A Fair Day at The Fairways

The Fairways Golf & Country Club
Warrington, Pa
Yards: 2255/2248 - 4503
Par: 32/33 - 65
Rating: 62.1, Slope: 104
Score: 43/47 = 90
Date: June 18, 2012

Hoping to put Saturday's really bad round at Franklin D. Roosevelt Golf Club behind me, I teed it up Monday for the second time in a month at The Fairways Golf & Country Club. The Fairways is always in great shape and this round was no different. It was overcast most of the day, which kept the heat and humidity down and made for a comfortable round. The starter matched me up with Larry and Janet on the First Hole and off we went. One of my priorities for this round was to drive the ball more consistently off the tee and put myself in better positions to score.I amde tow changes to my clubs, swapping out my Wilson Staff Smooth Driver for a TaylorMade R9 and my Solus 56-degree sand wedge was replaced with a 59-degree Solus wedge.

 The Fifth Hole, a 372-yard Par 4

On the front nine, I was much better off the tee, finding the fairway or green on the First, Third and Fifth Holes. At the Second and Sixth Holes, I was just left and right of the fairways, respectively, but still had decent shots to the green. At the Par 3 Fourth Hole I found the left bunker and at the Seventh I also missed the green left. Through the first seven holes, I had all 4s and 5s on the scorecard, which included two double bogeys at Par 3s. The double bogeys were more a result of my short game failing me than my tee shots. At the Eighth Hole, I pushed my tee shot right over a large tree that guards the right side of the fairway and had an open shot at the green from the rough. I came up short left with a 7-iron however, barely chipped on, then four-putted for a 7. I hit my first really bad tee shot at the Ninth when I hit it fat and short leading to another double bogey and a front nine 43.

 The Sixteenth Hole, a 323-yard Par 4

The back nine started off with a thinned three wood at the Tenth that found the first cut of rough, but I hit a wedge on the green and two-putted for a par. Then the first breakdown occurred. A local only permits an iron off the tee at the 291-yard Par 4 Eleventh, which doglegs right; not the kind of shot that favors someone who plays a draw. I pulled my 6-iron left and from the rough about 180-yards out, I hit my hybrid right and out-of-bounds.  This led to a triple-bogey 7. My 8-iron at the Par 3 Twelfth, a hole I birdied a month ago, found the left bunker and I took three shots to get out. Another triple-bogey 7. I regrouped and found the fairway with a 3-wood at the Thirteenth and made par. I hit the green on the Par 3 Fourteenth, but three-putted for a bogey. I also found the green at the Par 3 Fifteenth, but I two-putted this time for my sixth par of the round. Then came the second breakdown. The last few holes have really plagued me this year, and this round was no exception. At the 323-yard Sixteenth, I hit 3-wood to be safe, but pushed it right a hit a tree, which led to a lost ball and a double bogey. At the 374-yard Seventeenth, I hit the ball off the heel of the driver and barely made it as far as the red tees. Three hacks up the fairway and a three-putt equaled a triple bogey. I hit a low short hook off the 334-yard dogleg right Eighteenth, but recovered to make a bogey. This added up to a back nine 47 and total of 90 for the round.

 The tee shot at the Eighteenth Hole

So after two rounds at The Fairways, I have recorded two 90s. My front nine Monday was eight strokes better than my front nine a month ago--51-42; but my back nine was eight strokes worse--39-47. I had six pars in my most recent round, compared to one birdie and four pars a month ago. But most importantly, I put the ball in play better this round, which meant no 8s or 9s on the scorecard like last month. Lets hope I can carry it over and it starts to become the rule, rather than the exception.

It's not the arrows...

There's an old saying that is used frequently in golf: "It's not the arrows, it's the Indian." It is generally used when a golfer is hitting the ball bad and tries to blame it on the golf clubs. I recently found myself in this same situation and had to remind myself of that old quotation.

After hitting the ball so poorly during my first round of the season two weeks ago, then hitting even worse at the driving range a week later, I found myself suddenly replacing almost all the clubs in my bag. My Wilson Staff Smooth Driver isn't working so lets go

back to that TaylorMade R9. And the Callaway fairway woods should go too, replaced by TaylorMade Burners. Why stop there? Might as well take out the Wilson Staff Ci7 irons. Lets see, maybe my old TaylorMade Tour Burner irons would be better? Suddenly, my golf bag started to look like it did in 2009 and 2010.

