Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Tuesday 10/25/16 A Journey to Wente

Wente makes wine (the wifi password for the guest account is cabernet!  But you didn't hear it from me.) they also have a couple of restaurants on the site and a golf course that winds its way through the local hills.

It has a slope of 123 for the tees we played today, 124 for our usual set.

Rain threatened again and aside from the tiniest two spots of pseudo-drizzle, the weather was grand; cool and overcast and not much wind.  The wind can blow there through the hills.

I decided that if you are playing well, golf can be quite the treat.  I would have gladly gone another 18, but lunch and some wine was the agendum.

I shot a smooth 40/39 to romp home with a 79.  I've played the course maybe 4 times and I think the best was an 88 or so.  No doubles, which are easy to get on this course.  Only once in the sand on a 390 yard hole, and I managed the up and down neatly.

I only missed one green badly, ran though a few others and 3 putted a bunch.  The greens are undulating and seeded with bent, which make for tough putting if you don't know the breaks.  There is usually a very fast direction and a slow one based on the grain of the grass.

My driver never let me down -- we'll ignore the "breakfast ball" on the first tee - hooked into the grapes.  I reteed and hit it 260 in the fairway.

Lots of 105 yard shots to the greens and this is a comfortable number for me, usually a gap or sand wedge depending on wind etc.

I didn't think much about taking the club back inside and rerouting;  that didn't seem to matter much.  I was staying looser a la Freddie Couples.

My distance seems to be improving.  I smacked one three wood just like Freddie, nice long backswing and a delicious hit complete with a whoosh noise and a direction that cut the grape vine corner to setup a short iron to an elevated green.  Just like it was planned.  Ah, the joy of a number of shots, well struck, and in sequence.

I widened my putting stance and that helped with my distance control and accuracy.  I'll test this some more tomorrow.

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