74 and then 73 last Friday. On Friday I really should’ve been a shot or two lower. I was even standing on the 16th green with a 40 foot eagle putt. Misread it completely and hit a bad 1st putt and then a loose approach into 18. Can’t complain though. I’ve spent the last year playing infrequently and struggling to break 80.
It must be nice to only miss one 4 footer in a round. When I was younger and playing often, I would shoot 73 and miss as many as a half dozen inside 6 feet. I would shoot 75 and 3 putt 4 times, stuff like that. I would hit 14 greens in reg , never have a one putt, and shoot 77. I'm not sure if I ever played a round without a 3 putt. Very frustrating way to play.
I wish it had been 4 feet. It was a 40 footer that I left about 10 feet away. The greens were tough because they rolled well, but it had rained a ton the night before and the speeds from one green to the next were crazy different. Putting downhill or from distance was basically a guess.
I think my worst putting round when I hit it really well was about 20 years ago at The Ridges , now Blackthorn, near Jonesborough Tennessee. I was around 50 at the time, and I hit 13 greens in regulation from the next to back tees. I think they had 4 sets of tees then. Of the missed 5 greens, 3 were due to hitting it straight but over the green, and 2 were hooked slightly to the left . Of the 5 I missed, the furthest from the flag was maybe 50 feet. I shot 84 with 45 putts, 9 three putts and 9 two putts. I never got up and down, and 2 putted the 5 greens I missed, and 2 putted 4 of the 13 I hit, and 3 putted the other 9.
They were extremely fast, and I was scared to death. Thinking back on it, I must have gotten up and down 2 of the 5 times. I had forgotten, but I am positive of 3 things. That I hit 13 greens, 3 putted 9 times, and shot 84. The only way to come up with 84 is if I got up and down 2 of the 5. Any way you look at it, it was really bad.
My brother ran across Moe about 35-40 years ago , hitting balls on a driving range at a course in Florida where Moe wintered. He said that Moe had on dirty clothes, and didn't want to converse. He did watch him hit for a little while though. Said his ball striking was impressive. Moe wasn't terribly well known at that time by the general golfing public, but my brother had read an article about him in Sports Illustrated shortly before that.
