Closing in on 85!

I had a great weekend of golf! Mid-July through August is monsoon season in Arizona so the temperatures go down a bit but the humidity goes up. Although it is nothing like the humidity in the Midwest or on the East Coast, when you combine humidity of 30 to 40 percent with temperatures in the low 100s, it is pretty uncomfortable. Until a couple of years ago, during this time of the year the golf courses were pretty empty, but with the advent of Golfnow.com and Golfhub.com, golf is so cheap that the locals get out and play the better courses in town for $20 to $30.

I left work mid-afternoon on Friday and played The Foothills Golf Club with my friend Ken from Phoenix Suns Charities. I had not played The Foothills in about 20 years. The course is located about 30 minutes from mid-town Phoenix by car and about 10 minutes as the crow flies. It is on the south side of South Mountain so you have to drive east about 15 miles and then drive back west about 10 miles because there is no road through the mountain (those darn environmentalists!).

The Foothills is a Tom Weiskopf/Jay Morrish-designed par-72 golf course that plays just under 7,000 yards from the back tees with a course rating of 72.6 and a slope rating of 128. The course was in okay condition. There were a number of brown patches in the fairways and the superintendent was watering those areas like crazy. Although it is monsoon season, we have not yet had a good rain in the Valley. The greens were very firm, smooth and fast, but they were rock hard and it was difficult to keep your approach shots on the greens. There were almost no ball marks on the greens!

I had 4 pars, 4 bogeys and one double-bogey on the front 9 for a 42. The fairways look narrow from the tee boxes, but are actually pretty wide open. I kept the ball in play off of the tees and I chipped the ball really well and made a few one putts. My double-bogey was on the par-4, 311 yard 6th hole. I drove it about 240 yards right down the middle and then I flushed a half-sand wedge over the green into the back bunker and 3-putted. How frustrating is that! I had 3 pars, 5 bogeys and 1 double-bogey on the back 9 for a 44 and an 86 total. Based on the course rating and the slope rating, my handicap differential was 11, which is my best round since I started keeping an official USGA Handicap Index. I was +2 on the par 3 holes, +10 on the par 4 holes and +2 on the par 5 holes and I had a total of 31 putts (I count my putts on the fringe and I also treat those as greens-in-regulation). I was really excited about my ball-striking and my chipping around the greens. I did not have any chili-dips or skulled shots around the green or any really fat shots, hoseled shots or badly pulled shots from the fairway. Let's see if I can keep it up!