The secret to making birdies is hitting awesome shots

This past Saturday I achieved a long time goal of making 3 birdies in one round of golf. It was sort of anti-climatic though.

To clarify, I shot a 44 on the front nine with 2 birdies. Par is 36. So, for all you mathematicians out there, who can tell how well I really played by seeing 2 birdies and a 44, you know I pretty much bogied and double bogied every single hole except for the holes I birdied. In other words, I sucked it up big time except for the 2 birdies.

Forget all that though. Let’s talk about the birdies.

The first birdie was awesome. It was on a long par 4 hole #7 at Keeton. I hit my drive straight as an arrow about 270 yards. I duffed my second shot short of the green. I was pissed, but I kept my cool. My 3rd shot was totally sweet, and it went exactly as planned for a change. I was 20 yards away. I chipped over a mound and onto the green. It rolled and broke about 7 feet, barely hit the flag, and dropped in the cup. If it didn’t drop, I still would have been inches away. Oh, and there was about 10 feet of break in the chip, which apparently, I read perfectly.

The next birdie was awesome too. It was on another fairly short par 4, #9. I drove my ball 336 yards to pin high 10 yards off the green. (I had a huge 30 mph tail wind!) I chipped on and almost made eagle, but the ball rolled 12 feet passed. My putt coming back had a foot of break, and I read it perfectly, and the ball dropped for a birdie. I was jumping up and down.

The last birdie came on the last hole. It just sort of happened. I wasn’t even thinking about my 3 birdie goal. #18 is a fairly long par 5 with water along the right side. I hit a good drive that landed in a clump of trees, but I still had a shot at the green. My next shot landed short of the green behind a bunker about 25 yards from pin. So, from behind a bunker, I hit my 3rd shot just passed the bunker and it rolled to within a foot of the cup for a tap-in birdie. Freakin’ sweet.

All day long, I couldn’t hit a shot to save my life, but on those 3 holes, I was Arnold Palmer.

Next up, 4 birdies.