A Fairways Fade

The Fairways Golf Club
Warrington, Pa.
Yards: 2255/2248 - 4503
Par: 32/33 - 65
Rating: 62.1, Slope: 104
Score: 43/57 = 100
Date: September 25, 2015

Hoping to put my wretched play at the The Rookery South two weeks prior behind me, I teed it up at The Fairways Golf Club, looking to get my game back to track. But a giant fade off the first tee was the opening sign that things weren't about to get much better. If that wasn't enough of an ominous sign, my 7-iron approach to the green hit something--I suspect a rake in the right side bunker--and bounced back into the water fronting the green. That meant an opening 7. I did manage to regroup and make a par at the Second Hole, but a triple-bogey 6 at the short par 3 Third Hole confirmed this round wasn't going to be a good one.

The Fairways Scorecard

Although I managed to shoot a 43 on the opening nine holes, the same I shot my last round at The Fairways when I shot an 81, this score had a weird feel to it. I triple-bogeyed two of the four par 3s on the outward nine, as well as the opening hole. I did manage a birdie at the 327-yard Par 4 Fifth Hole when I hit 4-wood off the tee, then hung my approach shot out to right and into the greenside bunker. From the sand I splashed my ball onto the green, where dead into the cup! It is the first birdie I ever made on a hole-out from the sand!

A triple-bogey at the Third Hole

I took the 43 to the back nine, still wondering if I was going to be able to post a good score despite my erratic play. That was answered with a topped tee shot at the Tenth, where it took three shots to get out of a bunker. An opening 8 on the outward nine. In all, my shots found bunkers on 8 of the 18 holes during my round. Another 8 at the Thirteenth. Another triple-bogey at the Fifteenth where it took three shots to escape a bunker. And a 10 at the Eighteenth brought me home in 57, for a total of 100.

A holed shot from the right bunker for birdie!

My short game was very poor and cost me many, many shots. And getting off the tee was a problem. Several weeks ago, because I was hooking a lot of my tee shots, I put ome lead tape on the toe of my driver. That seemed to help for awhile, but the last two rounds it has caused me to hit a bad fade of slice. That fade off the tee led to my fade on the back nine. I can remove the tape and hopefully, I can remove the errors that have plagued me for the last two rounds.