Rainy Day Golfing #12 & 35

For all my other golfing faults, at least you can't call me a fair-weather golfer. Today, Labor Day, I worked my way through 18 holes at Manor Golf Club in Sinking Spring, Pa., slogging through a soggy front nine before the sun finally showed, ever so briefly, later in the afternoon.

I half-expected to see werewolves out on a day like this.

At first I thought I had a way with rain; the first hole, an uphill par-4, provided my first birdie in more than 10 years. Immediately after that, I fell apart. The second hole a par-3, resulted in a 6 (although, to my surprise, I only two-putted it). After that I had two eights, a 10 and a 9.

The 10 that came on hole five was my best guess; after eight shots of not hitting the green, I gave up that hole. It took me four putts to finish with a 9 on the next hole, but I did manage a bogey on hole 7 before finishing the front nine with a 10 and a 12, respectively. On both holes I estimated my score because getting to the green was as futile to me as building a perpetual-motion machine.

The back nine went much better. I bogeyed the 10th hole and double-bogeyed the 11th. One hole 12 I hit another 10, but at least this was honest: It was a par-5 and I took five shots to make it on the green, followed by five putts. The other par-5 on the back nine was a little bit better. I still scored a 10, but at least I was able to two-putt. Yes, that means I needed eight shots to get on the green.

Give me a break. I'm new at this.

So close! So very close!

The weather cleared up on the back nine, where I finished with a 62 (compared to 71 on the front). Still, I don't blame the rain. Frustration and impatience set in on a number of those first holes.

How can you tell? Note the lack of putting on one-third of the front nine.

Golf is a game best played with an attitude of, "embrace the suck." If you can't be good, you might as well just try your best and have fun. Rain or shine. Luckily I learned that lesson before the day ended.

One of my goals for this year has been to finish a round with double-par or better. I scored a 133 today, seven shots better than the 140 I had hoped for. Next time, I hope to reach the same goal, but this time finishing every hole.

Even if it means something worse than a 12 on the scorecard.

Speaking of scorecards, here's mine from today:

And here's a look at my latest putting stats. They're getting a little bit better.

As is my average scoring, though I'm still far from average:

Keep foozling that niblick!