Going North to West Fork.

For my latest endeavor I drove up to Conroe and played West Fork Golf & Country Club. The place sorta reminded me of a few places in rural Central Florida as many of holes were framed by trees or had a short forced carry over some type of grass or wetland area (which you should be able to see in the pictures). Harvey did a number on the place in regards to the traps and greens as all of the traps were under repair and the greens were VERY slow and had some rough spots, which made putting a bit of a challenge.

Despite the conditions, I enjoyed the course itself. Not overly difficult but you can find a few bad places as you made you way around. The fairways seemed wide enough on most holes, though in a couple of places I had a tough time trying to figure out exactly which line to take (admittedly I seem to find a few holes like that every time I play).

I think I'm going to go about this post differently than I have in the recent past. I never intended the blog to be a blow-by-blow account of every round I've played, that just seems too specific to me. That's not to say I might not do it again for a particularly good (or bad) round or if I happen to play an outstanding course. None of those reasons factor in here for this round, at least I don't think so. I shot 79, which is pretty good but not remarkable. Considering that I had two doubles and a triple in that 79, well, 15 good holes isn't shabby either.

The front nine was fairly outstanding as I shot a 1-over 37. I hit six fairways, eight greens and had two birdies. I also had a three-putt bogey after a horrible sand wedge approach on the par-5 third. The main blemish was a pulled 4-iron on the 181-yard par-3 fifth. I ended up hitting a second ball about 12 feet from the hole but I fully expected to find and play the first ball... but I never did find the bastard. I can only assume it settled down in the grass to a point that I just couldn't see it. So the second ball went into play and I two-putted for double. One bad swing...

The back nine was more haphazard. I doubled the tenth despite being 110 yards from the green after my drive. I misjudged my wedge and left it a bit short, semi-skulled the pitch long and three putted from there, though that green was pretty hairy. I croqueted that fucker, the ball made that "whoosh" sound like a jet taking off as it fought its way through the grass... and still ended up 10 feet short. Brutal, but shit happens.

My other disaster was on the short par-4 13th. This was one of the holes that I wasn't sure where to go from the tee. Hell, I couldn't decide what to hit. Was it 4-iron? 3-wood? Driver? I decided on 5-wood as I figured that should leave me around 80-100 yards to the green. Well, I pulled it a bit and discovered the hard way that 5-wood was too much and found the trees through the bend of this dogleg right. I found the ball but it was unplayable (penalty stroke one). I pitched out and still had 50 yards to the green. I then semi-bladed the lob wedge long, where I found a hazard (penalty stroke two). At least I got up and down for a 7, so there's that.

I hit a couple more less than stellar shots after that, the first on my attempted layup on the par-5 14th (pushed into another hazard) and the second on the 15th (a 6-iron pushed way right that still found the fringe of the green somehow). I did finish the back nine with four straight pars, including two pretty decent looks at birdie on the last two. I ended up with a 42 on the back to get that 79 I mentioned. Like I said, not bad overall but it really could have been better by avoiding those big numbers.

Over the course of the round I'd say I hit six really poor shots and all of them ended up costing me by resulting directly in a penalty or putting me in a really bad spot. I only got away with one, the pushed 6-iron, as I did get up and down for par there. Of course, I had some really good shots also. I hit several solid drives during the day, in fact I'd say that only that pulled 5-wood was truly wayward. I birdied the second hole after hitting an 8-iron to about 3 feet, that felt good. That second ball on the fifth might have been the best swing of the day (too bad it had to count). Considering that I was trying to change my swing path I'd say the day went pretty well. Sure, I had plenty of swings that had that right-hand hit reflex in it but I could definitely feel the newer swing path on quite a few others.

Now I'll post some pictures of the course. Hopefully I can remember what hole is what :

A view from the tee on the par-4 second

The par-3 fifth (trust me, the green is up there somewhere)

A look at the par-4 seventh

The par-3 eighth (my other birdie hole)

From the fairway of the par-5 ninth

The par-3 12th hole

From the tee of the par-5 14th hole

The 16th green

The green on the par-5 finishing hole

As I mentioned before, West Fork has plenty of trees and wetland-type areas defining the holes while having very few homes along the course. Its a bit rough around the edges, especially after the storm, however I don't think that this is the kind of place that has incredible conditions on a regular basis. A couple of the holes reminded me of the now-defunct Rock Springs Ridge in Apopka, especially the 15th hole with its uphill approach to the green. I'm sure the fairways have been better (not that they were awful) and the greens need time to recover. I'll definitely come back and see what the place looks like later in the year or sometime next.

As far as my game goes, I'm pretty happy with the progress so far. The swing feels... weird. I'd swear that I have this exaggerated figure-8 loop in my swing but if you see it in a video it almost looks... normal. Video doesn't lie, in fact it tells me I actually need to "exaggerate" it more in order to get it where it needs to be. That's gonna take some work, in fact it might be a good thing that my Jacksonville trip has been delayed another month just for that reason alone.

In fact, I might not even play this weekend. I might just try to simply work on this path thing for a solid 7-10 days before considering playing again. If I do play I might keep it local, perhaps I'll try Cypress Lakes again since its the course that I'm most familiar with. That place seems to have become my "home course" as that's where I've been going to practice ever since Harvey hit. The course is decent, the practice areas are good enough and while its not a high-end country club type of place its by no means a dump either.... its "comfortable" to me. I can go practice in just a regular shirt and gym shorts and they don't seem to mind. My kind of style.

OK, I'm done. Go about your business.