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Last Saturday, I played a round at Hope Valley Golf Course located in Mount Airy, Maryland. It's a short executive course with about half the holes being Par 4s and the other half as Par 3s. Despite it's short distances, however, the course can be a tricky one. Each hole challenges the golfer's accuracy in ways that aren't found at a lot of other courses in the area. Because the course runs up and down valleys and through a huge number of trees, if the player miscalculates their any of their shots there's a good chance at simply losing the ball to the wilderness. The first time I played the course last year was before I was regularly keeping track of my rounds and I ended up losing 20 or more balls. This year, I've been working strictly on my iron game and I really planned to attack the course with my sharpened short game skills. I scored pretty well for most of the round with mostly bogeys throughout, which is pretty normal for me. I often seem to underestimate my shots and end up falling short of the greens due to it, leading to a lost shot needing to chip myself on much of the time. However, as I neared the end of the round, I decided to analyze the shot and then take one club more than I thought I might need to try to avoid falling short. The first couple of times I did this, I ended up hitting the green but rolling just past it so I'd end up needing to chip back on again. However, by the time I hit the 18th hole, I was determined to get it right. It was a pretty straight 145 yards to the green slightly downhill. My estimation was that I might need a 4 iron to get there but I decided to hit my 5 iron because I generally feel more comfortable with it. I teed up and hit the ball perfectly. It soared through the air and landed on the front lip of the green and rolled to about 25 feet short of the hole, so I was quite happy with it expecting that I should be able to make par and be happy. However, through the round, we'd discussed the fact that I'd never made birdie before on a hole. I'd come close several times but never quite pulled it off. So this time, as I approached the hole, I was determined to make that 25 foot putt for par. I walked up to my shot as the other players continue to chip their way onto the green and really thought about how to make the shot. There was a pretty severe slope in the green that was going to force the ball in a right-to-left motion along my line so I had to take that into account. I remember picturing that green in the same way that I'd approach putting in a Tiger Woods video game, with the gridlines . So I set up how I thought I needed to, relaxed my hands and then let the putter do it's work. The ball perfectly followed the line I'd determine and followed the break exactly as I thought it was going to. The next thing I know the ball ran right into the flag and dropped in! It was awesome. The other guys playing each gave me a handshake and cheered as it dropped and it made for great discussion when we went to eat afterwards.
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