Ottawa Citizen RD 1, ready??

[joethepro66]

So is everyone ready for round #1? Will it rain tomorrow or just thunderstorms? Are you teeing off late or early? What is the better part of the draw?

[mjf]

Am I ready? Well... my game is up and down like a toilet seat of late. I figure I could shoot anywhere from 75 to 90. As Kanata Lakes has historically been a pretty tough course for me, I'll definitely take anything around 80. Hopefully I'll be able to make up some strokes in round 2 at Stonebridge where I'm much more comfortable.

I'm teeing off #1 at 9:30 and hoping the rain starts coming down right after I drop my birdie putt on #18. ;-) Realistically though, I'm bringing a big umbrella and plenty of Gore-Tex.

Anybody have any opinions about what the cut will be? Given the difficulty of Kanata Lakes and the discomfort a lot of people have with Stonebridge, I'm thinking 165 - 166. The fact that there are also only about 120 players might have an impact on the cut line as well.

[joethepro66]

The cut line of 165-168 sounds about right, especially if it rains. I dont think they will tip Kanata out, they learned there lesson from the past. Should be fun....

[mjf]

There was a sheet included in the package that showed which tees they would be using for each hole. I think about 8 or 9 holes will be played from the Blue tees... the rest from the back. If I remember correctly, some of the ones they'll be playing from the blues were #1, #4, #5, #8, #9. (There were more on the back 9).

So distance won't really be an issue.

[jvincent]

Most of the front nine is blues, with a couple of golds, and the back nine is the reverse, mostly golds with a couple of blues.

I'm off #1 at 8:20. I don't really care if it rains or not, once there's no lightning.

I played my practice round this AM and managed an 85 from the golds with a skanky triple and few doubles from not paying attention. The rough wasn't too high and the greens were holding because of the rain so I don't expect too much carnage tomorrow unless the weather is bad.

The course is in decent shape. There are a few spots on the fairways where the grass hasn't fully grown in so the ball can sit down like it's in a divot. I had a couple of those today. The worst spot is the green on #15. They resodded two very large sections of it yesterday and there are still some very big seams in the resodded sections. My guess is they will have the pin front left there since that's the only reasonably large area that won't be impacted by the resodding.

[joethepro66]

Thanks for the update! Good luck tomorrow.

[mjf]

They resodded even MORE of the 15th green? There were a couple of stripes done when I was there a couple of weeks ago.

I think I'll look up the rule for GUR on the green because it sounds like a LOT of that green might be marked as such.

[mjf]

I looked at the tee sheet again... As jvincent said, they are planning to use only 6 Gold (back) tees and 12 Blues. On the holes where they are using the back tees there's little or no yardage difference between the two sets of tees anyway.

[gbower]

Ok you guys have your work cut out for you. I was at Predator today and low round for the first round of the ladies was a stellar 68 (-4) and a couple of 71's. No rain and lots of pretty good golf by the ladies. Good luck guys.

[XTOUR]

Good Luck to all those playing !!

[joethepro66]

Is it raining in Kanata right now? How are the early times going?

[jvincent]

It rained a little before the first tee time and then a couple of sprinkles during the round, nothing significant.

I can tell you how my round went. My goal this year was to avoid the "big number" since nothing kills a round like one. Or in my case today, two of them.

Rode the bogey train from 1-7 and then pulled off a pair of 9's on 8 and 9. 52 front. Ugh. Thought about playing like a mad man for the back nine but just focussed more and came in with a 40 for a total of 92.

My stats for the round: 11/14 fairways, 3 GIR , 34 putts.

I really, really, really need to start hitting more greens. Of the three missed fairways only one really cost me (had to punch out of the trees on #9). The two I missed were just off and everything else was piped.

[Swerve]

Also disappointed Was +4 after 10 holes and finished with an 85

[jvincent]

Want to trade front nines?

[Swerve]

I started on the back so my front 9 wasnt much better... but i think i will just keep it I actually saw your name and the back to back 9s,vI was feelin for ya...

[jvincent]

Thanks. Since somebody will ask, here' how you finish 9-9. It's a combination of bad execution, bad course management, and bad luck.

