The Tiniest Violin

Chad Feldheimer and I played the Legacy Golf Resort course today. The course was rated as one of the top 10 public golf courses to play in Phoenix by Golf Digest and ESPN.com/travel. The golf course was designed by Gary Panks, who designed a lot of the top public and private golf courses in Arizona, including Chaparral Pines, Firerock Country Club and the Talon Course at Grayhawk. It is a very "playable" course with wide fairways and very large greens, but it also has some well-placed and deep fairway and greenside bunkers and elevated greens that require you to carry the ball all of the way to the hole or risk the ball rolling back into the fairway off of the false fronts on the green. The course has great views of Camelback Mountain, Squaw Peak and the downtown Phoenix skyline.

Chad Feldheimer made me play from the "big boy" tees, which are over 6,900 yards. From the back tees, the golf course is a par-71 and has a course rating of 72.1 and a slope rating of 128. Our tee time was 8:44 a.m. and it was still brisk. I was dressed with long pants, a long sleeve rugby shirt and a jacket. The other locals were dressed similarly. The "snowbirds" and vacationers were dressed in shorts and short-sleeve shirts! By the turn, the weather warmed up to about 70 degrees, but there was still a breeze and it was a little overcast.

I was striking the ball really well. From tee to green I played very consistently and hit a lot of good shots. I hit 5 of 7 fairways and 4 of 9 greens in regulation on the front 9, but I had 21 putts (four 3-putts!) and shot a 48. Other than my putting, the hole that killed me was the par-3, 150 yard 7th hole. I hit what looked to be a nice tee shot but the ball rolled off of the false front of the green and into a monstrous greenside bunker with very little sand! I blasted out of the bunker and skulled the ball over the green into the desert brush, banged my club on the metal fence on my next shot and picked up for a triple bogey maximum 6 on the hole! If I have 18 putts and make par on the 7th hole I would have shot a 42 (Chad is playing the tiniest violin in the world for me)!

I continued to hit the ball well on the back 9, but still had problems scoring. I played bogey golf on the par-3s and par-4s, but was 4 over on the par-5s. The par-5s were long, but easily reachable in 3 strokes for me. That is where I should be making up strokes to bogey, not losing them! On the par-5, 580 yard 14th hole, I hit my third shot into the greenside bunker and took 2 shots to get out of the bunker for a 7 on the hole. On the par-5, 545 yard finishing hole, I hit my drive out of bounds and made a 7 on the hole. I did improve my putting and had 18 putts on the back nine for a 47 and a 95 for the round.

Chad was whining after shooting a 40 on the front 9 and going bogey-bogey-bogey to start the back 9, but then he caught fire and had back-to-back birdies on the par-5 14th hole and the par-3 15th hole and finished the back 9 with a 37 for a 6 over par 77.

Realistically, as well as I hit the ball tee to green, I could easily have shot an 85. After the round, Chad Feldheimer worked with me on my sand game at the practice facilities, but my confidence out of the sand is pretty low. If I can improve my play around the greens, I should be able to shave 5 or more strokes off of my score. I need to find a convenient short game practice facility to work on my game.