Labor Day

My next tee time will be on Labor Day, 9/1/08, and I'll be playing Putterham Meadows (aka Brookline Golf Club at Putterham). You might also know Putterham as the parking lot for the Ryder Cup when it was held at The Country Club in Brookline in 1999. The PGA (or maybe the USGA) paid for a major renovation after the event, and Putterham had a bit of a resurgence in the early 2000s; however, in the past few years I'd have to say it has gone downhill a bit, and when I played there this spring I was most definitely underwhelmed.

That being said, the abundance of rain has made most courses in New England more lush and green than they usually are at this time of year, so maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised when I go back on Monday.

Why am I writing about this in advance, you ask? Well, Putterham is one course where I have a real chance of reaching even par. One of my career closest rounds came there on July 29, 2005. It started out somewhat pedestrian with a par-par-bogey-par; I say pedestrian because anything worse than 1-over after 4 at Putterham would be pretty lousy. The last 5 on the front are a bit more of a challenge, and I started well (bogey on the long par 3 5th, followed by birdie on the tough dogleg par 5 6th, and then par on the 7th, which I find to be the toughest green to hit of just about any that I've every played). The 8th and 9th, though, were disastrous for my round -- double-bogey 6's on both, including a 3 putt on 9. After the front, I was +5.

And that's when it started to come together. The first 3 holes on the back are all short, but challenging off the tee, and I made 3 straight pars. The 13th is a 400 yard par 4 with an uphill approach, and so my bogey there was acceptable. I then made a strong birdie on the par-4 14th, easily the toughest hole on the course -- I drained about a 25 footer, and that started a string of long putts that really turned my score around. I made a long one for par on 15, and then about a 40 footer for birdie on 16. That was followed by two "standard" pars on 17 & 18 for a one-under 34 on the back. Final score: 75 (+4). Looking back, those two doubles on 8 & 9 really were the undoing for the round... though having only 12 putts on the back certainly helped.

Stay tuned....