Practice Makes Perfect!

The weather cleared up on Sunday so I decided to go out to the Wigwam Golf Club in Litchfield Park and play the Gold Course for practice. The club has a practice putting area with a sand bunker in the middle with native bushes and concrete pavers (don't ask me why it is set up this way!). No one was on the putting green so I decided to hit some balls out of the sand bunker before playing. For liability purposes, I decided to hit in the opposite direction from the people on the driving range about 50 yards away and hit over the native bushes. After skulling three shots from the bunker that hit the pavers and ricocheted directly back at me, I decided that I could do less damage to myself on the golf course and headed to the first tee of the Gold Course. I decided to play from the Championship tees, which are 6,830 yards with a course rating of 72.3 and a slope rating of 130. The course was in great shape given all of the rain we had this week. Carts were only permitted on the paths so I decided to walk and carry my bag for exercise.

I hit three balls off the first tee before I put one in the fairway but from there things got much better. It was pretty slow because I was playing as a single so I generally played two balls from the fairway and did not keep score. I was driving the ball in the fairways and hitting my irons straight, but it was a grind because of the long waits between shots. By the 8th hole, there was a foursome on the green, a foursome in the fairway, a twosome on the tee box and then me. The twosome offered to let me play with them, but I noticed that the 12th hole was wide open so I bolted to the 12th tee box. I played the 12th hole through the 18th hole in an hour and I had one birdie, four pars and two bogeys (I swear to God!). I was hoping to go back to finish holes 8 through 11 assuming they would be close to the clubhouse, but the course is laid out in a links format with holes 9 and 10 the farthest from the clubhouse so I decided to call it a day and head home to watch the football games.