Par 3 Golf Recap

Tuesday Will and I braved the heat to play our favorite Par 3 course, Harbour View in Little River SC, a few yards from the North Carolina border. We were grouped with a single, a fellow named Rick from Ohio. Turned out he worked in a steel mill…he runs the huge overhead crane.

1. Par…Will’s tee shot stopped just over the green, and then he almost holed his chip back, and rolled in a par. My tee shot wasn’t bad, but it bounced off the green off to the left. I looked in my bag for my wedge, and realized I hadn’t packed one. Had a nice chip with my 9-iron, then made a challenging par putt.
2. Bogie…I hit a nice high tee shot, the first of many nice tee shots. And the first of many bogies. For every impressive chip shot and / or putt, I had a flubbed shot.
3. Bogie…pulled out the 5-wood and hit a good shot, but right of the green. Nice chip.
4. Bogie…my seven iron tee shot sailed low, hitting the green but bouncing off. Tough downhill chip, but I hit the second one close.
5. Bogie…after a nice drive just off the green and a decent chip, I missed a short par putt.
6. Bogie.
7. Par…I finally hit a green, and two-putted.
8. Double. A greenskeeper was raking the bunker but paying attention, and sure enough, that’s where I hit it. Missed him by ten feet.
9. We all missed the green, but we all pitched our second shots close. I missed another short putt. At the halfway point my 35 was three strokes better than Will and Rick.
10. Double…another tough downhill chip and poor putting.
11. Double.
12. Double. We decided to all hit my 5-wood from the far back tee. My shot wasn’t bad, but tailed right at the end. Took me two chips and putts.
13. Bogie…we all three hit the green, but Will was the only one to par the hole.
14. Par…again we all three hit the green, and we all made pars. It was the first of four straight pars for Rick, a streak that would win him the match.
15. Bogie…
16. Six…no comment.
17. Seven…I hit a short tee shot but had a decent chip to the fringe and lagged my first putt “close”, but then I couldn’t master a severely sloped green. Will also had a seven.
18. Bogie…missed a short par putt. Will parred the hole.

Will was more rusty than me. After his opening par, he had seven bogies and four doubles before parring two straight, the 13th & 14th. But two 6’s and a 7 bloated his back nine score to a 41. Rick’s back nine 35 gave him a 73, besting me by five strokes.