Sunday, July 10, 2011

Pasatiempo: Neutering Golfers Since 1929


This is a cycle that many golfers share: You post some good numbers at the local muni, maybe low 80s or flirt with breaking 80. You start to practice because the days are longer in summer and your golf fever increases. "I've got game; I'm pretty good. I'm feeling it."

Then you go to a big-boy course and get emasculated.

Such was the case with our foursome over the weekend at Pasatiempo in the hills above Santa Cruz, California. We played from the white tees, 6,125 yard with a slope of 136. We are decent golfers, 11, 12, 15 handicaps, in that range, but no one in the group broke a 100. Oh, it's a par 70. It was $165 each with a cart and in some ways was worth the price for a borderline-historic course that is in the top courses nationally and designed by Alister MacKenzie.

I have never played a course that had more Jekyll and Hyde qualities. The first three holes are not that hard but I had some nerves and three-putted the first two holes. You then have a difficult up-hill par 3 of 190 yards. Everything out here is heavily bunkered, the greens are slick, balls roll off the green before you can mark and you know that this is not your 115-slope crap course next to the dog track.

Every hole is different, another indicator of a great course. I birdied a couple holes but would then take a triple on an uphill 175-yard par three. I then had a parade of Snowmen, mother of God I swear I have never had trip, consecutive ochos. Our group likely had a couple four putts.

The carts do not have GPS. With hindsight we all should have bought the yardage book. Case in point is the uphill par 4 11th, 390 yards with a ravine smack in the middle. In our group a 7 won the hole. The problem is you don't know how far it is to the ravine; you think it's like 190 yards so you hit a 5-iron thinking it should get you close enough to go for a utility. But, I butchered my 5 iron and then started shooting balls into the ravine. Oh, the green did not just have a "false front" but more like a fake two-thirds. You had to put the ball all the way in the back to keep it from running off the green.

Another ball-buster is the number 16, top handicap hole par 4 365 yards to a triple-tiered green. Our buddy Pete lashed a low screamer right down the middle that we never found. The fairway slopes right to left and he should have been in the middle.

The only thing that was weak about the place was the wait we had on the first few holes and the range having mats. Uh, high end places should have you hitting off grass with those little pyramids of balls already stacked.

Analysis of My Stats

Like any obsessed golfer I look at my score cards trying to break the code. As if I could find something that would jump out at me and fix my game.

I have found a telling stat. Eighty-percent of my double bogeys and worse come from bad drives. It's rare for me to get off the tee well and then take a double or worse. I count a "bad drive" as something where I either had a penalty or had to take an extra shot just to be where a good drive should have landed.

I had a weird stat last week at Alameda. I only had one green in regulation, one legit birdie chance on a flat easy course, but only had 27 putts. Most of us bogey golfers deal more with AGR--Almost Greens in Regulation.

I'm convinced that golf is not a game of excelling but more a game of disaster avoidance. In my 100 at PasaTiempo I had 10 horrendous holes of double and worse and only three good holes--birdies and pars. Cut back on the disasters and the scores could have been in the low 90s, not that good still but a hell of a lot more palatable than triple digits.


L

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