The course has a lot of steep slopes, even more than a course like Ely Park. Many of the fairways have long, uphill fairways, including No. 1 and No. 10, which run parallel off of elevated tees adjacent to the clubhouse.
Teeing off at No. 1, I was worried -- the sloped fairways can present a challenge for me off the tee, as a good drive for me tends to stay relatively low. No. 3 on Traditions at the Glen, a long, uphill par 4, always gives me problems, and from the parking lot I imagined 18 holes just like it.
Fortunately for me, Alex started out this round even more miserably than I began at Dimmock. He opened the first three holes 9-10-9, losing a handful of balls in the woods to the right as I pulled out to a lead. I had a good chance to build an insurmountable lead, but only emerged from his three-hole disaster up six strokes.
But as we approached the turn, Alex's game picked up significantly, and I gave a bunch of strokes back.
No. 8 isn't designed to be memorable, but I ended up playing it that way, hitting my tee shot a good 40 yards right of the green and getting lucky to save 5.
No. 9 is a tough, long, downhill par three with a creek running in front of the green. Having hit my driver pretty well, I thought I'd take a half swing and knock it close. My strategy failed miserably, but Alex was unable to capitalize, hitting his tee shot right of the wide green, and then hitting a particularly poor chip just on, failing to utilize the lengthy amount of real estate he had in front of him.
We'd make the turn tied at 61, and make a pit stop at the clubhouse, where we were joined by a trio of very drunk gentlemen. I was pleased with my selection of mushroom and swiss burger -- Alex had no complaints about the Philly cheesesteak.
My favorite hole of the season so far was No. 15, a very short par-3 that appears to be carved into a rock formation. I played a 52-degree wedge to the fringe left of the hole (front hole location), then left my chip two inches short of the hole for a gimme par. Alex's tee shot did not fare nearly as well, hitting the rocks to the left and short of the hole. With no grass short of the hole, he was left with a very difficult chip, and would earn a double-bogey.
Though we would go to No. 18 tied -- again -- in retrospect, I feel like I won Belden Hill on No. 14. I shanked a tee shot, then would have to labor to get the ball around the dogleg left and down the hill to the back of the fringe. I was about 20 feet from the pin in four, looking at a difficult putt from the fringe, with Alex much closer than me putting for a five.
My putt would move a little to the left, and I hit it a little too hard, but when it went in the hole for a 5, and I picked up a stroke, I had a lead and had confidence going into the last few holes.
But when we reached 16 and 17, I seemed determine to blow any sort of lead. I managed back-to-back snowmen, and Alex managed the most miraculous shot of the season so far: A long iron from the middle of the fairway on 17 that took a sharp right turn -- hit the cart path -- and bounced onto the middle of the fairway, dribbling to about 30 feet and giving him a lengthy birdie putt.
Thankfully, Alex three-putted, we went to 18 tied, and I gave him the business as he stood on the tee. I had the advantage of going second on the long, uphill, dogleg-left closing hole, and despite a shaky back 9 with the driver, pulled it out of the bag after watching Alex epically choke.
I hit a pretty good second shot to the left of the green, made a nice chip onto the elevated green, and made a disappointing three-putt to close with a 6, which would be more than good enough as Alex limped home with an 8 after an embarrassing series of nervous wedge shots into the green.
Despite closing 8-8-6, I finished the back 9 in 51, evened the match play series at 1, took a one-shot lead for the season, and felt a little bit more confident about my prospects going forward in the Libous Invitational.
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FYI -- I expect to be able to convince Alex to post soon, but he refused to review Dimmock and Belden.
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