After looking for several days at my old/new set of golf clubs in the bag, I started to think about the old saying, "It's not the arrows, it's the Indian." And this Indian hit that Wilson Driver and irons pretty well last year. Those Wilson irons made a birdie, three pars and three bogeys on the first seven Par 3s I played this year. This Indian hit those new Callaway woods pretty well on the range this year too. So it's definitely too earlier to be panicking over a few bad shots when this Indian has only played one round of golf and had three sessions at the practice range. So good-bye again TaylorMade Driver, woods and irons. Back into the bag goes Mr. Wilson and the Callaway woods. This Indian is sticking with his current arrows.

Blown Away at Juniata

Juniata Golf Club
Philadelphia, Pa
Yards: 2805/2185 - 4990
Par: 34/31 - 65
Rating: 63.2, Slope: 106
Score: 50/44 = 94
Date: October 16, 2010

On Saturday I took my friend and occasional golfing partner MS to Juniata Golf Club for a real taste on muni golf. We have previously teed up this year at The Fairways and Horsham Valley, so he was experiencing a true "public" golf course. The rains from a few days prior had softened up parts of the course, but the greens were running fast and the wind was howling.  This made club selection extremely difficult and keeping the ball below the wind on many holes paramount.

 Juniata Golf Club Scorecard

After a decent start, with a bogey and a par at the first two holes, I struggled in teh blustery conditions through the rest of the front nine and shot a respectable, though somewhat disappointing 50.  The Third Hole was a prime example of my misery. Hitting a new Wilson Staff Smooth Driver, I crushed teh ball off the tee, only to be left with over 200 yards for my second shot. A 5-Wood into the wind only emphasized my draw and left me well left and still about 15 yards short of the green. A short pitch, a chip and two putts meant a double bogey 6.

 Windy conditions like this made scoring difficult

The back nine was just as treacherous, although I was able to take advantage of some of the Par 3s to shoot a much better 44. Bogeys and double bogeys were the scores of the day, although I did mange to par the Eighteenth Hole after a nice up-and-down from the right bunker. This left me with a 94, not bad considering the very windy conditions.

 The Wilson Staff Smooth Driver

As I mentioned earlier, I put a new Wilson Staff Smooth Driver into play for the first time during this round. I have been having trouble with several TaylorMade Drivers, most notably the R7, with was causing me to hit short duck hooks off the tee. I had not such problems with the Smooth. The ball flight was high, straight and long considering the windy conditions. I hit five out of eight fairways with the Driver, which felt solid and very controlable, despite its 45.5-in length. I'm hoping this might be the solution to some of my problems off the tee this year, which has generally been hit-or-miss. If I can hit the Driver consistantly, this will take pressure off the other parts of my game, as well as some much needed strokes off my score.

I'm Back...But in a Limited Way

Mrs. Muni Golfer and I have completed our move to our new clubhouse and we are still getting settled in. Some renovations are being done and this has caused me to have limited Internet access.  But a few things have taken place during the time I've been off-line.  I'll report on them more in detail in later postings once my computer and scanner are up and fully operational. In the meantime, I wanted to give a brief snapshot of what has been going on.

First, the URL of this blog has changed. It is now just www.themunigolfer.com. Blog has been officially dropped from the URL. I hope this hasn't caused you any problems.

Secondly, I attended the 3rd round of the AT&T National when it was held at Aronimink over July 4th weekend. It was a blast! I spent a great deal of my time at the practice range just watching. I'll post my observations in a later post.


Thirdly, I finally managed to get back on the golf course, playing my first round in nearly two months at The Fairways in Warrington, Pa., on July 18. Despite some rust and some hot, muggy weather, I shot a very respectable 89.

Fourthly, I finished reading John Feinstein's biography of Rocco Mediate, "Are You Kidding Me?" I have now started to read his latest golf book, "Moment of Glory: The Year Underdogs Ruled Golf." I'll post reviews later.

And lastly, I just received a used R9 Driver, which I order online at TaylorMade Pre-owned.com. Although it is used, it has hardly a mark on it and looks basically new. This is the driver that has the adjustable face settings, as well as movable weights.And I bought it at less than half the price of a new one! I can't wait to take it to the practice range and the course.

Well, that's about all for now. Look for more detailed posts about these and other developments in what I hope is the not too distant future.