A Hack's Golf Game
Mid-Year 2022 Review
First Tee - Lancaster Country Club
I haven’t posted in a while. Summer’s been busy and your Hack just hasn’t felt the urge to write. But now that we’ve passed the halfway point of the year, I wanted to document where we stand versus our goals for the year. As a reminder, here are the goals I outlined in early April at the start of the “real” golf season:
Average less than 1/2 3-putts per round
Average less than 1/2 double or worse per round
Make 100 birdies
Birdie each hole at Cripple Creek from the back (Black) tees
Win the Club Championship and Sr. Club Championship at Cripple Creek
Shoot my age (67)
I began the season with a 6.4 handicap on April 1st and have played 36 rounds through July 10th, averaging 78.1 strokes. Although my stroke average is still high, I’ve posted some serious scores that have dropped my handicap index to 3.3 and the game is trending well.
Putting
I’ve been grinding pretty hard on putting and feel much more confident on the greens, especially at Cripple Creek, but I’m still averaging 1.2, 3-putts a round. Not close to my goal yet, but I have played one third of my rounds with ZERO 3-putts so far this year. When your Hack does 3-putt, he does it in bunches evidently.
Double Bogeys
Round killers. Nobody wants to make a double, but they happen. Too often in my case. I’m averaging 1.4 doubles per round versus my 0.5 goal. Looking back, most are mental lapses which I continue to work to improve. On the positive side, I’ve played one half of my rounds with one double bogey or less (one third with zero doubles). Unfortunately, I’ve tended to make doubles in bunches on too many rounds.
Birdies
Your Hack has made 57 birdies and 1 eagle so far this season and averaging 1.6 birdies per round. I think the 100 birdie goal is within site with three months left in the season. Our goal of making birdie on each hole at Cripple Creek from the back tees is going to be tough as we just starting playing from the modified tees in the past couple of weeks to get ready for our Club Championship. In the four rounds played, I’ve birdied 11,12,13, and 15 from the back tees. Decent start I guess.
Shoot My Age (67)
This is probably going to be the toughest goal of the year. You may remember that I shot 68 back on June 3rd when I played a round making 5 birdies and zero doubles and zero 3-putts. However, to be fair, this round was from the regular member tees at Cripple Creek, and I’m going to be playing back for most of the rest of the year.
Club Championships
The qualifying rounds (36 holes) for our Club Championship are on August 5th and 6th and the top 8 qualifiers go into match play for the title, the following Friday and Saturday. That leaves 3 weeks to get ready. The game is trending nicely as I’ve outlined above, but I haven’t won the Club Championship since 2018, the year I retired from the mortgage business.
2018 was also the year your Hack completed the “double” by also winning the Senior Club Championship shooting 77-76 to beat Harry Steele by 4 shots in the rain. This years senior is to be played on August 25th & 26th - 36 hole stroke play.
Will this be the year to take the second double by winning both? That’s the goal.
Your Hack has a busy next 6 weeks coming up . . . let’s keep it in the short grass and make some putts. Heading out to play a team match against Bayside this afternoon at the Creek. Be back soon.