For the first time in my life, I played a round of golf as part of a vacation trip. I had a lot of fun and will have a lot more vacation rounds in new places in the future.

I chose the Pacific Grove Golf Links as an affordable round with a pacific view and near Pebble Beach. https://www.playpacificgrove.com/ I called to reserve a tee-time a few days early but had no problem with Tom slotting me in with other folks. Very friendly service! The front nine rambles inland through tall trees, then the back nine zig-zags out towards the Pacific. The 10th hole lies adjacent to the Point Pinos Lighthouse but tall trees somewhat obscures the view and I spent more time playing golf than looking for lighthouse photo ops. I did come back the next day for the sunset photo that is the title picture for this blog.

My usual format for round reviews is, conditions, general overview, blow-up hole review, memorable hole/shot review, Round stats, and finally lessons learned.

Pacific Grove GL Conditions

I had a surprisingly mild round with light southerly winds that freshened to 1-club strength later in the round. Missed out on stronger westerly pacific breezes that we had earlier in the week. Partly cloudy and a bit cool for the short sleeves I was wearing but I didn’t let it bother me as I was having so much fun playing golf.

General Overview of the round

I scored a reasonable 99 for the round. The front nine I suffered from lack of focus on my wedges and some putts with the result I tripled 3 holes in a row, 2, 3, & 4 and ended up scoring 55 on the front. After that though I started improving and had a great bogey-golf 44 on the back with two memorable pars. I rented their clubs which consisted of one of the Taylor Made sets of PW through 4 iron, a 23° hybrid, a 16.5° 3-wood, a driver, never used, a 56° Sand Wedge and 52° Gap Wedge, the two latter the same Vokey wedges I have used in the past. This was particularly grating as there was no excuse for woeful wedges on the front nine. The putter was a Scotty Cameron putter basically similar to mine – very nice! I topped one hybrid and push/faded two 3-woods, but managed to only loose one ball. I hit several awesome tee shots with 3-wood, 3-hybrid, and 5-iron. The greens were on par with the Avery Ranch greens I usually play so I had several nice lag putts. Because I played with rental clubs I didn’t have my Game Golf on the round so I am writing the review from memory and the scorecard above.

Blow-up Hole Review

• Hole 2 – Par 3, 193 yards – hit 8-iron layup into ESZ (Enter Scoring Zone) as this is long Par 3 for me and was into the wind. Shanked GW right, weak SW short of green, SW chip-on, 2-putt triple.
• Hole 3 – Par 4 305 short yards. Weak but safe ESZ then short GW, SW on, 3-putt triple.
• Hole 4 – Par 4 short 259 yards. Topped 3-H, Some-iron short. Wedge, wedge, putt-chip, two-putts triple.
• Doubles – 3 of the two-chip, two-putt variety, one of the ‘X’ in ESZ variety.

Memorable Hole/Shots Review

• Saved a double on Hole 8 – Hit drive OB, took 2 stroke penalty drop and 5 ESZ but in DSZ chipped to 2 ft and sank put for 7 on par 5.
• Holes 10 through 14 all bogey or better with solid golf and great scrambling.
• Hole 10 – Par 3, 103 yards – Pulled PW pin-high, chip-on, 2-putts – acceptable par three performance at my HC but GIR Par desired outcome from only 100 yards.

• Hole 12 – Scrambling bogey on short par 4. Great 3-hybrid fairway. Pulled 7-iron into sand dunes left of pin. Hit provisional, but found original sitting in a bed of sand and grass in area not marked protected. Hit nice pop-out chip onto green and two-putted for bogey.
• Hole 13 – The outermost pacific-view par 5, 497 yard dog-leg right. Hit 3-hybrid into right side of fairway, 7-iron to left side of fairway, leaving 158 yards to green. Pulled out the (rental) 5-iron and hit a crisp floater that landed front edge and rolled back to pin-high 12 ft away as seen below. (Pacific Ocean and protected dunes in background.) Lipped out birdie putt on the high side and made the tap-in par.

• Hole 14 – Short 307 yard par 4 bogey – remember, Bogey Is My Friend!
• Hole 16 – Par 4 and long for me 383 yards – Hit perfect 3-wood with helping wind. Had 155 left to green. Pulled out 5-iron and ended up 15 ft from hole – Missed birdie putt low (grrrr!) and made the par. I’ve had several longer GIR pars of late and my confidence with approach shots is improving.
• Hole 17 – Par 3 133 yards to middle of green. Monterey Bay on the left, water front. Hit 6-iron GIR to very back of green and 3-putted for bogey.

Pacific Grove Comparison Stats

I didn’t have Game Golf for distances but some notables from Scoring Method – 16 of 18 ESZ – above average of 71%. DSZ 11 of 18 is below my 12 of 18 average. Thirty-seven putts above 34 putts average. Getting a DSZ and DSZ on the same hole is bogie or better score. I track percentage of both and had 9 of 18 this round – about the average 47%. There are other stats I gather with Game Golf but will do without here.

Lessons Learned

Most strokes lost in the short game, by far. I need to hit a lot of wedges to get comfortable pitching and chipping under any condition. Can’t have blow-up holes on simple wedge play. Goal: Hit minimum of 100 wedges on each practice session striving to get 100-50 yards within 25 ft of pin and get inside 50 yards inside 20 ft within 2 months.

Putting has been in a slow decline of late with the average creeping up a few points. Goal: Increase putting sessions to two per week, each with one of the lag and short game drills incorporated. Drop average putts below 34 within 3 months.

Even though using rental clubs, I hit many great shots including several 5 and 6-iron great shots. Hitting 5-iron 150+ yards off deck is becoming reliable and reasonably accurate for approaches. Five iron tee shots of 160+ yards have occurred with great fairway finding ability. The 5-iron is becoming quite versatile with good distance off the tee and deck (for me) not to mention the reliable low 5-iron hook around trees and easy duck-tree-limb punch out to fairway club.

Mentally, I have recently put together several 9 hole sections with low 40 score. If I can repeat the focused feel I had for those9 hole scores and extend it to 16 to 18 holes I will start regularly shooting in the mid 80’s. I feel like I am very close to a breakthrough – especially if I hit practice hard when I get back from vacation!