Hole #8.
Snap hook a tee shot into the water. (BE)
Drop a ball into an iffy lie. I should have gone further back. (BCM)
Advance stroke #3 about 15 feet onto the edge of the hazard (BE)
Chip out sideways.
Airmail the green with a 9i (BE)
Fluff a chip (BE)
Chip onto green.
Two putts.

Hole #9.
Tee shot into the trees (BE)
Chip out.
Lay up into the left rough.
Hit 8i that hits the right edge of the green, bounce right and rolls into the hazard. (BL)
Chip up and roll off green.
Chip on.
Two putts.

I was a little steamed walking to #10.

[hoolio]

My stats for the round: 11/14 fairways, 3 GIR , 34 putts.

I really, really, really need to start hitting more greens.

I'm no statistician, but one would think that if you only have 3 GIR's then you should have less than 34 putts. The short game sounds pretty suspect...

[jvincent]

I'm no statistician, but one would think that if you only have 3 GIR's then you should have less than 34 putts. The short game sounds pretty suspect...

With insight like that, have you considered applying to the Golf Channel to be an analyst?

I missed a bunch of make-able putts on the front but the real problem is that I'm missing so many greens, sometimes in bad spots, that I'd have to have a tour level short game to shoot a decent number right now.

[mjf]

Just completed my round about 20 minutes ago. I ended up with a somewhat disappointing 82. It certainly could have been better... then again, it could have been MUCH worse as well. I had to hit TWO provisionals on #15 but was fortunate to find my first one.

The story of the day was iffy driving which resulted in too many pitch outs and one lost ball off the tee on #2. There were also a few slightly fat iron shots that each cost me at least a stroke.

Looks like a LOT of high scores though. I believe I saw three over 100! One of the guys I played with had a 75 and was the low man in the clubhouse.

Of note, and I don't believe anybody mentioned this yet, we played preferred lies. Not lift/clean/place... but we were able to roll the ball with our clubhead within one foot provided the ball was in the cut portion of our own fairway.

[Swerve]

i played with one of those 100+ guys. it was rough, I thought he was gonna run out of balls for sure - I would say he hit provisionals on 12-14 holes, and had to walk back on 2 (turns out his ball was fine but it had already been declared lost and the 5 minutes had waaay expired.

I started off so well on the back and after 3 holes, we had probably hit 11 provisionals (only 1 was mine and I knew my ball was just in the low area on 12 - BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY)

[mjf]

Just dropped by Kanata Lakes to check the latest scores. Marc-Etienne Bussiere shot a 66!!!

Of 111 players whose scores were posted:

5 shot 100 or worse
25 shot 90 or worse
25 were in the 70s or better

I figure my 82 will place me somewhere around 45th - 50th when all is said and done after round 1.

I took some pictures of the scores they had posted to this point. You can see them here if you're interested:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mfarquh...7620788041038/

[linganlad]

Once again, the Citizen Amateur exposes how many guys are lying about their single digit handicaps!

Of course, it could just be that their handicaps travel very, very, very badly..........

[John]

Alot of players carry handicaps at courses alot less difficult than Kanata Lakes not to mention under tournament pressure.

[jvincent]

I haven't looked at the hole by hole scores for some of the other high scores, but in my particular case I was 22 over. 10 of that on two holes. From a handicapping perspective, those will get reduced.

[Big Johnny69]

I didn't see McGee's or Koski's name on any of the scoresheets? What's up with that? Or were there more sheets, just no scores posted on them yet?

[lms]

I didn't see McGee's or Koski's name on any of the scoresheets? What's up with that? Or were there more sheets, just no scores posted on them yet?

They were in the last 2 groups, so maybe another scoreboard was still being added.

[lms]

The women's range was -4 to +50.

[jvincent]

There's no handicap requirement for the women.

[mjf]

I didn't see McGee's or Koski's name on any of the scoresheets? What's up with that? Or were there more sheets, just no scores posted on them yet?

There was one more sheet, but no scores had been filled in on that one at all so I didn't take a picture of it. Guess I should have...

[mjf]

Once again, the Citizen Amateur exposes how many guys are lying about their single digit handicaps!

Gee... I had no idea my posting the scoring breakdown would steer the conversation in this direction.