Deja Vu All Over Again

Juniata Golf Club
Philadelphia, Pa
Yards: 2805/2185 - 4990
Par: 34/31 - 65
Rating: 63.2, Slope: 106
Score: 53/38 = 91
Date: September 19, 2010

Hoping to erase the nightmare back nine from last week's round at Walnut Lane Golf Club, I teed it up on the familiar links of Juniata Golf Club, which I consider to be my home course. I haven't played at Juniata since I was washed out after four holes back in July. I was hoping that a round at Juniata would help get my game back on track. Instead, my round looked like a mirror image of last week's round. Where I started strong on the front nine and lost my swing on teh back at Walnut Lane, shooting 39/51-90, I struggled to find my swing over Juniata's opening nine, only to find my game and scoring bringing it back to the clubhouse while shooting 53/38-91.

My Juniata Scorecard

Upon arriving at Juniata, my round was delayed by about 20 minutes while I waitied for a golf outing to finish their last few holes. When the course was finally clear, I was the first one off the tee and hit my opening shot just right of the downhill Par First Hole. While walking to my ball, I picked up 16 golf balls that littered the course, remnants of the outing and the abandonment of poor shots. I wound up picking up 24 balls during the round.

The First Hole where I found 16 golf balls

Over the first eight holes I was spraying my tee shots either right or left, or hitting them fat. I was forced to hit several punch shots just to get the ball back into play and my putting was lousy. I made an 8 at the 370-yard Par 4 Fifth Hole because of a ball hit out-of-bounds and two poor pitches, and a 9 and the 275-yard Par 4 Seventh Hole, where I lost two golf balls. On the tee at the Ninth Hole, I gave myself a pep talk about how I needed to grind it out since it was obvious I didn't have my best game. I then hit my best tee shot of the day; a 3-wood to just under 100 yards to the green. I hit my approach shot past the flag and two-putted for my first par of the round. Despite an opening 53, this par gave me a shot of confidence going to the back nine.

 

The Seventh Hole where I lost 2 balls

I started with a bogey at the Tenth Hole and another lost ball at the Eleventh led to a 6. I then made double bogey at the next two holes, both Par 3s. At the Fourteenth Hole, a short 240-yard Par 4, I thinned a hybrid off the tee, but hit my approach shot over the tall pine that guards the left front of the green and chipped to three feet, which led to my second par of the day. At the Par 3 Fifteenth Hole, I found the green with my tee shot and hit my 20-foot birdie putt a bit too strond and hit the hole and hoped to about three feet away. I then pulled my par putt for a disappointing bogey. The tees at the Sixteenth Hole have been moved well up because of construction of a new tee box, making the hole play about 250 yards. I hit a 7-wood to about 50 yards short of the green, then pitched on and made a 10-foot putt for birdie. I found the fairway with a 3-wood at the Seventeenth Hole and hit my gap wedge to about 30 feet and then just lipped out my birdie putt. Another par made ita birdie, two pars and a bogey in the last four holes. At the Eighteenth Hole, with the flag of the right side of the green behind a bunker, I hit a 6-iron draw of the green to about 25 feet behind the hole and two-putted for another par and a back nine 38 and a round of 91.

The tee shot at Seventeenth Hole

Just as I was disappointed last week about how I played the back nine at Walnut Lane, I was happy with how I turned it around on the back nine today at Juniata. I hope I can acrry that momentum into my next round and continue to improve my game as the summer now officially turns to fall.

Photos by The Muni Golfer