Practicing

The heat is tough out here. To get to the golf course we have to take a 10 minute hike through the desert. Walking through the deep sand takes some extra energy and by the time you get to the course you're pretty sweaty. So today I hit a few buckets on the range and was pretty though not overly pleased with the way I was hitting the ball. After the range, I hit some putts and then spent an hour on the chipping green where I hit chip after chip to get dialed in on the distances. With the wind the way it is and the pins tucked tight on every hole, chips are probably the most important element to keep scores down.

After practicing, I was pretty tired, but decided to play holes one and two and then head back here to the hotel. Hole one is a 400 yard par 4 dogleg right with a tree in the right center of the fairway and a stiff right to left crosswind. (you can see the 1st hole all the way on the right of the first pic) I hit a drive right down the middle but not quite far enough to the left as my second shot clipped the top left of the tree and dropped straight down. I hit the sand wedge on the green and two putted for bogey.

The next hole is a 320 hard slight dog leg left with bunkers left and right. My standard play here is to hit a hard hook with the 1-iron and I've yet to really hit a bad one here. My tee shot hooked right into the center of the fairway 105 meters (116 yards) away from the pin right in the middle of the green. The wind here was a strong left to right hurting crosswind and I elected to hit a knock down 9 iron instead of a full pitching wedge to control the distance. I hit it crisply, and it flew straight as an arrow starting just left of the pin. Karen, who I was playing with, said "wow that looks perfect" as it was in the air. It landed right in front of the hole, took a bounce and went in for a satisfying eagle. Nice! Since I had my camera, I had to take the shameless photo op...