Wind, wind and more wind

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Wow, wow, wow and wow. Today was easily one of the more difficult rounds of golf of the year. The wind was absolutely howling today. Easily blowing a steady 20-25 mph, and gusting up to 40 mph. The wind will do whatever it wants with the golf ball, especially if you don’t hit it solid.
A tee time of 8:15 this morning, I knew it was going to be windy from the forecasts, but I thought with an early time I might catch a little break. That was completely wrong. 6:15 came and it was time to rise and shine. A quick shower and I was on my way to the course. The trees were bending and shaking from the wind. I knew a long day was in store.
The range at Lost Springs was facing directly into the wind. Which I guess was a good thing, but the only shots you could hit too warm up were punch shots because everything else just went straight up into the wind. During my warm up session my bag must have blown over at least 4 or 5 times, and I also saw two peoples hats get blown into the pond behind the range. A funny sight, only because it wasn’t my hat.
Finally 8:15 rolled around and it was time to play. I am trying to think of ways to describe how much the wind was blowing but it is hard unless you were there. I will just tell you some of the yardages I hit some clubs to give you an example. The first hole of the day I had 176 yards left. A nice low 3 iron came up short. The third hole, 185 yards left, 8 iron flew past the hole. It was a little down wind you could say. Fifth hole of the day 189 yards was a perfect 7 iron. Only two holes later it was the 7 iron again only this time from 127 yards. It was absolutely out of control. It reminded me a lot of last summer in the British Amateur, but the difference was that golf course was meant to be played with lots of wind. In England, the wind would blow much like it did today, but the golf course is set up to be played like that. Meaning that the fairways would be a lot harder to allow for lower shots, and also over there you could run a lot of shots onto the green. Lost Springs is not meant to be played in that much wind. With narrow fairways and very narrow greens, it makes it that much more difficult with all of the wind howling.
As the day went on I grew more accustomed to the wind and tried to settle into my round. A nice double on my ninth hole (18, I started on the back) let me make the turn at +3. Not too sporty. Anyways the first hole is a par five, dead down wind today. I had 292 yards left to the green and had too much club. That is one of the few, well er, the only time in my life that from 292 yards a 4 wood was too much club. I hit it OVER the green. It has to be the longest 4 wood of my life. I managed to make birdie there, get up and down the next 4 holes, and was sitting at +2 with 4 holes to play. A nice little 3 putt and an unsuccessful up and down at the 8th left me at a lovely +4 = 75 for the day. Also on my back nine, remember the 8 iron I hit from 185 that was too much? Well, try one from 119 on the 7th hole. Craziness!!
So 75 for today, need a little better round tomorrow to make the cut, but we will see what happens. A few hours grinding at the course this afternoon hopefully will pay off with a good round tomorrow.
Hope the weather is better wherever you are,

Stuart

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