What a round...

If I knew how this round would go, I would have played it twice!

The guys I usually play with were already at Batam, spending the long weekend there with their families. We couldn't go as my wife was busy on both Friday and Saturday. So I headed out on Sunday thinking I will find these guys waiting for me and cursing the late arrival of the extremely slow ferry.

To my astonishment, these guys had started without me and were already past the first six holes by the time I landed. So I joined them on the 7th tee box, and in my hurry to join the game, I did not warm up the way I usually do.

I was justly rewarded for not warming up. I hooked the ball into a marsh which surrounds the 7th green (it's a 160yard par 3). As I cursed myself for unnecessarily losing strokes at the beginning of the round, I took a drop and then nicely chipped on to the green in three. My putt, with the brand new Scotty Cameron circa 62 Number 1 I bought yesterday, lipped out and I tapped in for a double bogey. Not the best way to start a round.

The 8th is a huge par 5 which has a carry over water for the second shot if you want to go for the green. My drive off the tee was great, straight to the center of the fairway and 280yards. I was left with 220yards to the green with water all the way. The ball flew off my 3i and strayed just a tad left and so missed the green by just a few yards. I chipped to 8 feet from pin and stared down the ball for a birdie putt.

I have been besieged by putting problems where I would three putt even from 6 feet. I have been practicing, but I am nowhere near comfortable. I was hoping Scotty would help here.

The guys, knowing my game, started walking off the green as they have seen me miss short putts for eternity. I pleasantly surprised them by dropping the putt for birdie. The last time I made a birdie was almost a year ago!

So I finished the three holes at 1 over and was feeling quite good as we approached the 10th tee. What followed next took even me by surprise. So instead of boring you with intimate details of the entire round and a blow by blow account, I will just tell you what the stats were for the round.

I had:

• 1 birdie
• 7 pars
• 8 bogeys
• 2 double bogeys
• 5 single putts
• 11 two putts
• 2 three putts (My mistake in allignment, not Scotty's fault)
• 33 putts in total
• 8 Greens in regulation
• 7 out of 14 fairways hit (not my best statistic, but better than my worst)

I shot 83!

This is the lowest score I have shot to date and only the second time I have breached 85 (the first being my lowest score of 84...until yesterday).

When I went back to play the six holes I missed with these guys, I parred the first four and then bogeyed the next two. Those 9 holes were also the best 9 hole score I have ever played...playing 4 over with 40. I had finished the back nine with the guys with a 7 over 43. When I was playing the last 6 holes, I noticed that I was doing very well and that I just needed to play level headed to shoot low. I didn't think I would do better than that. Even if I had bogeyed the four holes that I parred, I would have made 87, my lowest score since moving to Singapore.

What a round, I tell you. I was walking on air the whole time.

And I should say this.

Scotty Cameron is God!

The feel and feedback the putter gives is beyond belief and is the best thing I have experienced after my R5. To think of it, I use the R5 only 14 times a round. I use the putter at least 30 times. Given these statistics, the putter is a far more important investment. Something that I finally came around to agreeing with rather than just saying it.

Hopefully, Scotty will do better for me in the next round.