An Ugly 88!

This weekend I played golf with one of my former law partners, his 12-year old son and one of his golfing buddies. He arranged the game at the Links Course at the Arizona Biltmore Golf Club. I woke up at about 5 a.m. to pouring rain and dark skies. By 8:30 a.m. the rain had stopped but it was overcast and ominous. Normally, I would have called and canceled but since we booked the tee time through golfnow.com you get charged full price if you do not show up. When I paid for the round at the golf shop I asked about the rain check policy and was told that after 6 holes there was no refund and no rain check. This is the typical attitude at the Arizona Biltmore Golf Course (please note that the Arizona Biltmore Resort is not affiliated with the golf course and the resort understands the meaning of customer service). The Arizona Biltmore Golf Course is very well located in central Phoenix but the courses are not first class, the rack rate price is exorbitant and the customer service as noted above is terrible. Now that I have gotten that off of my chest, back to golf.

We played the Links Course, which is more interesting than the Adobe Course, but it is very short at 6,300 yards from the so-called "Championship" tees. I was out-of-sorts for the first seven holes because it was cold and raining on and off. I am spoiled living in Arizona. If the weather is not perfect, you just play the next day. At the beginning of the round I was not getting through the ball and hit two miserable drives out-of-bounds right. Starting on the 8th hole I played very well. I had five pars and only one double bogey when I hooked a nine iron into the water after a great drive. I shot a 45 on the front and a 43 on the back for an 88. The 15th hole is the signature hole on the golf course. It is a 190-yard par 3 that plays about 175 yards because of the elevation. From the elevated tee box you look down to the green and across to the Phoenix Mountain Preserve and Squaw Peak (the politically correct name is Piestawa Peak, but why be politically correct). I hit a 4-hybrid pin high about 15 feet right of the flag stick and made an easy two-putt par. Our youngster played this hole from the championship tees and hit his 3-wood to about 5 feet, but just missed the birdie putt (at least he did not leave it short). His dad should have taken a picture of that shot for the scrap book.

On Saturday I had a short game golf lesson from Will at the PGA Golf Superstore. We worked on the sand shots, pitching and chipping. I need to keep my lower body and wrists "quiet" on all short game shots, which means using less leg motion (keeping my right foot on the ground) and not rolling my wrists. He also suggested that I consider using my L wedge on some chips and pitch shots because of the additional loft to help with the chili dips and skulls. I started following Will's advice after skulling 3 or 4 chips with my pitching wedge on the first 7 holes and I had 4 or 5 nice chips and pitch shots using the L wedge. I also opened my stance on my putts, which helped me to hit the putt on the intended line and I made a couple of 8-10 foot putts. I only hit into one greenside bunker and the sand was so wet that I thought I would break my wrist getting out of the bunker. I got out and onto the green but it was not pretty. I am not a good enough golfer to complain about an 88 on any golf course, but I left a lot of strokes on the course because my head was not in the game.