Philadelphia, Pa
Yards: 2735/2070 - 4805
Par: 34/32 - 66
Rating: 63.2, Slope: 106
Score: 46/41 = 88
Date: September 21, 2008
With it being the last "official" day of summer, and the Eagles and Phillies have late afternoon starts, I decided on playing a quick 18 holes at Juniata Golf Course. The course was pretty empty despite the beautiful weather, with temperatures in the upper 70s and brilliant sunshine. This was probably due to the Eagles playing the Pittsburgh Steelers at home. Teeing off at 2 p.m., I managed to get round the course in three hours and thirty minutes; just enough time to see the U.S. win back the Ryder Cup on the big screen TV in the clubhouse, then hustle home to catch the second half of the Eagles game and the late innings of the Phillies game.
I played about the same as I had last week at Juniata, shooting an almost identical score. The only difference was this time, my stamina was much better. The highlight of my round came at the 5th Hole, a 360-yard Par 4, where my drive caught the downslope of the fairway about 200 yards off the tee and rolled down to the the 100-yard marker. I hit a gap wedge from there that came up just short of the green on the left front edge, but at a sprinkler head that's being fixed. After taking my drop, I chipped with a sand wedge and the ball tracked straight to the cup, hitting the flagstick and dropping in for a birdie! I also need to mention that the 12th Hole, which I reported last week had been converted to a Par 3, has been switched back to a Par 4.
Sun Mountain Swift Carry Bag
I used my new Sun Mountain Swift carry bag today and it was fantastic. The bag is so light and can handle 14 clubs fairly easily. Plus, it has plenty of pockets and space and held all the gear from my Sun Mountain Superlight 3.5 carry bag with out feeling as weighed down and bulky as the 3.5. By the end of the round, the bag felt the same on my back as it had at the beginning. If you walk, you should definitely look into this bag. One other change I made was my driver. Feeling that I was getting a little stale with my TaylorMade Burner, I opted to replace it with an old TaylorMade R580XD. The head is a little bit smaller, 440cc vs. 460cc for the Burner, but I hit it pretty solidly today and found the fairway more often. Although this may have been my "last" round for the summer, there is still plenty of golf left to be played this fall.