A pair of 87s

My company had an offsite meeting planned at Batam on Friday and Saturday. As part of the activities, there was a golf tournament at the Tering Bay Golf Course as well. Of course I participated.

After a horrific few holes and absolutely no co-operation from my driver, but a few great recoveries, I finished the round with an 87, which with my 17 handicap meant 2 under par. Not bad considering how bad I played the whole day.

The next day, four of us decided to play another round at the same course. This time we decided to play off the blue tee (Friday was a white tee tournament). Also, the wind had significantly picked up, so much so that I was hitting a 5 iron to where I would normally hit an 8 iron.

Still no co-operation from my driver, but some really fabulous recoveries resulted in another 87 for the round. Not bad considering both the influence of the blue tee and the wind.

A couple of the holes I must tell you about. The 5th hole at Tering Bay has woods on both sides of the tee and a moat that runs thro the middle of the fairway and goes on to the right side of the green. I promptly put my tee shot into the water. So I took my drop before the water and was about 120 yards from the pin. I was already playing my third shot and had to make this count.

I hit a controlled pitching wedge to within a couple of feet of the pin!

A tap in for par on a hole where I took a penalty. It could have been a birdie!

Then again, on another par 4, I hit my approach shot way right. As I looked up from my ball, there were a couple of palm treen in my line to the green. So I would have to play under the branches to get somewhere.

A punched chip shot with a 9 iron and the ball was taking the roll of the green and again stopped a few feet from pin. Another single putt and I had saved par from a ridiculous place.

Then came the birdie at 13, which is a par 3. My tee shot with a pitching wedge stopped a foot from the pin. The ball actually carried enough spin to stop an inch behind it's pitch mark! A very nice tap in for the bird.

All in all, I am quite happy with the way I recovered. Not happy at all with my driver, but very happy with my iron approaches and definately with my Scotty Cameron putter.

Now it's back to the range to pratice the long clubs.