Back to the Fountain and a chance to redeem myself a little. I just feel more comfortable at this course, the layout is more open and the danger is more obvious. The majority of holes have an obvious straight or hyzer route, so I’m not having to pull off any big turnover shots.

So I came in today aiming for a 50, I replayed a lot of the bad holes in my head and tried to work out some new strategies to clean them up a little. Unfortunately, I started out by drowning my first drive again. I had a good drive and solid upshot on two, but chickened out on the death putt for birdie 3 chaining out right. Putting was my nemesis today, but I know that is a direct result of my lack of practice. If I intend to compete in this sport, I need to commit the practice time. At this point, any putt inside the circle, even with a little wind, should be relatively automatic.

I’ve noticed, as have many of my friends that I play with, that my putts usually have just enough to get there. In short, I putt to the basket instead of through it. I’ve spent some time analyzing the causes and effects of that. My meek putting style never leaves me with a challenging comeback putt, but more often than not, it also means that my initial putt didn’t have a chance. I’m going to have to build my putting confidence and learn to be more aggressive.

I did, however, can a long jumper on one of the elevated baskets. My upshots were pretty short again today, which left me in less-than-ideal position for the majority of my putts. I also need to start planning my upshots better such that I can be more free to run them. Things like making sure I don’t leave myself with OB directly behind the basket, or tricky sidehill shots with a high likelihood of roll-away.

I would have to say the highlight of my day came on hole 17, which had a tall palm tree marked as a mando on the left side of the fairway. Another palm of identical height and distance off the tee stood about 3 feet right of it creating a tiny window. I ended up releasing my drive about a second early in my swing and launched it on a stiff hyzer going right at the mando tree. Since missing the mando meant a re-tee, I was relieved when it decided to flatten out at the last second and split the gap between the trees. A small gallery that was watching the 3-hole junction at that end of the course oooohed and ahhhed a bit and I got a small round of applause (and laughter). A little old lady standing near the tee smiled at me and said ‘I bet you can’t do that again…’. Definitely a good laugh. I ended up getting a lucky par on that hole, which could have easily wrecked an otherwise OK round.

Still, I scored fairly well and stayed out of the OB for the most part. I improved on most of the holes I faltered on during Wednesday’s round, but shorted myself on others. Overall, I probably played too conservatively considering how far down in the standings I was after Thursday’s catastrophe.

Either way, I really enjoy playing at the Fountain and am looking forward to next year. I hope I’ll be able to swing a little more time off so that I can get some practice in ahead of time.

Definitely not looking forward to tomorrow. Not only is it another round at the dreaded Vista, but it means this tourney adventure is coming to an end and it’s back to work :(