performance of my life hands down. I remember yelling “What is going on?!” after draining a 25-footer for par.

On the back nine I continued to play well until a 200-yard downhill par three where I put a ball out of bounds, and wound up taking a seven. I followed that up with a triple bogey on the next hole and my hopes of breaking 90 were pretty much dashed. However, I recovered well and my scores continued to trend in the right direction. I made a double on the next hole, then a bogey and then a par. If I birdied the last it would have been like a straight flush.

I played the final hole at St. Eugene smart, going driver, wedge short of the water, wedge onto the green and then two putted for a par and a final score of 92.

Breaking 100 for the first time and then two days later breaking 90 would have been sensational, but it’s pretty cool to know that I was just one or two bad holes away from doing it. I’m extremely excited for what the rest of this season has in store.