Last night was a slow round. So were were fighting the dark for the last 3 holes. Which is a shame because I was -1 going into 17.
When we teed off on the par 3 17th (Moors) we could barely see the flight path. But since it’s a par 3 we easily found our balls. I was on the green but 60 ft from the pin. Which is not surprising since I had no idea where the pin was. I wound up with a 3 putt that set me back to par.
On 18 it was beyond dusk. Only a glimmer of light over the horizon where the sun went down. The only thing going for us was that the clubhouse was behind the 18th green and has some lighting….but that’s about 430yds from where we tee-off. So we played by feel.
I think I need to play more night golf: when I smacked my drive I could tell by feel that I hit it great and likely without any slice/draw. So walking down the fairway at about the 140 to the pin, I picked up a faint glow of a ball that turned out to be mine.
The next shot was even more out of element: It’s pitch black now and the lighting behind the green is actually making it worse. I can’t see a thing towards the green except for those stinking lights.
I could still see my ball on the ground but all the cues to help determine depth and where the ground is are out the window so I had to swing on feel alone and hope to hit the ball. I felt I struck it very well but with a slight pull to the left.
When I got close to the green I could see that my ball had landed about 18ft from the hole and pin high. And in the dead of night on a big sloping green, I used my memory of the lay of the green and made an easy 2 putt to par out. This is a hole I rarely par on a perfect sunny day.
So I finished even par for the round and maybe, just maybe, the darkness helped me out!