Autumn Golf

A cold and gray, yet dry Saturday afternoon was all the motivation I needed to go play a quick 9.  These are the perfect days to play golf- there is the ever-present threat of rain and it's just cold enough to keep the crowds away.  I arrived to find my usually overrun neighborhood municipal course largely empty.  I passed by one of the assistant pros on my way to the clubhouse, who invited me to play with him and another one of the pros.  I obliged, curious to see what kind of game the pros had, and equally curious to see if I could bring to the course the ballstriking clinic I put on at the driving range a few days earlier.  I got off to a slow start, mis-hitting a 5-iron off of the short par-4 10th tee box, which left me another 5-iron to the green.  I hit that a little heavy and blocked it out to the right.  Fortunately, I was left with an easy chip shot, which I put to within tap-in range.  The two pros also made pars, though their pars were less sloppy.  One pro hit it to the middle of the green and burned the high side lip with his putt.  The other pro landed it on the middle of the green, but put so much backspin on the ball that it zipped clear off the front of the green.  From there, he got up and down after calmly canning a 10-footer right in the heart.  The second hole wasn't much better.  I clanked a pair of 3-woods, which left me some 40 yards short of the green and in the left trees on the dogleg right par 5.  I hit a nifty little punch gap wedge that took a peek at the hole before coming to rest about 12 feet from the cup.  I took two putts from there and carded another unspectacular par, grateful that my short game was keeping my head above water.  I was hitting last on the next hole, an uphill par 3 over water.  The two pros both hit a couple of sloppy 7-irons leaving them lengthy looks at birdie.  I stepped up and pured my 7-iron right over the flagstick.  Unfortunately, above the hole is no good on that green and I had no choice but to lag my birdie putt.  I struggled a bit with my longer clubs the rest of the round, but my iron play remained very solid.  I wasn't getting the yardages right, so I didn't make any birdies, but I hit a handful of iron shots that went right at the pin only to come up 20 feet short or 20 feet long.  One of the pros shot 2-under for the 9, while the other pro shot the same score that I did.  Truth be told, I struck my irons just as well as the pros (in fact, I'd say my ball-striking and short game was better than the pro I tied), but their distance control and putting were far superior.  They left the ball in the right spots and gave all of their putts a chance.  In other words, they may not have been hitting in flush every time, but they definitely knew how to score even though they weren't firing on all cylinders.  It was a good reminder for me that a solid round of golf requires much more than just hitting the sweet spot.