Signs of Goodness...

Well, I said I was starting to hit it more solidly, and I did just that today--hit it solidly. It was really fun to strike the ball in the center of the clubface. I stood over shots today knowing I had a chance to hit them close to the hole, and that was fun for a change so far this year.

Unfortunately, I still hit a few loose shots on the front nine today. I planned my way around the course very well, but my execution was poor on three tee shots and a fairway bunker shot on the front nine. The three bad tee shots led to two bogeys and a double bogey while the errant shot from the fairway bunker led to another bogey. I got punished for all of my mistakes today. Three of my bad swings led to penalty shots and the other one left me chipping sideways from next to the green. Even with two front nine birdies and some good iron shots, I turned at three-over-par.

The back nine was my most solid effort in 2010 to date. I hit a lot of good tee shots, some really good iron shots, and made a couple of good up and downs for birdie on the two par fives. My putter was a little cold on the back nine, but I felt like I was hitting good putts. The end result was a three-under-par back nine and an even par 72 total for the first round.

This score was not very good as the course played quite easy today, but I'm very happy with the way I was able to come back on the back nine. I start on that nine tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to playing really well on that side again, and then I'm going to keep it going on the front nine. I'm expecting to play well and shoot a low score tomorrow!