The Golf Course at Lake Torretta

This past weekend I decided on playing as the weather was just too nice to simply practice. I decided on trying out La Torretta Resort in Montgomery as I had read good things about the place in the past. The place felt more like a residential course than a resort course to me, though it did remind me of the old Grenelefe Resort in Haines City, FL for some reason. The place isn't high end and the conditions are not pristine however I didn't see any evidence of damage from Harvey either. I could have done a lot worse in choosing my course this week.

I'm going to take the lazy route again and simply state that I shot a 3-over 74 that felt worse that the score. Yeah, I've said that plenty in the past but that's just how I feel. The tees I played were just under 6000 yards, fairly short even when taking into account that the track was a par-71. I kept the ball in play most of the day, which always helps, but I noticed that I wasn't hitting the irons as well as I had been recently. I also pitched in for par (!) on the 13th hole so that saved at least one stroke, if not two.

Sure, I did plenty of things right. I made a few putts, I didn't suffer from any of those recent shanking issues in the short game and I avoided serious trouble all day. I wouldn't say the course was overly easy, despite its short length from the tees I played there were some bad spots to avoid out there. I guess now would be a good time to share some pictures of the place :

The par-3 second at La Torretta

A view of the green on the par-4 fourth

The rather large green at the par-5 ninth

The par-3 11th, complete with a sucker pin placement

The green of what is likely the signature hole, the par-4 15th

The approach to the par-5 18th

I had two birdies on the day, one was on the 15th hole (shown in the above pictures). I finally started hitting the irons a little better by then and knocked a 9-iron to within three feet there. I also birdied the first hole, a short dogleg-left par-5 that forced me to hit 3-wood off the tee. I hit another 3-wood just left and short of the green, from there I pitched to about 10 feet and made the putt.

As for the other holes in the pictures I bogeyed the second when I missed the green right and couldn't get up and down. On the fourth I was short with a wedge, leaving it on the fringe. I hit a decent chip but missed the putt. I parred the ninth after deciding not to chance a run at the green in two despite being about 210 yards away. I hit a good drive but it was left of optimal since trees partially blocked my view. I was in the fairway but had a downhill lie and just didn't feel comfortable. With water short and what looked like out of bounds right I just elected to punch a 7-iron down the fairway and hit a lob wedge onto the green.

After a bogey on the deceptively long par-4 tenth I managed to par the 11th hole despite leaving a 9-iron dangerously short. I made the fringe and got up and down fairly easily but hitting that 9-iron about 10 yards short was disappointing. As I mentioned, I chipped in for par on the 13th and birdied the 15th around two pars. I would then make pars the rest of the way, including a nice up and down on the 18th after I hit my gap wedge too far on my third shot. I didn't even realize that I shot even par 35 on the back until after I was finished. I definitely played better on the back, especially the last five holes, so once I looked back on the round it did feel about right.

Still, it was disappointing that I ended up falling into the bad habits I was trying to break. Even though I was definitely trying to take the club back more upright I am still finding a way to come in steeply to the ball like I was before. My ball wasn't always drifting to the right like it had before but it certainly lost some of the power I was getting in the last few weeks. I need to get back to concentrating on getting that club back to the inside on the way down. Changes are hard.

We'll keep at it since, well, I like playing golf. I hit some balls last night and did a better job at attacking the ball from the inside and liked what I saw. Maybe I'll eventually remember how to do it on the course.